Vaccination against HPV: indications for women and the impact on the cervical screening programme.

Abstract

A novel approach for primary prevention of cervical cancer has become available by the discovery of efficient prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines based on virus-like particles. This review elaborates on the progress in the field of prophylactic HPV vaccination achieved in the past decade, provides indications for prophylactic HPV vaccination, and discusses the impact on public health and the current secondary prevention system. In summary, with current vaccines, effective prevention and control of cervical cancer within the next decades requires an integrated vaccination-screening approach, including routine prophylactic vaccination to young women and adapted cervical screening for older women (> or =30 years).