Hindawi Publishing Corporation Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology Volume 2009, Article ID 653598, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2009/653598 Research Article HPV Prevalence in Colombian Women with Cervical Cancer: Implications for Vaccination in a Developing Country Ra ´ ul Murillo, 1 M´ onica Molano, 2 Gilberto Mart´ ınez, 3 Juan-Carlos Mej´ ıa, 4 and Oscar Gamboa 1 1 Subdirecci´ on Investigaciones, Instituto Nacional de Cancerolog´ ıa de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia 2 Grupo Investigaci´ on en Biolog´ ıa del C´ ancer, Instituto Nacional de Cancerolog´ ıa de Colombia, Colombia 3 Ginec´ ologo Onc´ ologo, Cl´ ınica del Country de Bogot´ a, Colombia 4 Patolog´ ıa, Instituto Nacional de Cancerolog´ ıa de Colombia, Colombia Correspondence should be addressed to Ra ´ ul Murillo, raulhmurillo@yahoo.com Received 3 June 2009; Revised 8 September 2009; Accepted 9 October 2009 Recommended by Diane Harper Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have been considered potentially cost-effective for the reduction of cervical cancer burden in developing countries; their effectiveness in a public health setting continues to be researched. We conducted an HPV prevalence survey among Colombian women with invasive cancer. Paraffin-embedded biopsies were obtained from one high-risk and one low-middle-risk regions. GP5+/GP6+ L1 primers, RLB assays, and E7 type specific PCR were used for HPV-DNA detection. 217 cases were analyzed with 97.7% HPV detection rate. HPV-16/18 prevalence was 63.1%; HPV-18 had lower occurrence in the high-risk population (13.8% versus 9.6%) allowing for the participation of less common HPV types; HPV-45 was present mainly in women under 50 and age-specific HPV type prevalence revealed significant differences. Multiple high-risk infections appeared in 16.6% of cases and represent a chance of replacement. Age-specific HPV prevalence and multiple high-risk infections might influence vaccine impact. Both factors highlight the role of HPVs other than 16/18, which should be considered in cost- effectiveness analyses for potential vaccine impact. Copyright © 2009 Ra ´ ul Murillo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. Introduction Cervical cancer continues to be the major cause of cancer mortality among women in developing countries [1]. Virtu- ally all cases of cervical cancer are attributable to persistent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infections, leading to the conclusion that HPV infection is a necessary cause of the disease [2]. The new HPV vaccines are designed to prevent HPV 16 and 18 infections which are the cause of about 70% of invasive cervical cancer cases worldwide. Thus, they are considered to be one of the most cost-effective interventions for cervical cancer control, particularly in developing coun- tries where cytology-based screening programs have not been successful [3]. HPV vaccine efficacy is 93%–100% for reducing CIN/2- 3 lesions associated with HPV 16 and 18 types [4, 5]; consequently, it has been estimated that they can reduce the burden of cervical cancer up to 70% worldwide [6]. Furthermore, several studies reveal that no major variation exists in specific HPV type prevalence among invasive cervi- cal cancer in different regions around the world, indicating that the impact of HPV vaccines on cervical cancer incidence and mortality is expected to be similar across continents, with a potential reduction of 65% in South/Central America [6]. Although various cost-effectiveness analyses, including Latin American countries, have been conducted based on available HPV prevalence information, there are some concerns about the inclusion of HPV vaccines in public health programs. The factor with the greatest influence on HPV 16/18 vaccine cost-effectiveness is price per vaccinated girl [7]; another influential factor is vaccine effectiveness, and data from Latin America show that reduction of cervical cancer incidence could range widely (55%–69%) depending on HPV 16/18 prevalence [8].