Antibody responses in oral fluid after administration of prophylactic human papillomavirus vaccines.

We sought to determine whether oral fluid can be used to assess serum human papillomavirus (HPV) antibody status by enrolling women who had received a prophylactic HPV-16 vaccine in a new follow-up study. After the prophylactic HPV-6/11/16/18 vaccine was licensed in the United States, we administered it to consenting participants. With serologic findings used as the reference standard, The sensitivity of oral fluid was 49.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 42.0%-57.3%) before and 100% (95% CI, 92.0%-100%) after administration of the quadrivalent vaccine. Oral fluid may have the potential to be used for monitoring of prophylactic HPV vaccines in the future.