Cervical Cancer Facts

What is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer begins in the cervix, the part of the uterus or womb that opens to the vagina. Before doctors started using the Pap test in the 1950s, cervical cancer was the leading cause of death from cancer in women. In the United States, the Pap test saves the lives of 70% of the women who might have died from cervical cancer without the test. Recent advances in screening and the availability of a vaccine holds the promise to wipe out cervical cancer.

Every year, almost 10,000 women in the United States get cervical cancer and about 3,500 women die from it. In developing countries, cervical cancer is a most important women�s health issue, killing some 200,000 women each year. At least 500,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, 80% percent of them in developing countries.

Cervical cancer occurs most of often in certain groups of women in the United States including Hispanic women, white (non-Hispanic) women living in rural New York State and northern New England, American Indian women, and Vietnamese-American women. Hispanic women have twice the rate of cervical cancer compared to non-Hispanic white women. African-American women develop this cancer about 50% more than non-Hispanic white women. These disparities are due, in part, from difficulties in gaining access to health care. The women who are most at risk for the disease are women who do not have regular check-ups that include Pap tests.

What causes cervical cancer?

A virus—the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV—causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. HPV is a common sexually transmitted virus that usually goes away by itself. Most people with HPV never even know they have it.

HPV is a family of very common viruses that cause almost all cervical cancers, plus a variety of other problems like common warts, genital warts and plantar warts. HPV also causes cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus, and cancers of the head and neck. Women and men become infected with HPV types that cause cervical cancer through sexual intercourse and sexual contact. Most women and men will be exposed to HPV during their lifetime.

The most common cancer-causing types of the virus are 16 and 18. This is important to know because these two types alone cause about 70% of all cervical cancer. The cervical cancer vaccine is designed to protect against these two types.

An HPV infection rarely leads to cervical cancer. In most women, the cells in the cervix return to normal after the body’s immune system destroys the HPV infection. However, some HPV infections do not go away and may remain present in the cervical cells for years. Long-standing infection can lead to changes in the cells that can progress to cancer.

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