A researcher at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center believes she has found a vaccine that protects against most kinds of cervical cancer. For 20 years, Dr. Diane Harper has studied the connection between a common viral infection called human papilloma virus and cervical cancer. Now she believes she may have found an answer and an experimental vaccine that protects against the two strains of HPV that are linked to 70 percent of cervical cancers. Preliminary findings suggest it is 80 percent to 100 percent effective. If approved by the government, it could be available early next year. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection in the United States. It is not spread through sex alone, but by skin to skin contact.
