Background: the task of preventing premature death in women may be delivered by vaccinating against the high-risk papillomaviruses associated with various malignancies.
Objectives: we will discuss the immune mechanisms likely to be relevant to the control of an HPV infection in the cervix and assess the limited evidence for such immune recognition in the natural history of infection.
Conclusion: the next generation of vaccination strategies should include the use of HPV 16 early (E2 and/or E6 and/or E7) and late gene targets (L1 and L2) expressed as VLPs with their clinical and immunological evaluation aimed at therapy as well as prophylaxis. Important clinical efficacy assessment may be deliverable in relatively short-term studies by targeting patients with HPV 16 associated vulval intraepithelial neoplasia.