Risk Factors that Increase Your Chances of Getting Cervical Cancer

Cancer of the Cervix

Cancer of the cervix, or cervical cancer, begins in the lining of the cervix.

The cervix is the lower part of the uterus or womb. The upper part, or the body of the uterus, is where a fetus or baby grows when you are pregnant.

The cervix connects the body of the uterus to the vagina or birth canal.

There are two parts of the cervix. The part closest to the body of the uterus is called the endocervix. The part next to the vagina is the exocervix.

Most cervical cancers start where these two parts meet.

The American Cancer Society says that in 2005, about 10,370 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. About 3,710 of these women will die from the disease.

This cancer tends to occur in midlife. Half of the women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer are between the ages of 35 and 55. It rarely occurs in women younger than 20 years old.

Risk Factors

Although cervical cancer does not usually affect young women, many older women do not realize that they still are at risk of developing cervical cancer as they grow older. Slightly over 20 percent of women with cervical cancer are diagnosed when they are over 65 years old.

As African-American women, you are more likely to die of this cancer than are women in other groups. This could be because the cancers are often found at a later stage. African-American women tend to not get pap tests that screen for this disease.

You can help prevent cervical cancer by lowering your risk factors. A risk factor is anything that increases your chance of getting the disease. Different cancers have different risk factors.

Women without any of the following risk factors have a lower chance of getting cervical cancer. Women with several risk factors increase their risk of developing cervical cancer. Although these risk factors increase your odds of developing cervical cancer, many women with these risk factors do not develop this disease. When a woman develops cervical cancer or precancerous cells, it is not possible to be sure that a particular risk factor was the cause.

Human Papilloma Virus Infection (HPV)

The most important risk factor is the human papilloma virus infection, or HPV. HPVs are a group of more than 100 types of viruses that can cause warts, which are noncancerous (benign) tumors.

Doctors believe that for most women, in order to develop cervical cancer, you must have had an HPV infection.

Some types of HPVs cause different types of warts in different parts of your body. Some cause common warts on the hands and feet. Others tend to cause warts on the lips or tongue.

Genital HPVs may cause warts to appear on or around the female and male genital organs and in the anal area. These HPV types are passed from one person to another during skin-to- skin sexual contact, including oral and anal sex.

Some types of HPV are seldom linked to cervical cancer. When HPV occurs on the skin of the outer genital organs and anal area, it often causes bumpy warts. These may be barely visible or they may be several inches wide. These are called “low-risk” types.

However, other sexually transmitted HPVs have been linked with genital or anal cancers in both men and women. Even among women who have the cancer-causing types of HPV, most do not develop cervical cancer. Usually the infection disappears without any treatment, because the woman’s immune system has been able to fight off the virus.

However, sometimes this virus causes abnormal cells to develop in the cervix. These cells can be precancerous.

The abnormal cells can be discovered by a pap test or biopsy.

Certain types of sexual behavior increase a woman’s risk of getting HPV:

• Having sex at an early age
• Having many sexual partners
• Having sex with uncircumcised males

You can have HPV for years with no symptoms, and HPV infections do not always cause warts or other symptoms. So you can have HPV and pass it on without knowing it.

Recent studies show that condoms or rubbers do not protect well against HPV infection. This is because HPV can be passed from person to person by skin-to-skin contact with any HPV-infected area of the body, such as skin of the genital or anal area not covered by the condom.

It does not matter if you cannot see any warts, because HPV lives in the skin and can be passed to another person even when there are no visible warts or symptoms.

Although condoms do not protect against HPV, it is still important to use them to protect against AIDS and other sexually transmitted illnesses that are passed on through some bodily fluids.

Remember that you must have had HPV for cervical cancer to develop, and that most women with this virus do not develop cervical cancer. Doctors believe that other factors must come into play for cancer to develop.

Smoking

Women who smoke are about twice as likely as nonsmokers to get cervical cancer. Smoking exposes your body to many cancer-causing chemicals that affect more than your lungs. These harmful substances are absorbed by your lungs and carried in the bloodstream throughout the body.

In some studies of women who smoke, researchers have found tobacco by-products in the women’s cervical mucus. These scientists believe that these substances damage the cells in the cervix and may contribute to the development of cervical cancer.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

This virus, which causes AIDS, damages the body’s immune system. It makes women more at risk for HPV infections, which increase their risk of cervical cancer.

Chlamydia Infection

Chlamydia (pronounded kluh-MID-ee-uh) is a relatively common kind of bacteria that can infect the female reproductive system. It is spread by sexual contact.

Although a chlamydia infection may cause symptoms, you will not be able to know you have been infected unless samples are taken at the time of your pap test and analyzed for this type of bacteria.

Some recent studies suggest that if your blood test results show a past or current chlamydia infection, you are at greater risk for cervical cancer than are women with a negative blood test.

Although further studies are needed to confirm this finding, there is already good reason to avoid this infection and to have it treated with antibiotics promptly after diagnosis. Long-term chlamydia infection is well known to cause pelvic inflammation that can lead to infertility.

Diet

Diet is another risk factor for cervical cancer. If your diet is low in fruits and vegetables, you may be at increased risk for this kind of cancer. Also, if you are overweight, you are more likely to develop this cancer.

Oral Contraceptives

There is evidence that using oral contraceptives (OC) for a long time increases your risk of cancer of the cervix. Some research suggests that using OCs for 5 or more years can increase your risk of cervical cancer.

In one study, the risk was increased fourfold in women who used OCs longer than 10 years.

In the meantime, the American Cancer Society believes that a woman and her doctor should discuss whether the benefits of using OCs outweigh this very slight potential risk. A woman with multiple sexual partners should use condoms to lower her risk of sexually transmitted illnesses, no matter what form of contraception she uses.

Multiple Pregnancies

Women who have had many full-term pregnancies have an increased risk of developing cervical cancer.

Low Socioeconomic Status

Low socioeconomic status is also a risk factor for cervical cancer. Many women with low incomes do not have ready access to adequate health care services, including pap tests and treatment of precancerous cervical disease. These women may also be undernourished, which may play a role in increasing their risk.

Diethylstilbestrol

Diethylstilbestrol (pronounced die-eth-il-still-BES-stroll), or DES, is a hormonal drug that was prescribed between 1940 and 1971. The women who received it were thought to be at increased risk for miscarriages.

A woman’s use of this drug can affect the risk of her daughter’s getting cervical cancer. Women whose mothers took DES when they were pregnant with them are known as “DES daughters.”

Of every 1,000 women whose mother took DES when pregnant with them, about one of them develops clear-cell adenocarcinoma (pronounced add-en-oh-car-si-NO-ma) of the vagina or cervix. This means that about 99.9 percent of DES daughters do not develop these cancers.

The age of the women who have been diagnosed with DES-related cancer has averaged about 19 years. Most DES daughters are now between 30 and 60 years old, and there have been fewer and fewer new cases of DES-related cervical and vaginal cancer over the past 20 years.

However, this type of cancer has recently been found in a woman in her early 40s, and doctors still do not know exactly how long women remain at risk for DES-related cancers.

Also, this type of cancer has also been found in women who have never been exposed to DES or related medications.

Family History of Cervical Cancer

Recent studies suggest that women whose mother or sisters have had cervical cancer are more likely to develop the disease themselves. Some researchers suspect this familial tendency is caused by an inherited condition that makes some women less able to fight off HPV infection than others.

Next: Signs and Symptoms of Cervical Cancer