英开始新的宫颈癌疫苗实验
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2001年1月15日
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have begun the first human trials of a new vaccine against cervical cancer, a disease that kills 1,300 women in Britain each year.
The Cancer Research Campaign (CRC), a leading charity, said the vaccine is designed to boost the immune system against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is linked to most cases of the illness.
``A lot of hopes are resting on the success of this trial and the development of a preventative vaccine for cervical cancer,'' said Professor Henry Kitchener, a gynecologist at Manchester University who is leading the research.
Twenty-four women will be given different doses in the initial trial and tested to see how their immune system responds. Results of the study will be available in summer 2002.
If it is successful the CRC and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund will recruit more women for a bigger study to determine if the optimum dose prevents infection from the sexually transmitted virus.
``In the long term, the best way of preventing cervical cancer has to be by wiping out the HPV infection that causes it. I believe it is only a matter of time before scientists develop a vaccine that is capable of doing this,'' said Professor Julian Peto of the CRC.
Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. If it is caught and treated early it is curable in most cases. The virus is associated with 95 percent of cervical cancer cases, but not everyone with the virus develops the cancer.
The virus can simply disappear after infection or it can remain undetectable and reactivate at any time.
``It appears that once a woman contracts the HPV virus it can stay with her forever. A woman's sexual past when she was a teenager may come back to haunt her when she is in her 50s, 60s or 70s, and when she has been in a monogamous marriage for many decades,'' Peto added.
More than 3,000 new cases of the disease are reported each year in Britain and an estimated 370,000 worldwide., 百拇医药
The Cancer Research Campaign (CRC), a leading charity, said the vaccine is designed to boost the immune system against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is linked to most cases of the illness.
``A lot of hopes are resting on the success of this trial and the development of a preventative vaccine for cervical cancer,'' said Professor Henry Kitchener, a gynecologist at Manchester University who is leading the research.
Twenty-four women will be given different doses in the initial trial and tested to see how their immune system responds. Results of the study will be available in summer 2002.
If it is successful the CRC and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund will recruit more women for a bigger study to determine if the optimum dose prevents infection from the sexually transmitted virus.
``In the long term, the best way of preventing cervical cancer has to be by wiping out the HPV infection that causes it. I believe it is only a matter of time before scientists develop a vaccine that is capable of doing this,'' said Professor Julian Peto of the CRC.
Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. If it is caught and treated early it is curable in most cases. The virus is associated with 95 percent of cervical cancer cases, but not everyone with the virus develops the cancer.
The virus can simply disappear after infection or it can remain undetectable and reactivate at any time.
``It appears that once a woman contracts the HPV virus it can stay with her forever. A woman's sexual past when she was a teenager may come back to haunt her when she is in her 50s, 60s or 70s, and when she has been in a monogamous marriage for many decades,'' Peto added.
More than 3,000 new cases of the disease are reported each year in Britain and an estimated 370,000 worldwide., 百拇医药