‘Off-Label’ Treatment With HPV Vaccine Worked For Skin Cancer

An experimental treatment for a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) using a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine could become a useful treatment option.

According to Anna Nichols, MD, Ph.D., of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, a 97-year-old woman with multiple, inoperable cutaneous basaloid SCC, showed that a 9-valent HPV vaccine produced a complete regression of all tumors.

Squamous cell carcinoma is the 2nd most-common form of skin cancer.

"She was not a candidate for surgery because of the sheer number and size of her tumors. She wasn't a candidate for radiotherapy, again for the same reasons," said Dr. Nichols, whose report on this case was published online July 3, 2018, in JAMA Dermatology. 

Since her patient had no other options, Dr. Nichols offered her the HPV vaccine treatment. It is considered an "off-label" use because Gardasil is only approved for the prevention of cervical, anal, vulvar and vaginal cancers caused by HPV.

The patient was first given 2 doses of the 9-valent HPV vaccine in her arm, 6 weeks apart. A few weeks later Dr. Nichols directly injected several but not all of the patient's tumors. The direct intratumoral injections were given 4 times over 11 months.

"All of her tumors completely resolved 11 months after the first direct tumor injection, and she has had no recurrence," Dr. Nichols said in a press release.

"It has been about 24 months now since we started with the treatment."

Here is a link to the Video News Release containing interviews with the patient, her son and two dermatologists involved in the case report.