Women's Health: Cervical Cancer Prevention

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WD health advisor Maurie Markman, MD, vice president for clinical research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas offers expert advice about a new development in the fight against cervical cancer.

Q. How does the new cervical cancer vaccine compare to the old one?

A. Gardasil, a vaccine that's been available in the U.S. since 2006, now has some competition since the FDA recently approved Cervarix. As far as I know, they work equally well for cervical cancer prevention. (Both protect against the two strains of HPV—a very common sexually transmitted virus—that cause 70 percent of all cervical cancers.) The main difference is that Gardasil also protects against genital warts; in fact, it was recently FDA-approved for the prevention of warts in boys and young men. These warts can be uncomfortable and embarrassing, but they don't lead to cancer.