The Beginning of the End for Cervical Cancer?

In this issue of the Journal, Koutsky et al.1 complete a 20-year odyssey that began with the isolation of the cancer-causing human papillomaviruses (HPVs).2,3 In 1983, investigators in zur Hausen's laboratory established HPV type 16 (HPV-16) as the leading candidate in the pathogenesis of preinvasive and invasive cervical neoplasia.2,4 More than 20 types of papillomavirus have now been identified and associated with cervical cancer. A critical property of oncogenic papillomaviruses is the extremely low number of particles of infectious virus detected. This lack of working material stifled early vaccine research, even as researchers solved the intricate puzzle of . . .