Cervical neoplasia and human papilloma virus infection as risk factors for the development of anal cancer and precursor lesions

The incidence of anal cancer has increased in the last 10 years, especially in the population considered to be at risk. Women with a history of infection in the genital tract by Human Papil-lomavirus (HPV) have higher risk of developing this type of cancer. The presence of high-risk (HR) HPV genotypes in the anogenital region has been shown to play a role in the etiopatho-genesis of anal cancer. Many aspects of the natural history of anal lesions are unknown, but the anal transition zone is considered to have a high cell replacement. This is why a pathophysiological mechanism of HR-HPV in-fection and development of invasive lesions si-milar to those of cervical cancer has been sug-gested. The aim of this work was to show the current status of the epidemiological informa-tion that links the risk of developing anal can-cer in women with cervical cancer precursor lesions associated with HPV infection. The re-levance of this information is to provide a ba-sis of recommendations for the timely detec-tion of anal cancer in women considered to be at HR of suffering it, and to encourage more prospective studies in this population.