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Virus makes cervical cancer risk soar
« on: 2002-07-29 16:47:11 » |
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Virus makes cervical cancer risk soar
Important to note that HPV is endemic in the US, infecting roughly one quarter of Americans below age 19.
Source: NewScientist.com news service
Authors: Gaia Vince
Dated: 2002-07-29
Cross posted to the main virus list
Certain strains of a common sexually transmitted virus can cause the risk of cervical cancer to rise by 100 times, researchers have found.
Human papilloma virus (HPV) was already known to increase cervical cancer risk, but there are more than 100 strains.
Yolanda van der Graaf and colleagues at the Utrecht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands analysed 347 women who had participated in a cervical screening program over five years. HPV was present in the pap smears of 71 per cent of the 77 women who went on to develop cervical cancer and just 11 per cent of those who did not.
But when the researchers looked at the HPV strains they found that some carried a higher risk. Women infected with subtype 16 showed a more than 100-fold increased risk of cervical cancer compared to those who were virus free. And women with subtypes 18, 31 and 33 were more than 50 times as likely to develop cervical cancer.
Although the risk of cervical cancer rises with age, it is still the second most common cancer in women under the age of 35. There are over 3200 new cases in the UK each year. But it has a well-defined pre-cancerous stage and it is estimated that screening saves over 1000 lives each year.
The researchers believe their work suggests that also identifying the strain of any HPV virus found would increase the success of screening.
Journal reference: American Journal of Epidemiology (vol 156, p 158)
This story is from NewScientist.com's news service - for more exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist print edition.
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