Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the response of a papillomatous ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN) to the intramuscular (IM) 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine after failed medical and surgical interventions.
Methods: A 79-year-old White man with a conjunctival lesion underwent a biopsy which revealed OSSN and positivity for high-risk HPV. Initially treated with medical therapy and surgical excisions, the patient developed a recurrence and refused further surgery. He was given 4 doses of IM HPV vaccine at the 6-week interval.
Results: A dramatic reduction in lesion size and reduced epithelial thickening and hyperreflectivity was noted on slitlamp examination and high-resolution anterior segment optical coherence tomography after receiving the IM HPV vaccine. Although lesion size was markedly reduced, the therapy did not achieve total resolution, resulting in further treatment with topical 1% 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) eye drops and later 0.04% mitomycin C eye drops. The patient then elected to discontinue further treatment and solely observe.
Conclusions: This case report adds to the growing literature demonstrating the potential therapeutic use of vaccines in cancer treatment. Although HPV vaccination is currently approved for prophylaxis, the use of HPV vaccines as a therapeutic option for various HPV-mediated diseases, including OSSN, should be further explored. The HPV vaccine yielded significant initial improvement in this patient who refused further surgical interventions. The use of IM HPV vaccine as an adjunctive treatment of papillomatous OSSN may represent a potential therapeutic option in cases refractory to standard treatment modalities.
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