Effect of vaccination against HPV in the HPV-positive patients not covered by primary prevention on the disappearance of infection

An undeniable risk factor for cervical cancer and intraepithelial neoplasia is persistent infection with HPV - types 16,18, 31, 45, 52 and others. Changes in sexual behavior may, in the coming decades, influence the epidemiology of HPV-related lesions. For those diseases, vaccination against HPV may be the only effective mean of prevention. Our study aims to show the results and changes in the smear for HPV DNA in patients after receiving a vaccination course with a 9-valent HPV vaccine in women with HPV infection. Out of 320 subjects with HPV- positive result 250 (78.1%) decided to be vaccinated against HPV, and 70 (21.9%) did not. All patients included in the analysis had not been vaccinated with any commercially available HPV vaccines in the past. In the vaccinated group, the rate of HPV disappearance was significantly higher over the follow-up period than in the control group. This applies especially to the complete disappearance of the HPV - in 72.4% vaccinated women compared to 45.7% unvaccinated. This effect is especially visible when analyzing the disappearance of HPV genotypes covered by the 9-valent vaccine. The proportion of negative HPV outcome differed significantly between vaccinated patients with LEEP (81.1%), vaccinated patients without LEEP (59.8%), non-vaccinated patients with LEEP (57.1%), and non-vaccinated patients without LEEP (34.3%), and the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Vaccination in patients with histopathologically confirmed HSIL will probably reduce the occurrence of different HPV-related lesions.