Human Papillomavirus Vaccine for Cancer Prevention

Cancer immunoprevention has become synonymous with the vaccines that have been approved for the prevention of infection with highly transmissible strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that establish chronic infection and cause cervical and other cancers.1 Although many cancers may have a viral origin,2 only a small number of viruses have been implicated as causes of human cancer. Cancer having a viral origin provides an opportunity to develop virus-specific vaccines that lower infection rates and consequently lower the incidence of cancer; this is what the HPV vaccine is expected to do for cervical cancer and what the hepatitis B vaccine has . . .