Why some potential cervical cancers disappear

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A mixture of immune system factors and viral strains determines whether a pre-cancerous cervical lesion will regress.
Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV). But it can take many years for the cancer itself to develop. Often it is preceded by a pre-cancerous lesion which does not always become a cancer.

To determine the factors governing whether lesions turn cancerous or not, researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center studied a group of 100 women. All were due to have surgery to remove pre-cancerous tissue. In 28 per cent of cases, the lesion cleared up before the surgery was done.

There are several different strains of HPV and women who did not have HPV 16, the most common strain, were more likely to develop a cancer. If they also had a certain variant of an immune system gene, they were three times less likely to resolve their lesion. The findings will help the team in their work towards a vaccine for HPV. Meanwhile, the study is being pursued in a larger group of patients.

Source
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center 1st July 2005

Please take a moment to give us your comments. For questions about Health matters you may check our "Questions & Answers" Portal and Service.