Cervical cancer is closely related to HPV: Cervical cancer is one of the common gynecologic malignancies, killing one woman every two minutes worldwide and causing about 460,000 new cases each year. After more than 20 years of research, scientists found that HPV DNA (mainly high-risk subtypes) was detected in 99.7% of cervical cancers, the highest percentage of human tumorigenic factors ever reported, and confirmed the etiologic link between HPV and cervical cancer. The discovery of the relationship between HPV infection and cervical cancer led to the creation of the first ever vaccine against cancer. But doesn’t HPV infection necessarily mean that you will get cervical cancer. Of course not. In fact, HPV infection is relatively common in the population. The literature reports that the prevalence of HPV infection in normal women of childbearing age (including cervical cytology without abnormal findings) ranges from 5% to 50%. A foreign study of sexually active college students found that 43% of normal cervical tissue was positive for HPV. Another study of female college students in the United States had similar results, with about 1/3 of them being HPV-positive. In contrast, most HPV infections are subclinical (asymptomatic infections) and the most common outcome of cervical HPV infection is that there are no obvious clinical manifestations and HPV is detectable only for a short period of time. the vast majority of HPV infections are cleared spontaneously by the body’s immunity, with the average duration of infection being 8.2 months for non-tumorigenic (low-risk) HPV and 13.5 months for tumorigenic (high-risk) HPV. Therefore, most HPV infections are transient and temporary and will automatically turn negative within 18 months, although some manifest as chronic infections, and only a very small number of women with persistent HPV infection will develop cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (cervical precancer) and then cervical cancer during their lifetime, with a fairly long average latency period of several years or more. Therefore, even if you are infected with high-risk subtype of HPV, you cannot conclude that it is cervical precancerous lesion, and there is no need to be anxious and panic. The correct approach is to visit the gynecology department of a regular hospital for colposcopy and pathological examination to determine the severity of the disease. If HPV is positive but no lesion has occurred, surgery or medication (or only vaginal administration of antiviral therapy) may not be needed and the body can heal itself, but close attention should be paid to whether the infection persists and a follow-up check should be made at the hospital in 12 months to see if the infection has turned negative. If it does not turn negative after more than a year, it indicates a persistent infection and may be a high risk group for cervical cancer, then further treatment is needed.