The Triangle

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Science and Technology

Media Credit: Benjamin Benschneider, The Seattle Times Courtney Banzer, 27, receives an HPV vaccine from Dana Varon at a research clinic in Seattle, Wash. Drs. Laura Koutsky and Kathrin Jansen are credited with developing the vaccine.

SEATTLE - The back story of the new cervical-cancer vaccine includes, among its many twists: Warts, Italian nuns, a virus old as humanity, a German scientist who shared DNA samples even with those who'd spurned him, numerous naysayers and red herrings, thousands of University of Washington student volunteers, a mended friendship - and a Peace Corps returnee who launched her pivotal career in sexually transmitted diseases (STD) through a chance encounter at a shopping mall.

"It didn't seem to be a linear pathway to how I got here," laughs University of Washington epidemiology professor Laura Koutsky. She's credited with developing the world's first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine along with Dr. Kathrin Jansen, a yeast expert then at Merck Research Laboratories.

Human papillomaviruses are responsible for virtually all cervical cancers. Cervical cancer strikes 493,000 women every year and kills 274,000 of them, usually in their most productive years. After breast cancer, it is the second most common cancer among women. In poor countries, it is the leading cause of cancer-related death because Pap tests to screen for pre-malignant cells are not routine.

Talk about contagious! Within a year of first intercourse, a young woman has a 30 percent chance of becoming infected with HPV even if she has only one partner. Within three years, 60 percent of women are infected. By the time women are in their 40s, the infection rate is 70 to 80 percent.

Koutsky calls HPV "an equal-opportunity infection," unlike other sexually transmitted diseases that tend to hover around people who have many sexual partners. You can get HPV your first time. You can even get it through genital contact without having intercourse.

Flash on vaccines, and most people think of scientists tinkering with slides and serums. (That was Jansen's realm.) Koutsky's role, as an epidemiologist, was to design studies that demonstrated the vaccines' safety and effectiveness, an endeavor considered so significant that Koutsky is the first author on the scientific papers announcing the vaccine breakthroughs.

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