Smoking increases the risk of cervical cancer

  Article date: 2002/11/18,Smoking Linked To Increased Risk For Cervical Cancer

Smoking may raise the risk of cervical cancer in women exposed to human papillomavirus (HPV) by slowing the body’s efforts to get rid of HPV infection, a main cause of cervical cancer, researchers reported recently in Cancer Causes and Control (Vol. 13: 839-846).

About 30% of women aged 18 to 35 in the US have been infected with HPV, but many never know it because HPV infection often produces no symptoms, said the report’s lead author, Anna R. Giuliano, PhD, director of the minority cancer prevention and control program at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, Ariz.

"Smoking puts women at risk for cervical HPV infections that persist, raising the risk of cervical cancer," said Giuliano.
HPV A Main Cause Of Cervical Cancer

Scientists have known for some time that most if not all cervical cancer is caused by some types of the sexually transmitted HPV, said Giuliano.

The immune system eliminates HPV infection in the majority of women exposed to it. But HPV remaining active in the body for longer periods of time has a higher risk of producing cervical dysplasia, a type of tissue damage that typically leads to cervical cancer if not treated, said Giuliano.

Giuliano and colleagues knew that smoking harms some immune system cells in the cervix, and harms the immune system in other ways.
Smokers Kept Active Infection Longer

The researchers studied 346 Tucson-area women aged 18 to 35, who were part of the Young Women’s Health Study, to learn more about HPV and its links to other diseases.

All the women had gynecologic exams when they entered the study. They had follow-up exams around three months later and again nine months after the study’s start. At each exam, they gave information about their smoking and medical histories.

About half the women had smoked at one time, and about one-third were smokers during the study.

Among women who developed an HPV infection, those who ever smoked stayed infected longer — almost 11 months, compared to never-smokers’ eight-and-a-half months, the researchers found.

Those who ever had smoked were much less likely to have gotten rid of the infections completely. Doing so became less likely the longer a woman had smoked, noted Giuliano.

Young women thinking of smoking tend to be concerned about lung cancer, which typically is diagnosed later in life, Giuliano said.

But cervical dysplasia — tissue changes caused by HPV that must be treated to avoid cervical cancer — typically occurs much earlier and increasingly is being found in younger and younger women, said Giuliano.
Screening Saves Lives

Giuliano’s study provides important new details about the link between smoking and cervical cancer, said Debbie Saslow, PhD, director of breast and cervical cancer control for the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Women interested in avoiding cervical cancer should not smoke and should minimize their exposure to other risk factors for cervical cancer, said Saslow.

According to the new ACS cervical cancer screening guidelines, regular screening should begin about three years after a woman begins having vaginal intercourse, but no later than 21 years of age.

Regular screening can catch pre-cancerous cervical conditions before they become invasive cancer. And screening can find cervical cancer early enough to treat successfully, noted Saslow.

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