NEWS

Women volunteers sought for new study of promising vaccine for widespread HPV

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Healthy young women between the ages of 16 and 23 are being sought to participate in an international clinical trial of an investigational vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), the primary cause of cervical cancer.

"Most people have never heard of HPV, but it is now the leading sexually transmitted infection in the United States and is especially prevalent among teen-agers and young women," said Dr. William Nebel, a study leader of Chapel Hill. "Volunteers will be compensated to cover travel and other expenses. The most important reason for participating, however, is that volunteers will help us learn whether the vaccine may reduce the terrible toll of cervical cancer. Without their participation, the study cannot move forward."

Women who agree to join the trial also will receive extensive screening and free gynecological evaluations and treatment over the study period, he said. Nebel is clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and director of women's health at the Carolina Research Foundation in Chapel Hill.

"About 4,500 U.S. women die from cervical cancer every year," he said. "Some 5.5 million people are newly diagnosed with HPV annually. That's more than a third of all sexually transmitted diseases, and more than two out of three Americans don't even know it exists. Almost 90 percent have never discussed it with their health-care provider."

An estimated 50 million women in the United States alone are infected with HPV, said Nebel, one of several investigators for the state's part in the vaccine trial, which initially will recruit 50 women from central North Carolina.

Younger women are needed because HPV is considered a "quiet virus," he said. That is, HPV of one form or another may infect young women early but tends to lie dormant and doesn't cause major problems until later in life. Volunteers cannot be pregnant when they start the study or receive their vaccinations.

HPV is actually a group of more than 100 viruses, about 30 of which can infect the genital area, Nebel said. Some cause infections that lead to painful and unsightly genital warts. Currently, no cure for the infection exists.

"It makes sense that the best way to manage a medical problem is to prevent it," Nebel said. "For women this vaccine could turn out to be a major medical breakthrough."

For more information about the study, call 1 (866) HALT-HPV.

- 30 -

Note: Reporters can reach Nebel at (919) 929-9541, Ext. 108.

Carolina Research Foundation contact: Dr. Brian Stabler, (919) 672-7446 (cell)

News Services contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596