Dr Neff on Notable Ongoing Research With Cervical Cancer Screening

“The ongoing research [looking to improve our] understanding of HPV genotypes and how certain ones may shift based on vaccine availability and whether or not that increases or decreases the risk of disease burdens as certain subtypes of HPV change, is really interesting.”

Robert Neff, MD, a physician and associate professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center—James, discussed ongoing research in cervical cancer screening.

Ongoing research examining how human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype may evolve based on HPV vaccine uptake, and whether these shifts affect the disease burden of cervical cancer, is particularly interesting, Neff began. Improved understanding of HPV subtypes may improve cervical cancer screening algorithms, he explained.

Cancer vaccines leveraging HPV are also an exciting area of research in cervical cancer, Neff continued. Although some of these vaccines are progressing through the developmental pipeline, they are not quite ready for widespread use, he noted. The next generation of cervical cancer vaccines will hopefully lead to additional safe and effective treatment options for patients, he concluded.

One example of a therapeutic vaccine that is being evaluated for the treatment of patients with cervical cancer is Vvax001, which targets HPV type 16 (HPV16). Findings from a phase 2 study (NCT06015854) revealed that patients with HPV16-positive grade 3 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia cells (n = 18) experienced disease regression at a rate of 50%. Six patients experienced regression to low-grade dysplasia, and 3 others achieved complete regressions with no signs of dysplasia. Moreover, lesion size was significantly reduced in 8 patients, and reductions were evident within a month of completing vaccination. Patients whose disease did not regress underwent loop excision surgery; no residual disease was discovered in 4 of these patients, suggesting that additional time to surgery could allow for full lesion eradication. At a median follow-up of 20 months, no patients experienced lesion recurrence.