Cervical cancer is recognized as a serious public health problem since it remains one of the most common cancers with a high mortality rate among women despite existing preventative, screening, and treatment approaches. Since Human Papillomavirus (HPV) was recognized as the causative agent, the preventative HPV vaccines have made great progress over the last few years. However, people already infected with the virus require an effective treatment that would ensure long-term survival and a cure.
| Vaccine | Clinical Efficacy (Histopathology, Colposcopy, Tumor Size) | Viral Clearance | Immunogenicity (E6 and E7 Specific CTL Activity) | Adverse Events/Toxicity | Additional Findings | Limitations | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| GX-188E, [12] | [1] |
HP regression to CIN < 1 in 33/64 patients (52%) at V7, and 35/52 (67%) at V8 (Visit 8, week 36). Lesions that cover <50% showed better efficacy than the ones >50% after GX-188E injection, 63% vs. 41% (V7; x2 test; P 1⁄4 0.133. |
Of the patients with HP regression, 73% (24/33) exhibited HPV clearance at V7 and 77% (27/35) exhibited clearance at V8. Of the nonregressors, 16% (5/31) exhibited HPV clearance at V7 (Visit 7, week 20) and 12% (2/17) exhibited clearance at V8. HPV clearance and HP regression were significantly associated at the V7 [OR 1⁄4 13.867; 95% confidence interval (CI), 4.070—47.249; | p | < 0.001] and V8 visits (OR 1⁄4 25.313; 95% CI, 4.750–14.883; | p | < 0.001). | A higher percentage of the patients (16/25) with HP regression exhibited > 3-fold increase in IFN-γ ELISpot responses compared with the group without HP regression (x | 2 | test (P 1⁄4 0.028), but 7 of 22 nonregressed patients developed more than 3-fold increase in these responses. Patients with HPV clearance (n 1⁄4 26) presented significant increases in IFN-γ ELISpot responses compared with those without clearance (n 1⁄4 21; fold changes were 28 and 10, respectively; | t | test; P 1⁄4 0.002). | GX-188E-well- tolerated. The AEs relating to the injection site-pain, erythema, induration, and swelling/edema in both groups; pain was the most common AE (occurring in 94.4% and 100.0% in the 1 and 4 mg GX-188E groups, respectively) One patient was lost to follow up due to pregnancy (1 mg GX-188E group). |
HPV sequence variants: HP regression in 42% (11/26) of the CIN3 patients with HPV variants, whereas 75% (12/16) occurred in those without any of the three variants. 1 vs. 4 mg: 1 mg was found to have better efficacy at V7 and V8. (x2 test; P 1⁄4 0.006 and P 1⁄4 0.027, respectively) HLA types: HLA- A02 was associated with HP regression at V7 (20 weeks after the first injection; P 1⁄4 0.032; OR 1⁄4 2.381; 95% CI, 1.064–5.327), but not at V8 (36 weeks after the first injection; P 1⁄4 0.404; OR 1⁄4 1.490; 95% CI, 0.582–3.811. |
Lack of control/placebo group. The selection bias-patients recruited into the study were diagnosed with CIN 3 only. The attrition bias-20/72 participants withdrew from the study due to various reasons. The confirmation bias—in the discussion part, authors concluded that immunologic response and HP regression had weak association. However, earlier in the results they mentioned an association between HP regression and systemic immune response. |
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| GX-188E [13] | [2] |
At 8 weeks post last vaccination (VF1), 6/9 patients were free of lesions—2 patients from each cohort (A01 and A03 from 1 mg cohort, A05 and A06 from 2 mg cohort, A07 and A08 from 4mg cohort). GX-188E vaccination led to the clinically and virologically meaningful complete response rate of 78% (7/9). |
At week 12, 5/9 patients showed viral clearance. At week 20, 6/9 patients showed viral clearance. At week 36, 7/9 patients showed viral clearance. |
All subjects exhibited a marked increase in the vaccine- induced E6- and E7-specific IFN-g ELISPOT response compared with the background level before vaccination. Vaccine-induced cellular immune responses became progressively stronger in all patients during GX-188E vaccination. The response against the E6 antigen was more vigorous than against E7 as determined by the magnitude of response (69–89% against E6 versus 11–31% against E7 at VF1). GX-188E vaccination-induced E6/E7- specific memory T-cell response can be maintained for at least 24 weeks post last vaccination. Apart from patient A04, GX-188E vaccine elicited activation of both HPV16-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells. The amount of Th1 effector cytokines, such as IFN-γ, IL-2 and tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) increased after vaccination in most of the patients (median 49.9−, 13− and 22.9−fold increases for IFN-γ, IL-2, and TNF-α, respectively). |
AEs associated with GX-188E vaccination-chills, injection site pain, swelling and hypoaesthesia in 19/49 patients. AEs-headache, rhinitis and fatigue in 7/49 of the cases could be potentially associated with the vaccine. |
6/7 responders carrying HLA-A*02 exhibited high polyfunctional CD8 T-cell responses as well as complete regression of CIN3. Among the two non-responders, patient A04 with HLA-A*26 and -A*30 did not induce HPV-specific CD8 T-cell responses at all. |
Too small study population, which does not allow for generalization of the results and drawing conclusions. No stratification by age, ethnicity, monoinfection/mixed infection. Randomization or masking of the population was not introduced as well. No control group. All patients had CIN 3 –both severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ (selection bias). The confirmation bias)-no consideration of spontaneous regression. |
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| VGX-3100 [14] | [3] |
HP regression in 53/107 patients (49.5%) in treatment group, 11/36 (30.6%) in placebo group (PPD 19·0, 95% CI 1·4–36·6; | p | = 0·034). | Modified intention-to-treat analyses: | HP regression in 55/114 patients (48.2%) in treatment group, 12/40 (30%) in placebo group. (percentage point difference 18·2, 1·3–34·4; | p | = 0·034) | Post-hoc efficacy analyses: | HP regression to normal in 43/107 patients (40.2%) in treatment group, 6/36 (16.7%) of placebo recipients (PPD 23·5, 95% CI 4·4–37·0; | p | = 0·012). | Viral clearance occurred in 56/107 patients (52·3%) in treatment group, 9/35 patients (25.7%) in placebo group (percentage point difference 26·6, 95% CI 6·8–42·2; | p | = 0·006). Among those with HP regression, viral clearance was more likely among VGX-3100 recipients (about 80%) than among placebo recipients (about 50%). |
In post-hoc immunological analyses, T-cell responses to HPV-16 and HPV-18 E6 and E7 peaked at week 14 for VGX-3100 recipients, with a 9.5 times greater median response than in placebo ( | p | < 0·0001). VGX-3100 elicited significantly increased frequencies of antigen-specific, activated CD8+ T cells, identified by cell surface expression of CD137, that also expressed perforin compared with placebo ( | p | = 0·001). VGX-3100 recipients with HP regression and viral clearance developed antibody responses to both HPV-16 and HPV-18 E7 that were significantly higher than for non-regressors, at the time of peak response (post-dose 3) but also as early as post-dose 2 and as late as week 24. |
Injection site erythema—98/125: 78.4% in treatment group, 57.1% in placebo group. 4 patients discontinued due to AEs—2 injection site pain, 1 maculopapular reaction, 1 allergic reaction. No serious AEs reported. |
None | Skewing of the population towards more severe disease and older age. 92.8% of the participants had genotype of HPV 16 + at the entry. The attritition bias-18 patients in treatment group and 6 patients in control group were excluded from the study due to different reasons. HPV genotyping, which was based on the cervical swabs, included the possibility of only HPV16 or/and HPV18. Therefore, mixed infection study group could be underestimated. The confirmation bias-Vaccination induced HP regression and viral clearance in about 40% of women with CIN2/3 positive for HPV-16 or HPV-18, whereas surgical excision would have eliminated the dysplastic tissue in 85–90% of women. |
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| pNGVL4a-CRT/E7(detox) [15] | [4] |
HP regression in 8/32 patients (30%). Remaining 70% of patients had persistent CIN 2/3. |
| No differences between pre- and post-vaccination viral loads in any of the treatment cohorts. | Immune response to E7 was minimal and was not significantly different than response to E6. Intraepithelial CD8+ T cell infiltrates increased after vaccination in intralesional administration cohort ( | p | = 0.0313). | Total vaccine specific AEs in 22/32 patients (69%). 55% of IM vaccination patients, 80% of PMED patients, and 73% of intralesional vaccination patients experienced AEs. Most common–constitutional and injection site grade 1 or less AEs. No grade 3 or 4 AEs. No vaccine-related serious AEs. 1 bleeding after LEEP, 3 pregnancies unrelated to vaccine. |
None | This was a small phase I trial designed to primarily evaluate the feasibility and safety of pNGVL4a-CRT/E7(detox). Only HPV 16 positive CIN patients were included in the study. The majority of these patients were Caucasians. Patients were required to have a hemoglobin of 9 g/dL or greater. The selection bias-anemia is considered strong prognostic factor. The ND10 PMED has a reduced number of components to ease large-scale manufacturability, compared to previously used ND5.5. This could potentially lead to discrepancies in results due to device error. |
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| pNGVL4a-Sig/E7(detox)/HSP70 [16] | [5] | No HP progression was observed. 3/9 patients (33%) had complete histologic regression of disease at week 15 in the highest dose cohort. |
NA | E7 specific T cell response was identified in 3/15 patients: |
| E6 specific T cell response: 5/15 patients. Overall, responses to E6 were not of greater absolute magnitude in regressors compared with non- regressors at either of the two time points. ( | p | = 0.4228 and | p | = 0.4964, respectively). At 6 months response to E7 was detected in 5/9 patients (55.6%) in highest dose cohort. |
Transient local reactogenicity was reported in 5/15 (33%). Systemic symptoms (malaise, myalgia, headache) after vaccination were also reported by 5/15 subjects. No dose-limiting toxicities were observed. |
None | This was a small phase I study–15 patients only. No masking. Follow up period was 19 weeks, whereas the average follow-up period in selected studies was 36 weeks. Vaccine targets specifically HPV16 E7 oncoprotein, without HPV 18, or E6 oncoprotein. Local and systemic AEs were assessed by patients, which may result in self-reporting bias such as social desirability or recall bias. |
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| MEDI0457 [17] | [6] |
All cohort 1 patients remain alive with no evidence of disease clinically or by PET/CT. Of the cohort 2 patients: |
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1 remains free of disease. The estimated PFS at 12 months was 88.9% overall, 100% in cohort 1, and 50% in cohort 2. 7/8 patients achieved a complete response (6/7 in cohort 1 and 1/3 in cohort 2), and 1 (cohort 1) achieved partial response (decreased or stable hypermetabolic activity after CRT+MEDI0457) after completion of the immunization series. |
All patients cleared detectable HPV DNA at week 16 after immunizations. 5/6 patients cleared HPV RNA by in situ hybridization at the completion of immunization. |
8 patients had detectable cellular or humoral immune responses after chemoradiation and MEDI0457. 6 patients showed increased IFN-γ responses over baseline against HPV16 E6 and E7. 5 patients showed increased IFN-γ responses against HPV18 E6 and E7. Anti-HPV responses were numerically greater in cohort 1 (23.3 SFU/10 | 6 | PBMC to 369 SFU/10 | 6 | PBMC) compared with cohort 2 (6.7 SFU/10 | 6 | PBMC to 63.3 SFU/10 | 6 | PBMC. 6/10 patients exhibited | de novo | sero-responses to HPV16 antigens, and 6/10 patients exhibited | de novo | sero-responses to HPV18 antigens. | Vaccine related AEs in 8 patients–grade 1 injection site bruising ( | n | = 2), injection site pain ( | n | = 2). Treatment related AEs occurred in 8 patients, mainly grades 1 or 2. Grade >3 AEs in 4 patients–abdominal pain and pneumonia in cohort 1; pathologic fracture, anemia, intestinal perforation (grade 5). were followed after chemoradiation and 3 doses of INO3112. |
Expression of PD-L1 on panCK+ tumor cells, CD68+ macrophages, and CD8+ T cells in serial biopsy specimens: |
| Compared with pre-CRT and post-CRT time points, post-CRT þ MEDI0457 biopsies were associated with decreased PD-L1+CD8+, PD-1+CD8+, and PD- L1+CD68+ subpopulations | Too small study ( | n = 10) population, which does not allow for generalization of the results and drawing conclusions. Study included several histologic diagnoses–squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous cell carcinoma of the cervix with various prognosis. The confirmation bias-patients received a vaccine 2 to 4 weeks after chemoradiation, which could impact the vaccine effect on organism. It is unclear whether longer period of recovery would result in better outcome. Dosing and timing regimen of MEDI0457 was based on studies of preinvasive cancer, thus the applicability of the regimen for invasive cancer types is questionable [15]. There was no control group of “chemoradiation only” in order to assess the sole effect of vaccination. | = 10) population, which does not allow for generalization of the results and drawing conclusions. Study included several histologic diagnoses–squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous cell carcinoma of the cervix with various prognosis. The confirmation bias-patients received a vaccine 2 to 4 weeks after chemoradiation, which could impact the vaccine effect on organism. It is unclear whether longer period of recovery would result in better outcome. Dosing and timing regimen of MEDI0457 was based on studies of preinvasive cancer, thus the applicability of the regimen for invasive cancer types is questionable [4]. There was no control group of “chemoradiation only” in order to assess the sole effect of vaccination. |