The real culprit of cervical cancer

  Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the female reproductive system, with more than 150,000 women suffering from cervical cancer each year. There are obvious regional differences in the incidence of cervical cancer, and the distribution of cervical cancer in China is mainly in the central region, with rural areas higher than urban areas and mountainous areas higher than plains. Women are afraid of cervical cancer, but they don’t know what causes the root cause of cervical cancer.  It is now clear that more than 90% of patients with cervical cancer and cervical precancer have human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In other words, HPV infection is the main cause of cervical cancer, and the way of transmission of HPV is mainly through sexual life, for example, if the genital organs of one of the men and one of the women have contact with unclean utensils, or if one of the women has a disordered sexual life, the woman will be infected with HPV virus through sex or mutual contact.  In recent years, the incidence of cervical cancer has a trend of age shift, and patients under 35 years old are more and more common in clinical practice. The reason for this is that many girls are having sex at the age of 18, and some of them have multiple sexual partners. Starting sex too early, having multiple partners or having a male partner who has multiple partners himself can increase a woman’s risk of HPV infection. Some studies have shown that once the number of sexual partners is greater than 3, the risk of cervical cancer increases 3-4 times.  So does having HPV infection mean that you have cervical cancer?  Generally speaking, all women before the age of 30 will be infected with HPV virus to a certain extent, just like the flu virus. But 10-15% of women will still show persistent HPV infection after the age of 30, this part of the talent is we need to pay special attention to worry about.  Besides, 1.Smoking: intake of nicotine reduces the immunity of the body and affects the clearance of HPV infection, leading to an increased risk of cervical cancer, especially squamous cancer; 2.Long-term use of oral contraceptives: the risk of cervical cancer, especially adenocarcinoma, increases twofold after taking oral contraceptives for more than 8 years; 3.Immunodeficiency and suppression: HIV infection leads to immunodeficiency and long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs after organ transplantation The incidence of cervical cancer is increased due to HIV infection and long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs after organ transplantation; 4. Other viral infections: the link between herpes virus type II (HSV-II) and the etiology of cervical cancer cannot be ruled out.  Carry out sexual health education and promote late marriage and less childbearing. Prevention of cervical cancer is divided into three levels of prevention: Application of vaccine (primary prevention): early use of vaccine for adolescent women to prevent HPV infection.  Cervical screening (secondary prevention): Improve women’s cancer prevention and health care network, and conduct regular cervical cytology screening.  Screening and treatment (tertiary prevention): further screening and treatment for women with abnormal findings to interrupt the lesions in pre-cancerous or early stages.