Estado actual de la vacuna recombinante contra el virus del papiloma humano

genital human papillomavirus (hpv) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections worldwide. millions of persons are now infected and the lifetime risk of hpv infection exceeds 50%. hpv is approximately 100% related to the total cases of cervical cancer, 100% of cervical intraepithelial neoplasias grade 1, 2, and 3; 40% of vulva, vagina and penile cancer, 100% of genital warts, 100% of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis and 12% of head and neck cancer. licensed vaccines, gardasil？ and cervarix？, are composed of a noninfectious mixture of hpv type-specific virus-like particles prepared from the l1 proteins produced by recombinant dna technology and adsorbed in a aluminum-containing adjuvant. data from several studies of both vaccines reported a range of efficacy of 98,9 % to 100.0% for the prevention of cervical, vulvar and vaginal intraepithelial neoplasias degrees 2 and 3, and therefore, cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancer related to the vph-16/18; in addition to in situ adenocarcinomas and genital warts caused by vph-16/18/6/11. the effectiveness for both vaccines is maintained for at least 5 years. at the moment no therapeutic effect has been attributed and the vaccine use is prophylactic, nevertheless, vaccination should not be considered as a substitute for cervical cancer screening.