In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Netherlands say an experimental human papilloma virus ( HPV) vaccine shows great promise in being able to prevent genital cancer in high-risk women, already infected with the virus.

Twenty women, already infected were given the experimental vaccine causing their pre-cancerous lesions to regress. However, the vaccines need to be improved, before researchers can embark on larger trials, even though the current findings suggest the prevention of genital cancers by vaccinating HPV-infected women at high risk of developing the disease.

Gardasil and Cervarix, are two commercially available HPV vaccines approved for young women and designed for preventing initial infection with specific strains of the sexually transmitted HPV virus, responsible for spurring pre-cancerous lesions in the cervix and causing 70% of cervical cancers.

These vaccines are most effective, when given before the onset of sexual activity, with the CDC recommending girls aged 11 to 12 and women under 26-years be given the vaccine.

Both the experimental and other commercially available vaccines target the HPV 16 virus, known to be the leading cause of cervical and other genital cancers.

Women who participated in the study had vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) or pre-cancerous genital lesions advanced enough to require treatment, and putting them at high risk of developing cancer of the vulva. They were all given four shots of the experimental vaccine as part of their treatment and for preventing pre-cancerous lesions in the vulva from progressing into full-blown malignancies.

After 3-months of treatment, 12 of the 20-participants reported relief from persistent itching, five of them witnessed a complete regression of their lesions, while four of them no longer showed any evidence of HPV-16 infection.

Two years into the treatment, about half the women had no lesions and no symptoms.

Olivera J. Finn, PhD, a cancer vaccine researcher said the new research was very promising, as so far the search for an effective vaccine for treating cancer had continued to remain an elusive goal.

These findings suggest it is possible before the development of cancer to elicit more effective immune responses in high-risk people, arresting the progress towards cancer with the vaccine.

If, proven safe and effective in larger trials, it may be possible that one day the experimental vaccine can be offered to women over 26-years of age and considered too old to receive the current HPV-prevention vaccine protection against cervical cancer, even without infection-related symptoms.

'Right now, if a woman is over 30, we have very little to offer her,' she says.