The Cervix is the lower part of the Uterus, the place where a baby grows during pregnancy. Cervical Cancer is caused by several types of a virus called human papillomaviruses (HPV). The virus spreads through sexual contact. Most women's bodies are able to fight HPV Infection. But sometimes the virus leads to cancer. You're at higher risk if you smoke, have many children, use birth control pills for a long time, or have HIV infection.
Cervical cancer may not cause any symptoms at first, but later, you may have pelvic Pain or bleeding from the vagina. It usually takes several years for normal cells in the cervix to turn into cancer cells. Your health care provider can find abnormal cells by doing a Pap test - examining cells from the cervix under a microscope. By getting regular Pap tests and pelvic exams you can find and treat changing cells before they turn into cancer.
A vaccine for girls and young women protects against the four types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers.
Causes
The American Cancer Society provides the following list of risk factors for cervical cancer: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection, smoking, HIV infection, Chlamydia infection, dietary factors, hormonal contraception, multiple pregnancies, use of the hormonal drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) and a family history of cervical cancer.
Human papillomavirus infection
The most important risk factor in the development of cervical cancer is infection with a high-risk strain of human papillomavirus. Women who have many sexual partners (or who have sex with men who had many partners) have a greater chance.
More than 60 types of HPV are acknowledged to exist (some sources indicate more than 200 subtypes). Of these, 15 are classified as high-risk types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73, and 82), 3 as probable high-risk (26, 53, and 66), and 12 as low-risk (6, 11, 40, 42, 43, 44, 54, 61, 70, 72, 81, and CP6108),but even those may cause cancer. Types 16 and 18 are generally acknowledged to cause about 70% of the cancer cases. Although most HPV infections clear up on their own, the infections could increase to major abnormalities or cervical cancer.
The presence of strains 16, 18 and 31 is the prime risk factor for cervical cancer, and Walboomers et al. (1999) reported that the presence of HPV is a necessary condition for the development of cervical cancer. A virus cancer link with HPV has been found to trigger alterations in the cells of the cervix, leading to the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cancer.
Genital warts although caused by different HPV types have no relation to cervical cancer.
The medically accepted paradigm, officially endorsed by the American Cancer Society and other organizations, is that a patient must have been infected with HPV to develop cervical cancer, and is hence viewed as a sexually transmitted disease, but not all women infected with HPV develop cervical cancer. Use of condoms does not always prevent transmission. Likewise, HPV can be transmitted by skin-to-skin-contact with infected areas. In males, HPV is thought to grow preferentially in the epithelium of the glans penis, and cleaning of this area may be preventative.
Despite the development of an HPV vaccine, some researchers argue that routine neonatal male circumcision is an acceptable way to lower the risk of cervical cancer in their future female sexual partners. Others maintain that the benefits do not outweigh the risks and/or consider the removal of healthy genital tissue from infants to be unethical as it cannot be reasonably assumed that a male would choose to be circumcised. There has not been any definitive evidence to support the claim that male circumcision prevents cervical cancer, although some researchers say there is compelling epidemiological evidence that men who have been circumcised are less likely to be infected with HPV. However, in men with low-risk sexual behaviour and monogamous female partners, circumcision makes no difference to the risk of cervical cancer.
In the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, free vaccinations to protect women against HPV are slated to begin in September 2007 and will be offered to girls 11-14 in age. Similar vaccination programs are also being planned in British Columbia and Quebec.
Australia has decided to fund the HPV vaccine under the National Immunisation Program commencing in the 2007 school year.In the U.K. a similar free vaccination program is being considered, while in the United States, many states are preparing bills to handle issuing the HPV vaccine.
