Women's Health

Promising Cervical Cancer Vaccine

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An ideal vaccine would cover the vast majority of HPV types and cure infection in addition to preventing it. Frazer is working to create such a vaccine, but because it must be far more complex than Villa's vaccine, the work has been going slowly.

Eventually, it would be good to vaccinate men, too. "It's doable, if people put money behind it," Villa says.

If all men and women were vaccinated, HPV could be wiped out. "In principle, although I suspect not in practice, this is a virus that could potentially be eliminated the same way as we have eliminated smallpox," Frazer says.

For now, HPV will remain a major threat to women's health. Doctors urge women to get yearly Pap smears -- a test that looks for cervical cells that aren't normal, signaling the presence of HPV. These abnormal cells don't always turn into cancer, but they should be watched closely.