# SPORE in Cervical Cancer

> **NIH NIH P50** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,949,494

## Abstract

Overall Program Summary/Abstract
Every year 604,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 342,000 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 and the impact of HIV. 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 prophylactic HPV
vaccination and extending the breadth of coverage to all oncogenic HPV, 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 RG1-VLP
formulation that needs to be administered only once to effectively prevent infection by all oncogenic HPV types
(Project 1), 2) SECONDARY PREVENTION by eliminating persistent HPV infection (Project 2) and associated
precancer lesions (Project 3) using innovative therapeutic HPV vaccines, and 3) Improving CANCER
TREATMENT of advanced cervical cancer to adjuvant standard of care by targeting minimal residual disease
with an innovative therapeutic HPV vaccination after chemoradiation (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 membership through a Developmental
Research Program (DRP) and a Career Enhancement Program (CEP). Our program will expand options for the
control of HPV-associated...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10935437
- **Project number:** 2P50CA098252-21
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** WARNER KING HUH
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,949,494
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2003-09-30 → 2029-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10935437

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10935437, SPORE in Cervical Cancer (2P50CA098252-21). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10935437. Licensed CC0.

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