A quadrivalent vaccine for human papillomavirus.

Cervical cancer is responsible for at least 13,500 deaths a year in the European Union and more than 30 times that worldwide. DNA from a group of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is found in virtually all cervical carcinoma cells, and these so-called high-risk HPV types are acknowledged to be a necessary cause of this disease. Vaccines that target these HPV types have the potential to dramatically reduce the incidence of cervical carcinoma. Low-risk HPV types cause genital warts, a common sexually transmitted disease, and vaccines that target these HPV types and the high-risk HPV types, are therefore particularly attractive. This review will focus on the potential of a new HPV vaccine that appears to offer protection against the most prevalent high- and low-risk HPV types and their associated diseases.