Dermatologist Sylvester uses the HPV vaccine to treat patients with squamous cell tumors

July 3, 2018

Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer. Evidence suggests that the human papillomavirus plays a role in the development of certain types of this skin cancer.

Two years ago, a 97-year-old woman whose right leg was covered with squamous tumors went to see dermatologist Anna Nichols. MD, Ph.D., at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Surgery is the standard of care for most patients with skin cancer.

"She was not a candidate for surgery because of the number and size of her tumors She was not a candidate for radiation therapy, again for the same reasons" said Dr. Nichols, an badistant professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, whose report on this case was published online July 3 JAMA Dermatology .

In 2017, a report by Dr. Nichols has HPV vaccine Gardasil reduced the number of new basal and squamous skin cancers in two patients Tim Ioannides, MD, a volunteer faculty member at UM, suggested using the vaccine as a treatment off-label by injecting it directly into the tumors.

Since his patient had no other options, Dr. Nichols offered him treatment. It is considered a "no use" indicated on the label, because Gardasil is not approved for the prevention of cervical, bad, vulvar and badl cancers caused by the human papilloma virus.

"I think we had reasonable expectations. In fact, it really was not going to hurt this patient, and maybe bring some benefit," Dr. Ioannides said. "To have this type of result in such an advanced patient, I thought was beyond all our expectations."

The patient first received two doses of the 9-valent HPV vaccine in her arm, six weeks apart. A few weeks later, Dr. Nichols directly injected several tumors of the patient, but not all. Direct intratumoral injections were given four times in 11 months.

"All of her tumors resolved completely 11 months after the first direct tumor injection, and she had no recurrence," said Dr. Nichols. "It's been about 24 months now that we started treatment."

"They decided to try it and it worked, it killed them all," said the patient, who is eager to celebrate her 100th birthday. this autumn.