Over 15,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the United States. More than 450,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year worldwide resulting in about 250,000 DEATHS each year. Cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer-related cause of death in women with breast cancer being the most common cause of death. A report in the New England Journal of Medicine may give the young women in our world some hope of preventing this cancer's occurrence in the their own bodies.
There is still some debate concerning the causes of cervical cancer. One factor important in increasing a woman's risk of getting cervical cancer appears to be how often she has had sexual intercourse and with whom she has had those particular experiences. Studies have shown that women who began having sexual intercourse before age 18 and women who have had many sexual partners are at an increased risk of developing cervical cancer. Women are also at higher risk if their partners began having sexual intercourse at a young age, have had many sexual partners, or were previously married to women who had cervical cancer.
Infection of the cervix by certain types of Human Papilloma viruses (HPV) also increases a woman's chances of developing cervical cancer. There are over 100 different types of HPV. Some types of HPV (types 6 and 11) only cause warts we see on our skin and do not cause cancer. Other types of HPV (types 16 and 18) do not produce warts when they infect but rather if not eliminated by the bodies immune system can cause cervical cancer. HPV 16 causes over 50% of the cervical cancer in the United States. Around 90% of all women with cervical cancer have HPV growing in the cells of their cervix. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus. HPV is present in about 20% of the sexually active population. The more sexual partners a woman has had makes it more likely that she would be infected with HPV. Fortunately, about 90% of all HPV infections do not progress to cervical cancer. The 10% of women that do not eliminate the cancer-causing types of HPV develop a persistent infection that can result in cervical cancer.
Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing without testing who will progress from a HPV infection to cancer-like changes in the cells of the cervix (dysplasia) followed by development of cervical cancer. As a result sexually active women are encouraged to get a yearly papanicolaou (pap) test or smear.
HPV infection and preventing being infected by this virus is not the entire answer either. There are women that are not infected by the
