- Certain strains of a common sexually-transmitted virus
can cause the risk of cervical cancer to rise by 100 times, researchers
have found.
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- Human papilloma virus (HPV) was already known to increase
cervical cancer risk, but there are more than 100 strains.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- The researchers believe their work suggests that also
identifying the strain of any HPV virus found would increase the success
of screening.
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- Journal reference: American Journal of Epidemiology (vol
156, p 158)
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- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992601
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