The data suggests that the Cervarix vaccine provides the strongest and most-prolonged protection if its given to girls at young ages, before they even encounter sexually transmitted diseases, reports Reuters. The girls given the vaccine had immune responses twice as strong as women 15-25 years of age given Cervarix.
Certain strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, cause cervical cancer.
"The concentrations of antibodies to the virus were twice as high in the bloodstreams of the young girls," said Gary Dubin, a senior research official at Glaxo who was the lead author on the study.
However, Dubin told Reuters that the trial was not actually designed to confirm actual effectiveness of the vaccine because most girls in that age group are not sexually active. He said it shows that the immune response is the best "surrogate" indicator of the vaccine's potential ability to protect them from prolonged infection with the virus.
The results were presented in Washington, D.C. at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Washington, D.C.
