WHO HPV Reference Laboratory

Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide, with about 250'000 deaths per year and 500'000 new cervical cancer cases each year. Virtually all cervical cancers are attributable to infection with a virus belonging to the high-risk subset of human papillomavirus (HPV) types, with HPV16 and HPV18 being the most frequent cancer-associated types (~70%). Prophylactic vaccination against HPV would be an effective strategy to prevent cervical cancer. The leading prophylactic vaccine candidates are subunit HPV like particles (VLP) administered by intramuscular injections. VLPs induce type-specific HPV-neutralizing antibodies and prevent persistent type-specific HPV infection and associated lesions. The two vaccines that are available include VLPs of those two most frequent oncogenic HPVs: HPV16 and HPV18 (Gardasil® from Merck/SPMSD and Cervarix® from GlaxoSmithKline). A nonavalent vaccine has recently been introduced (Gardasil-9®, Merck/SPMSD), that is expected to prevent almost 90% of cancer cases.

The WHO has elected the Institute of Microbiology to serve as a regional/Europe human papillomavirus (HPV) reference laboratory to provide expert technical and theoretical advice in HPV genotyping and in assays of HPV16 / 18 neutralizing antibodies. This is part of the WHO initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR) in relation to the introduction of prophylactic HPV vaccines against cervical cancer.

• Provide advice for laboratory members from countries engaged in HPV vaccine deployment.

  Quality of VLPs Vaccine lots after mice immunization

  Immunogenicity of VLP-based vaccines in human

  Vaccine efficacy against HPV-type specific persistent infection

  Broad range HPV typing for epidemiological studies in pre and post vaccination situations

• Provide advice to public health services and to laboratories on HPV typing in human samples.

• December 2010: Publication of the WHO HPV Laboratory Manual
• October 2011: The PGMY-CHUV assay version 1 is published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology
• January 2012: International collaborative proficiency study of Human Papillomavirus type 16 serology
• February 2014: Comparison of the PGMY-CHUV assay with the Seegene Anyplex II HPV28 assay
• February 2014: Proficiency study of HPV genotyping
• August 2014: The PGMY-CHUV assay version 2 is published in the Journal of clinical Microbiology
• 2015-2016:Human Papillomavirus in Cervical Cancer and Pre-cancer in Switzerland: the CIN3+Plus Study.
• March 2016: Clinical validation of the Seegene Anyplex HR HPV test is published in theJournal of Clinical Virology.
• February 2017: Publication of the 06/2017 bulletin of the OFSP relating the first results of the CIN3+ plus study aiming at establishing the HPV burden in high grade and cervical cancer cases in Switzerland.
• December 2017: HPV vaccination efficacy in the canton de Vaud is published in BMC Infectious Diseases
• January 2019 : The results of the CIN3+Plus study are published in BMC Cancer