Human papillomavirus and cervical neoplasia

Cervical cancer accounts for about 10% of all newly diagnosed cancers in women worldwide. The association between HPV infection and cervical neoplasia appears to be stronger than the association between smoking and lung cancer. At least 20 oncogenic HPV types have been identified in >95% of preinvasive and invasive cervical cancers, HPV type 16 being the most common. HPV detection is important to identify those patients who may be at high risk for the development of cervical neoplasia. Detection techniques include Hybrid Capture (Digene, Silver Springs, MD) and PCR. Viral integration appears to be one of the necessary steps in malignant transformation. Recently, some of the repeated chromosomal alterations and patterns of integration sites have been identified in cervical cancer specimens. The low rate of HPV-negative cancers implies an effective HPV vaccine might have the ability to eradicate cervical cancer worldwide.