Protective human papillomavirus type 16/18 vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody levels remain elusive

We studied human papillomavirus antibodies in a subset of cohort comprising 16,988 women, who received HPV16/18 vaccination as adolescents, and among whom 50 cervical high-grade squamous cell intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) were diagnosed by 28 years of age. No differences in neutralizing HPV16/18 antibody levels between the HSIL cases and 1:2 matched vaccinated controls with or without persistent cervical HPV-infection were observed. As compared to the latter, cross-neutralizing HPV33 antibody levels were significantly increased in the HSIL cases with concomitant cervical and serum sampling. However, during 16 years of follow-up protective vaccine-induced, HPV16/18 cross-neutralizing (clade A9/A7 specific) antibody levels remained elusive.