Team creates effective treatment for HPV

A Korean research team has developed the world’s most successful treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), a stage of HPV that is a precursor to cervical cancer.

The injection showed a 78 percent success rate in its first-phase clinical test, the highest of the kind.

The team said it cured seven out of nine women who had CIN.

According to the Korean Society of Gynecologic Oncology, nine out of 10 women who contract cervical cancer die from it.

Surgery is the most common way to treat CIN, but the virus can recur and the process of removing lesions can result in side effects like miscarriages, premature births and metrostenosis.

“This clinical test result avoids the side effects of existing treatment methods,” said Sung Young-chul, a life science professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) who led the team that developed the vaccine. “This vaccine will also be tested for use to treat other cancers caused by HPV.”

The team hopes to conduct the second and third phases of its tests in the United States and Europe.

BY KIM JI-YOON [jiyoon.kim@joongang.co.kr]