Cervical cancer could be prevented by a commonly-used HIV drug, scientists say.
The medicine has been shown to kill-off the human papilloma virus (HPV) that leads to cervical cancer.
A husband and wife team from the University of Manchester treated women with lopinavir and found that it wiped out pre-cancerous cells in 90 per cent of trial participants with no side effects.
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A commonly-used HIV drug has been shown to kill-off the human papilloma virus (HPV) that leads to cervical cancer. HPV (pictured) is more than five times more prevalent in East Africa than the UK
WHAT IS HPV?
Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the name for a group of viruses that affect women's skin in their cervix, mouth and throat.
Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the virus.
HPV is often spread during sex.
There are more than 100 different types of HPV, many of which are harmless. However, some types of HPV can disrupt the normal functioning of the cells of the cervix and can eventually trigger the onset of cancer.
Two strains of the HPV virus called HPV 16 and HPV 18 are known to be responsible for 70 per cent of all cases of cervical cancer.
These types of HPV infection have no symptoms, so many women will not realise they have the infection.
Since 2008, a HPV vaccine has been routinely offered to girls between the ages of 12 and 13.
Source: NHS Choices
The findings, which will be presented at two conferences later this month, have been welcomed by scientists who think that in the future, women could be prescribed a drug to use at home, instead of enduring a biopsy or surgery to investigate any cervical abnormalities.
The trial took place at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ian and Lynne Hampson, from the University of Manchester, joined Dr Innocent Orora Maranga at KNH, to examine 40 women with low-grade and high-grade stage pre-cancerous disease of the cervix.
The antiviral drug lopinavir is used orally to treat HIV but it was applied directly to the cervix as a pessary in the trial.
The women were treated with one capsule of the antiviral drug twice a day for two weeks. Repeat cervical smears showed a marked improvement within one month of the treatment and after three months, there was a ‘definite response’.
Out of 23 women initially diagnosed with high-grade disease, 19 returned to normal and overall there was a positive response in 91 per cent of patients.
Photographic images of the cervix before and after treatment showed clear regression of the cervical lesions and no adverse reactions were reported.
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Current HPV vaccines (pictured) are aimed at preventing the disease rather than curing or treating symptoms. Other than surgery, as yet there is no effective treatment for the HPV infection, which is why the results of the trial have excited scientists
‘For an early stage clinical trial the results have exceeded our expectations. We have seen women with high-grade disease revert to a normal healthy cervix within a comparatively short period of time,' Dr Ian Hampson said.
‘We are convinced that further optimisation of the dose and treatment period will improve the efficacy still further.
‘It is our hope that this treatment has the potential to revolutionise the management of this disease most particularly in developing nations such as Kenya.’
Cervical cancer is caused by infection with (HPV) and is more than five times more prevalent in East Africa than the UK.
In many developing countries, HPV-related cervical cancer is still one of the most common women’s cancers accounting for approximately 290,000 deaths per year worldwide.
The same virus also causes a significant proportion of cancers of the mouth and throat in both men and women and this disease is showing an large increase in developed countries, such as the UK, where it is now more than twice as common as cervical cancer.
Dr Lynne Hampson said: ‘Current HPV Vaccines are prophylactics aimed at preventing the disease rather than curing or treating symptoms.
‘Other than surgery, as yet there is no effective treatment for either HPV infection or the pre-cancerous lesion it causes, which is why these results are so exciting.
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A husband and wife team from the University of Manchester treated women with HIV antiviral drug lopinavir (a molecular model is pictured) and found that it wiped out pre-cancerous cells in 90 per cent of trial participants with no side effects
‘Further work is needed but it looks as though this might be a potential treatment to stop early stage cervical cancer caused by HPV.’
Vaccination programmes against HPV in the developed world are well underway but they are no use to women already infected with the virus. The current vaccines do not protect against all types of HPV and they are also expensive, which can limit their use in countries with low resources.
The researchers believe their findings offer a potentially cheap and self-administered treatment that could eliminate early-stage HPV infections before they have developed into cancers.
Approximately 300,000 women die from cervical cancer every year, which works out as 800 per day or one every two minutes.
Around 40,000 British women are found to have abnormalities in the cervix every year and cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women under 35 in the UK, with nearly 1,000 dying as a result of the disease every year.
Dr Ian Hampson explained that the trial could not be carried out in the UK die to associated costs and ‘red tape’.
‘We have full ethical approval in Kenya and chose to conduct the trial there because of the extreme need for a self-applied treatment for early stage cervical cancer,’ he said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2561281/Cervical-cancer-prevented-HIV-drug.html#ixzz2tbbnilyW
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