Cervical carcinoma: an experimental approach

A mouse model system was used to investigate the preventive efficacy of a subunit herpes simplex virus (HSV) vaccine on the development of HSV induced cervical carcinoma. Ten groups of mice were vaccinated before receiving repeated intravaginal exposure to HSV-type 2 inactivated by ultraviolet irradiation. At 20 months postvaccination, neutralizing antibody activity to herpes simplex viruses was detected in the sera of the mice which had received the highest vaccine dose. Although three experimental mice and one control mouse developed cervical tumours and five mice developed preinvasive malignant changes, 87% of cervices were of normal or koilocytotic appearance on histological examination. There was therefore no evidence from this study that repeated exposure of mouse cervices to inactivated HSV-2 induced a significant incidence of preinvasive or invasive cervical carcinoma.