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FDA approves vulvar, vaginal cancer vaccine

www.usatoday.com

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Merck's Gardasil vaccine to prevent vulvar and vaginal cancers. Gardasil was originally approved in 2006 to prevent infection with four strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that cause most genital warts and cervical cancers.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the USA, with 6.2 million Americans infected each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To test the vaccine against vaginal and vulvar cancers, Merck followed more than 15,000 women from its earlier cervical cancer studies for an additional two years. None of the vaccinated women developed HPV-related precancers in the vagina or vulva, compared to 10 of the women who received a placebo vaccine.

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