Older women can benefit just as much as younger women from Merck's Gardasil vaccine against cervical cancer, researchers in Colombia reported on Monday.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) has "no plans" to study the company's competing vaccine Cervarix outside of cervical cancer, Jennifer Armstrong, a company spokeswoman, said in an E-mail.

If that's the case, then the introduction of the cervical cancer vaccine for girls and women, which covers the common strains of HPV, may also help reduce the incidence of some head and neck cancers.