Rationale:
In 2006 HPV vaccination was licensed for primary prevention programs worldwide. Only a few
years after, several studies have raised new scenarios about HPV related diseases with strong
implications on clinical management in adult women. Some findings from retrospective data
have shown a significant effect of HPV vaccine on women and men treated for HPV pathologies.
Although vaccination is not effective in patients with prevalent HPV infection, some studies
have suggested that HPV vaccine could influence the incidence of the disease relapse after a
surgical treatment. Reduction in disease recurrence after surgical treatment in vaccinated
patients comes from gastroenterological, gynecological and dermatological evidences
concerning both benign lesions (warts) and precancerous lesions.
If vaccination reduces recurrence rates by 80%, according to our previous pilot study data,
peri-surgical HPV vaccination will be a strong effective clinical intervention, very likely
to be introduced into standard high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia management.
Objective:
The primary objective of the current study is to assess the efficacy of 9-valent HPV
vaccination in preventing recurrence of CIN2+ in participants treated for high-grade CIN.
Study population: participants treated for CIN2+ with LEEP technique. Study design: A
multicenter, randomised, double-blind clinical trial in 9 hospitals in Italy.
Intervention: Participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive presurgical 9-valent
HPV vaccination (Gardasil-9 ®) or placebo at months 0 (at pre-surgical enrollment time), at 2
months (the same day of surgical treatment) and 6 moths (during the first follow-up visit
after surgery). The randomization list will be generated before the start of the study.
Main study parameters/endpoints:
Primary end point will be the cumulative recurrence of CIN2+ after conization, as assessed by
biopsies taken of suspect lesions, histologically confirmed for high grade cervical
intraepithelial neoplasia recurrence.
Secondary outcome measures are cumulative incidence/persistence of HPV infection after the
surgical treatment, causative HPV type in recurrent CIN lesions, as assessed by HPV test and
PCR (polymerase chain reaction).
The total sample size is estimated to be 1220 patients based on an expected recurrence rate
of less than 6% within 5 years. Statistical analysis will be based on the intention-to-treat
protocol. Both primary and secondary endpoints will be analyzed by descriptive statistics and
the chi-square test with a 0,05 two-sided significance level.
Follow-up schedule (FUP) will be the same in both arms, with a FUP evaluation every 6 months
in the first year followed by an annual evaluation for a total of 5 years. FUP visit will
include HPV test, Pap-test and colposcopy. HPV test will be collected in order to evaluate
the HPV infection clearance rate in both arms. HPV test will be part of all the follow-up
visits allowing to study the natural history of HPV infection after the surgical treatment.