Cervical Cancer and Human Papillomavirus

Worldwide, cervical cancer (CC) is the second cause of death from cancer in women in spite of the implementation of cervix cytology screening for its prevention. The low sensibility and specificity of the test reduce the potential benefits of such screening and prompt urgent improvement in early detection tests for CC. It is now known that persistent infection with the high-risk human papilloma virus (HR-HPV) is the cause of almost all cases of CC. Bivalent and tetravalent HR-HPV vaccines effective against two (HPV-16 and HPV-18) and four (HPV-6, HPV-11, HPV-16 and HPV-18) strains that account for most CC cases have been licensed in several countries. The present study aims to provide a review of the principal characteristics of the HR-HPV virus and of the mechanisms that are activated under the persistent infection of cervical cells leading to their abnormal proliferation and malignization. For the initiation of the expression of the E6 and E7 viral oncoproteins which eventually leads to the development of CC, the virus integration into the genome of the epithelial cell is required