A few questions about the new multiphasic OC…Reactions to "2 HPV vaccines, 7 questions that you need answered"

It is most important that each woman be given the choice of including HPV vaccination in her regular Pap screening program. If she decides to be vaccinated, then it is her value system, not the physician’s that determines which vaccine is chosen. Does she want a vaccine that provides superior cancer coverage or one that provides less cancer coverage along with some protection against genital warts for an unknown length of time?

The benefits of being vaccinated with both vaccines would be that the woman gains some wart protection for 5 years and better cancer protection for an unknown length of time. The risks would be that the safety of taking both vaccines is unknown. Acellular pertussis vaccines were given to many teens and young adults to boost protection, although these patients had already been given a combination of pertussis and tetanus.

Before a woman opts to take both vaccines, she needs to understand that data on safety and lack of safety are lacking.

Dr. Huh responds:

There are no published data on administration of both Gardasil and Cervarix to a single patient. Moreover, it would be challenging to demonstrate any clinically significant additional benefit in this setting.

Dr. Smith-Mccune responds:

There are no data on the efficacy of administering both vaccines to an individual patient. Full efficacy is best achieved by administering the full series of either vaccine. In the specific scenario Dr. Sandland described, the patient would receive full protection against HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 by virtue of having received the full series of Gardasil. It is not possible to say anything about the potential for added protection from one shot of Cervarix because this approach has hardly been studied.

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