Gardasil 9 joins the fight against cervix cancer

A trial of 14,215 women aged between 16 and 26 years comparing a new vaccine with nine human papilloma virus types - four from the licensed Gardasil vaccine (types 6, 11,16 and 18) and five new ones (types 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58) to Gardasil - has shown improved protection against cervical cancer precursor lesions. Antibody response for the four original Gardasil types was not inferior and a 96.3% reduction in high-grade cervical disease for the other five types not in Gardasil was seen in the per-protocol population. Six-month persistent infection was reduced by 96% for these types. There were no serious safety concerns, although injection site reactions were more common with the new vaccine.