FDA Expands Gardasil’s Cancer-Preventing Uses
In 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the vaccine, Gardasil, for girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26 as a means of preventing cervical cancer caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). In a September 12 announcement, the FDA has expanded the vaccine’s cancer-preventing protections to some forms of vulvar and vaginal cancers, too.
Two types of HPV, types 16 and 18, are thought to cause about 70% of all cases of cervical cancers and they’ve been implicated in the development of some vulvar and vaginal cancers, too, although no definitive data are available as of yet. Other forms of the virus, such as types 6 and 11, cause genital warts and all four types are associated with lesions in the genital area that can become cancerous.
Gardasil has been cleared for use as a vaccine against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18, although there are more than 100 individual HPV types known to exist. At least 30 of these types of HPV can be transmitted sexually. Data supplied by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list HPV as the most common of all infections transmitted sexually, with an estimated 6.2 million new cases anticipated each year in the United States alone.
As with most vaccines, Gardasil’s immunization properties do not address any viruses to which a patient has been previously exposed, making Gardasil ineffective in preventing damage by pre-vaccine exposure to any form of HPV. It is for this reason that the FDA has held fast to its approval for young women, age 26 and under, even though the vaccine’s maker, Merck and Co., has requested approval for use in a larger target audience.
Gardasil, like most vaccines, is not 100% effective and it cannot eliminate any damage done by other bacterial or viral infections nor does it protect against the development of cancer caused by HPV infection that occurred before vaccination. Women of every age who have been given the Gardasil vaccination are urged to continue getting regular Pap screening tests. These routine Pap tests identify any tissue changes that may become cancerous due to any number of reasons, including but not limited to exposure to HPV.
Source: FDA
Thats absolutely true on the announcement of the FDA expanding Gardasils cancer-preventing protections to some forms of vulvar and vaginal cancers. I had a client who had come for a plastic surgery and she had this cancer which was infecting her clitoris, vagina lips and opening of the vagina. After she was administered this vaccine, her gynae told her she was improving.