Product pipeline: Cervical Cancer

The past 40 years, widespread cervical cancer screening using the Pap test and treatment of precancerous cervical abnormalities have resulted in a dramatic decrease in cervical cancer incidence and mortality. However, in spite of the success of prevention programs, cervical cancer remains an important health issue for women in the Western world, with an estimated 12,200 new cases and 4,100 deaths from cervical cancer occurring each year in the US alone.

Cervical cancer constitutes 17% of all gynecologic tumors. It can be distinguished from CIN by the presence of malignant cells in the cervix. Although a decline in death rates in developed countries is observed, death rates remain high in the rest of the world, and cervical cancer is still the second most important cause of death from cancer in women after breast cancer. This high mortality represents a major health problem because cervical cancer occurs in females during the childbearing and productive phases of their lives.

As treatment, most patients undergo some form of hysterectomy, followed by cisplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy, but there is an urgent need for more effective agents to control and prevent metastatic disease. Since there are only few novel cytotoxic agents under clinical development, future treatment and management of cervical cancer may very well benefit from therapeutic vaccines such as ISA's SLP® therapeutic HPV vaccine.