Open AccessGonorrheal Infection Followed by an Increased Frequency of Cervical Carcinoma
Author(s) -
Furgyik Stefan,
Åstedt Birger
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.3109/00016348009155443
Subject(s) - gonorrhea , medicine , cervix , cervical cancer , gynecology , obstetrics , carcinoma in situ , carcinoma , cancer , family medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)
In a town with a fairly centralized health service and a well organized gynecologic health control, women who had had gonorrhea in 1954 or 1955 were reviewed for presence of cervical neoplasia and compared with age‐matched controls. Of 164 women studied, 29 (17.7 per cent) had 24 or 23 years later developed cancer in situ , compared with 7 (4.3 per cent) of the controls (p < 0.001), while 8 (4.3 per cent) had invasive cancer colli uteri against only one (0.6 per cent) of the controls (p < 0.02). Malignant disease of the portio proved at least four times as common among the women with gonorrhea in their history as among the controls. The findings corroborate the view that cervical carcinoma is a sexually transmitted disease. It may be assumed that at least every fourth woman who had had gonorrhea had been or is a carrier of the carcinogenic agent(s). It is probably easier to search for and detect such agents in association with gonorrhea than in patients with already manifest cancer of the uterine cervix.