Cervical Cancer Virus Risk May Depend On Race

New Scientist ^ | 8-2-2006 | Roxanne Khasmi

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Cervical cancer virus risk may depend on race

15:30 02 August 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi

Race may influence a woman’s risk of a virus known to cause cervical cancer, researchers report. The new study finds that a variant of the human papillomavirus (HPV) from a particular geographical region will infect a woman longer if her ancestors come from the same region. Experts say it is an uncommon example of how people are more prone to viral agents from their own place of origin.

HPV is by no means an uncommon virus: about 50% of sexually active women between the ages of 18 and 22 are believed to be infected with HPV at some point. While most of these infections are cleared up by the women’s natural immune system, some linger and can eventually cause cervical cancer.

To find out how race may influence vulnerability to HPV, Long Fu Xi at the University of Washington in Seattle, US, and colleagues followed over 1000 women infected with HPV for two years. They analysed the HPV in samples from each patient’s cervical swabs to determine its genetic code, revealing the region from which it evolved.

“The HPV virus is a pretty interesting one because it maintains its evolutionary history,” says Rob DeSalle, an expert in evolutionary genetics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He says this stands in contrast with a disease such as HIV, which mutates rapidly, muddling such evolutionary information.

Arms race

In white women, infections linked to the European variant of the HPV-16 strain persisted for about 17 months, on average, while infections from African variants of the virus lasted only half as long.

In African-American women, by contrast, infections from. . .

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"In contrast to the current findings, other studies have found that non-European variants of HPV are actually more likely than European ones to cause cancer in white women."

[txzman]

Regardless, based on current scientific knowledge, if I was a woman who had HPV, I would be very concerned about cervical cancer.

Virtually all cervical cancers are traced back to a parrallel infection with HPV. It often has no symptoms in either males or females.

Many OB/Gyns are now looking at doing HPV testing first, and pap smears only if HPV is positive. Sobering information for our young women.