• Marc Brisson, Nicolas Van de Velde, Philippe De Wals, and Marie-Claude Boily.
• Département de médecine sociale et préventive, Université Laval, Que., Canada. marc.brisson@uresp.ulaval.ca
• Vaccine. 2007 Jul 20; 25 (29): 5399-408.

AimClinical trials have shown prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines to be effective against infection and disease. We examined whether HPV vaccination has the potential to be cost-effective.MethodsA cohort model of the natural history of HPV was developed, which fits simultaneously Canadian age and type-specific data for infection, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, cervical cancer (CC) and genital warts (GW). Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs) lost and costs were estimated using data from the literature.ResultsVaccinating 12-year-old girls (efficacy=95%, no waning, cost/course=CAN$ 400) against HPV-16/18 and HPV-6/11/16/18 is estimated to cost the health provider CAN$ 31,000 (80%CrI: 15,000-55,000) and CAN$ 21,000 (80%CrI: 11,000-33,000) per QALY-gained, respectively. Results were most sensitive to age at vaccination, duration of vaccine protection, vaccine cost and QALY-lost due to GW, and were least sensitive to the medical costs.ConclusionVaccinating adolescent girls against HPV is likely to be cost-effective. The main benefit of vaccination will be in reducing CC mortality. However, unless screening is modified, the treatment costs saved through vaccination will be insignificant compared to the cost of HPV immunization.

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