Mexican scientist Eva Ramón Gallegos and her team reported complete HPV clearance in one group of women treated with light-based therapy, raising hopes for a less invasive approach to cervical infections linked to cancer.
The results came from research at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), announced in 2019 and later detailed in a 2023 scientific paper. The Mexico City study involved 29 women with HPV infections, mild precancerous cervical changes, or both.
Six months after treatment, HPV was no longer detected in 100% of participants who had the virus without cervical lesions. The clearance rate was 64.3% among women with both HPV and lesions. Treatment succeeded in 57.2% of those with lesions but no detected HPV, a separate outcome concerning abnormal tissue.
An earlier project treated 420 women in Oaxaca and Veracruz. IPN records show HPV clearance in 80% of participants with HPV types 16 or 18 but no cervical lesions and 83% of those with HPV and lesions. The success rate among patients with lesions alone was 42%, assessed after 12 months.
The procedure uses aminolevulinic acid, which is converted into a light-sensitive substance that accumulates in affected cells. Controlled light then activates a reaction intended to destroy those cells.
“This technique only eliminates damaged cells and does not affect healthy structures,” Ramón Gallegos said in an account of the research.
Certain persistent HPV infections can cause cervical changes that eventually develop into cancer. The findings suggest a possible way to treat infections and early lesions, though the reported 100% result applies only to one subgroup.
