What’s the link between HPV and cervical cancer?
According to the CDC, more than 6 million people contract HPV each year. And by age 50, at least 80% of women will have acquired some form of the infection. Certain strains are harmless and disappear on their own. Others linger and can cause medical problems such as genital warts and precancerous lesions. Although most HPV infections don’t result in cancer, “virtually all cervical cancers are caused by one of the so-called high risk types of HPV,” says Debbie Saslow, Ph.D., director of breast and gynecologic cancer for the American Cancer Society (ACS). Of the more than hundred strains of HPV, “about 15 or so are considered high-risk and can cause cervical cancer,” she explains, “and 2 [of those] cause about 70 % of all cervical cancers.” These are HPV type 16 and type 18 — against which Gardasil offers protection. According to the ACS, about 11,150 cases of invasive cervical cancer (where the cancer has spread into adjacent tissues) will be diagnosed in 2007, and 3,670 people will die
