A new vaccine for cervical cancer will likely revolutionize women's health care—and hundreds of University of Iowa women helped make that possible.

This past summer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine that halts the development of precancerous lesions from two high-risk strains of sexually transmitted human papilloma-virus (HPV), the cause of 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases in the U.S.

Gardasil is the first-ever vaccine to be used against HPV, which can also lead to vulvar cancer, genital warts, and abnormal Pap smears. Experts suggest that young girls receive the vaccine before they become sexually active.

Jack Stapleton, 77BA, professor of internal medicine and director of the UI Division of Infectious Diseases, says the UI has participated in the multi-center international study of the vaccine since trials began in 1998, testing about 700 women, most of whom were UI undergraduates. In all, researchers worldwide tested Gardasil on 27,000 women and girls ages nine to 26.

The principal investigator for the ongoing UI studies, Stapleton says that Gardasil proved more than 99 percent effective against the two types of HPV responsible for most cervical cancer cases. 

"Prior to Pap smears, cervical cancer was a leading cause of cancer death in women," says Stapleton. "We still have about 10,000 cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. and 3,500 deaths."

More than 100 different viruses are classified as HPV, and about 30 of these are spread through sexual contact. It's estimated that more than half of all sexually active men and women will pick up HPV by the time they reach their late 20s.

The vaccine could potentially have a huge global impact, particularly in developing countries where 80 percent of cervical cancer cases originate and where women don't have access to routine Pap tests. On an international scale, 300,000 women die annually from cervical cancer.  

Gardasil could become available this summer, once federal protocols are in place. While conservative groups fear that the vaccine will give young people extra license to engage in unprotected, premarital sex, Colleen Kennedy, 99R, 04MS, a UI co-investigator and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, says the medical community has to be realistic. "It would be nice if no one had unprotected sex or if everyone waited until marriage," she says. "But we don't live in an ideal world and we do have to think about our young women."

Kennedy adds that Gardasil could significantly reduce the need for annual Pap smears among women in the vaccinated population. An estimated five million Pap tests return with abnormal results and each one takes more testing and additional follow-up. Worrisome findings and the associated healthcare costs will drop drastically because far fewer women are going to have the virus after vaccination for HPV. Says Stapleton: "If every girl around ten to 12 years old could get this vaccine, we could save hundreds of thousands of lives."