# SPORE in Cervical Cancer

> **NIH NIH P50** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $199,889

## Abstract

Overall Program Summary/Abstract
Every year 500,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 200,000 die from it worldwide. The overall
goal of our cervical cancer SPORE is, in the next 5 years, to better reach and protect the next generation of
women from oncogenic HPV infection, and to develop novel vaccines to improve treatment outcomes of patients
with persistent HPV infection, HPV-associated precancer, and cervical cancer.
Vaccines represent the most cost-effective and successful public health intervention. We include four vaccine
projects in this SPORE program based upon the success of prophylactic HPV vaccination for primary prevention
of cervical cancer, and advances in understanding of cellular immunology, including the mechanisms of
spontaneous viral clearance, the impact of HIV, and the licensure of pembrolizumab for treatment of
recurrent/progressing cervical cancer. The power of secondary prevention is evident from the success of
population-based cytologic screening programs and ablative treatment of high-grade cervical intraepithelial
neoplasia. Simultaneously, we recognize the continued need and cost of cervical screening even in vaccinated
patients, and for prevalent disease in the unvaccinated generations, and disadvantaged populations for the next
decades. The licensure of several screening tests for oncogenic HPV infection and genotyping is revolutionizing
screening, and HPV testing will likely be used for upfront screening. This will provide an opportunity to eliminate
persistent oncogenic HPV infections prior to progression to dysplasia and for personalized cancer treatment by
therapeutic HPV vaccination. It is clear that successful prevention and treatment, and indeed eradication of
cervical cancer, can be a reality by improving access to, and the breadth of prophylactic HPV vaccination, and
combining current screening and treatment modalities with novel therapeutic HPV vaccine-based approaches.
Therefore, there are three overarching goals in this SPORE: 1) PRIMARY PREVENTION to reduce the global
incidence of cervical cancer by improving access to prophylactic vaccination through the development of a low-
cost, thermostable virus-like particle vaccine that effectively prevents infection by all oncogenic HPV types
(Project 1), 2) SECONDARY PREVENTION by treating persistent HPV infection (Project 2) and associated
precancer lesions (Project 3) using innovative therapeutic HPV vaccines, and 3) Improving CANCER
TREATMENT by complementing existing treatments (chemoradiation and immune checkpoint blockade) with
therapeutic HPV vaccination (Project 4). This program is supported by an Administrative/Communication Core
(Core A), a Biostatistics/Bioinformatics Core (Core B), a Tissue/Pathology/Immunology Core (Core C), and
innovates and renews through a Developmental Research Program (DRP) and a Career Enhancement Program
(CEP). Together, our SPORE will expand options for the control of HPV-associated disease at multiple points
du...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10627370
- **Project number:** 3P50CA098252-19S1
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** TZYY-CHOOU WU
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $199,889
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2003-09-30 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10627370

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10627370, SPORE in Cervical Cancer (3P50CA098252-19S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10627370. Licensed CC0.

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