A commonly used HIV drug could be used to prevent cervical cancer

24 August 2006

UK researchers have shown the antiviral drug lopinavir attacks the virus that causes cervical cancer - HPV - as well as HIV.

The team in Manchester envisage that the oral drug could be made into a simple cream or pessary to apply to the cervix.

This would mean thousands of women could avoid surgery to remove early cancers, they told Antiviral Therapy.

Cervical cancer vaccines are already being developed, but these will only be effective in people who have not already caught the HPV virus.

Each year in the UK alone about 50,000 women have early cervical cancers removed, the researchers say.

In the laboratory study, small doses of the liquid protease inhibitor selectively killed HPV-infected cervical cancer cells.

They plan clinical trials where a cream or a pessary would be used.

The original reprt can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5282206.stm