Are Genital Infections and Inflammation Cofactors in the Pathogenesis of Invasive Cervical Cancer?
Affiliation of authors: S. E. Hawes (Department of Epidemiology), N. B. Kiviat (Department of Pathology), University of Washington, Seattle. Correspondence to: Stephen E. Hawes, Ph.D., Department of Epidemiology, Box 359933, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (e-mail: hawes{at}u.washington.edu’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–>). It is well established that infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is central to the pathogenesis of invasive cervical cancer. However, many women are infected with high-risk types of HPV, but only a subset of infected women will ever develop cervical cancer, suggesting that other cofactors must be present for the development of malignancy. Prior to the discovery of HPV, both Chlamydia and herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) were postulated to be the sexually-transmitted infections that are important for the development of invasive cervical cancer; however, it is now thought that these associations were likely confounded by the inability to acc
