Human Papillomavirus Vaccine against Cervical Cancer and Beyond: Opportunities, Challenges and New Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

We are soliciting articles for a Special Issue of MDPI Vaccines, which will be entitled “Human Papillomavirus Vaccine against Cervical Cancer and Beyond: Opportunities, Challenges and New Perspectives”.

It is now well known that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection can lead to the development of genital warts, as well as cervical, anogenital, and oropharyngeal cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized the importance of HPV-related diseases as a global public health issue, promoting HPV vaccination all over the world. Therefore, since 2006, many countries have implemented publicly funded HPV immunization programs, first targeting female adolescents and then progressively expanding HPV vaccination campaigns. Following the growing evidence of HPV-related diseasesx also in males, vaccines were then extended from female-only to gender-neutral populations. However, cervical cancer still remains a significant public health burden that requires further research work. Increasing awareness and understanding about the clinical value of vaccination, as well as extended investigations on emerging features of this HPV-related cancer, are needed.

HPV vaccines are licensed for safe administration from nine years of age. The optimal time for HPV immunization is before sexual debut, but HPV vaccinations are now increasingly suggested also for adult women, as a personal preventive tool. Furthermore, preliminary results seem to suggest that the use of HPV vaccines after cervical disease treatment may lower the risk of recurrent disease.

Finally, the interest in the economic burden of HPV-related diseases and in the cost–effectiveness of vaccination strategies is increasing, leading to the development of several Health Technology Assessment (HTA) evaluations.

We invite researchers to submit research articles, review articles, and clinical studies on the subjects highlighted in title of this Special Issue, addressing these open and debated topics with a look at future prospects.

Prof. Dr. Rosa De Vincenzo
Dr. Alessandro Ghelardi
Dr. Ankica Lukic
Dr. Caterina Ricci
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.