Please note - this EPG HPV and Cervical Cancer Knowledge Centre is for Doctors and other Health Care Professionals.

Worldwide, every two minutes a woman dies of cervical cancer. Globally, cancer of the cervix is the second most prevalent cancer in women, causing nearly 500,000 new cases per year, and the third leading cause of female cancer deaths after breast and lung cancer (Ferlay et al 2004).

There are over 100 types of human papillomavirus (HPV), of which 30-40 can infect mucosal tissue. The others cause a variety of non-genital conditions, such as plantar warts (Wilson 2001; Burd 2003; von Krogh 2001). Of the types that can infect mucosal tissue, there are low-risk HPV types that can cause benign, low-grade lesions on the cervical surface or genital warts (which rarely progress to cancer). More importantly, there are over 15 oncogenic types that have been directly linked to cervical cancer (Bosch et al 2002; Schiller and Davies 2004; Muñoz et al 2003). Of these oncogenic HPV types, HPV 16 and 18 are the most important and are found in over 70% of cervical cancers globally (Muñoz et al 2004).

HPV is a very common and easily transmittable virus. The risk of contracting HPV starts with the first sexual encounter and lasts throughout a woman’s sexually active life. Infection does not require full penetrative intercourse, as skin-to-skin contact in the genital area is enough to spread the infection. Condoms do not fully protect from cervical cancer (Schiffman and Kjaer 2003; Burd 2003).

Virtually all cases of cervical cancer are associated with HPV infection (Bosch et al 2002). 

Given the significant burden associated with cervical cancer, prevention and treatment strategies are critical (Franceschi 2005; Franco et al 2001). Proper screening requires well-organised acquisition of cervical samples at regular intervals (Sankaranarayanan et al 2005). This identifies abnormal cells on the cervix, which can be removed, if treatment is necessary. 

Cervical screening is currently the only strategy for early detection of cervical abnormalities and HPV infections.

Enter the HPV & Cervical Cancer Knowledge Centre

What’s in this HPV & Cervical Cancer Knowledge Centre?

Overview | Human papillomavirus (HPV) | Natural History of HPV | HPV Transmission and Acquisition | Cervical Cancer Risk Factors | From Oncogenic HPV to Cervical Cancer | Immunology of  HPV Infection | Virology | The Character of HPV | HPV and Cervical cancer | Other Disease Caused by HPV | Epidemiology | Geography | Cervical Cancer and Age | Lifetime Risk of Cervical Cancer | The Cervix | Anatomy | Cell Biology | Immunology of the Cervix | Impact of abnormal screening results, pre-cancerous lesions and cervical cancer | Impact of abnormal screening results, pre-cancerous lesions and cervical cancer on quality of life (QoL) | Impact of Cervical Cancer on Years of Life Lost (YLL) | Societal costs of pre-cancerous lesions and Cervical Cancer | Prevention & Treatment of oncogenic HPV and cervical cancer | Screening for Cervical Cancer | Impact of Abnormal Screening Results | Treatment of CIN and Cervical Cancer | Prevention of Cervical Cancer where screening not implemented | Frequently Asked Questions | References | Acetowhitening | Adenocarcinoma | Age-standardised | Antibody | Antigen / Antigenic | Base pairs | Biopsy | Brachytherapy | Capsid | Cell-mediated | Cervical screening | Chemotherapy | CIN | | CIS | Colposcope | Co-morbid |Cryotherapy | Cytokines | Cytotoxic | Dysplasia / dysplasias | Dysplastic | Envelope | Epidemiology / epidemiological | Epithelial cells/epithelium | False negative | G1 phase | Genome | Homology | HPV | HSIL | Humoral | Hysterectomy | IgG (antibody) | Incidence/incidences | Lesions A general term to describe an area of abnormal tissue | Liquid-based cytology | LSIL | Limphangiogram | Menopause | Metaplastic/metaplasia | Metastasized | Mortality | Neoplastic | Odds ratio | Oncogenesis | Oncogenic |Oncogenic transformation | Pap | Parity | Persistent | Phylogenetics | Primary prevention | Promoter | Radiotherapy / Ionising radiation | Stages | Transcription | Transient | Transformation zone | Triage | Tumour | Vaccination | Vascularisation | Viraemia | Virion | X-rays | Years of life lost (YLL)