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A sero‐epidemiological study of the relationship between sexually transmitted agents and cervical cancer in Honduras
Author(s) -
Ferrera Annabelle,
Baay Marc F.D.,
Herbrink Paul,
Figueroa Manuel,
Velema Johan P.,
Melchers Willem J.G.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19971210)73:6<781::aid-ijc1>3.0.co;2-z
Subject(s) - cervical cancer , medicine , serology , chlamydia trachomatis , epidemiology , cancer , antibody , syphilis , immunology , virology , oncology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)
To investigate a possible cause‐and‐effect relationship between sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer, we performed a sero‐epidemiological study on the presence of antibodies against a number of sexually transmitted agents (STAs) in patients with cervical cancer and their matched controls. In this study, we used serological techniques to investigate the presence of antibodies to cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus type 2, human immunodeficiency virus, Chlamydia trachomatis, Treponema pallidum and human papillomavirus (HPV) early protein E7 in sera from patients with cervical cancer, cervical intra‐epithelial neoplasia and individually matched, healthy controls. The presence of antibodies to infectious agents other than HPV appeared not to be associated with risk of cervical neoplasia in either univariate or multivariate analysis. After adjustment for cytology, schooling and presence of HPV DNA in cervical scrapes, there was a significantly higher prevalence of antibodies to HPV‐16 E7 protein in sera from patients with cervical cancer (OR = 3.6, 95% CI 1.0–12.9) than in healthy controls. The highest antibody prevalence was found among HPV‐16 DNA–positive cervical cancer patients (33%). Our results indicate that in these study groups past infections with the STA considered seems to be of no apparent relevance for cervical carcinogenesis and that the HPV‐16 anti‐E7 response appears to be associated with cervical cancer. Int. J. Cancer 73:781–785, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.