Human Papillomavirus in Cervical Cancer

Cancer of the uterine cervix is the third most common gynecologic cancer diagnosis and cause of death among gynecologic cancers. Cervical cancer has lower incidence and mortality rates than uterine corpus and ovarian cancer, as well as many other cancer sites. These rankings are similar to global estimates for other developed countries. Unfortunately, in countries that do not have access to cervical cancer screening and prevention programs, cervical cancer remains the second most common type of cancer (17.8 per 100,000 women) and cause of cancer deaths (9.8 per 100,000) among all types of cancer in women. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is central to the development of cervical neoplasia and can be detected in 99.7 percent of cervical cancers. The most common histologic types of cervical cancer are squamous cell (69 percent of cervical cancers) and adenocarcinoma (25 percent).