Researchers hold session on new cervical cancer vaccine

By Enid Arbelo

tudents at the University had questions about a new vaccine to prevent a specific type of cancer, so they went directly to the source for answers—the vaccine developers.

For some college students, getting in the same room as a vaccine developer would not be so easy, but here at the University students can talk one-on-one with scientists who helped develop a new vaccine proven to prevent cervical cancer.

On Monday, December 4, two of the three researchers behind the vaccine’s technology, William Bonnez, associate professor of medicine, and Robert Rose ’94M (PhD), associate professor of medicine, will address issues surrounding the vaccine with students and the University community.

This summer, Linda Dudman, associate director for health promotion for University Health Service (UHS), realized that parents and students had many questions surrounding the prevalent sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, known as HPV, its link to cervical cancer, and the new vaccine.

“I was getting quite a few phone calls from parents about the vaccine,” Dudman says. “I’ve been assuming everyone knows what HPV is, but there are still people who don’t know.”

Students were also starting to ask questions, so UHS decided to take the next step. That’s when Carrie Bukowski ’09 and a student assistant at UHS asked the vaccine researchers to lead a discussion on the topic, and the researchers quickly responded.

“The information (about HPV) itself is very important. And the researchers are right here, right across the street. That connection makes it even more real,” she says.

“We’re naturally inclined to talk about it,” Rose says. “We are really appreciative of the opportunity. . . . The awareness has risen, but it still has a ways to go.”

Of the more than 130 known types of HPV, two types are believed to cause 70 percent of the cervical cancers diagnosed worldwide. The disease kills 250,000 women worldwide. Without the vaccine, most women will acquire a HPV infection once they are sexually active, Rose notes.

“We want students to know that there is something they can do now,” Dudman says.

Although the effort to create the technology in the vaccine began nearly two decades ago, the vaccine is now available.

“They started this research basically before I was born, and now I’m one of the first generations to benefit from it,” Bukowski says.

And Rose is eager to see students like Bukowski take advantage of the vaccine. For instance, the “attack rate,” or rate of new infection, is 50 percent more likely in women in their first two years of college.

“The women at the greatest risk are 17 to 18 years old,” Rose says. “Ideally they should get vaccinated before they go to college. But it’s worth women getting vaccinated regardless of whether they have prior sexual experiences.”