Sunlight Linked to Cervical Cancer Risk
3/30/2004 By Jennifer Warner See sources at end of article The effects of sun exposure on women's health may be more than skin deep. A new study suggests that a woman's risk of cervical cancer may be much higher during sunny months. Researchers tracked nearly a million Pap smear results collected over 16 years in southern Holland and found that women were twice as likely to be infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV) during the sunny days of August than in the darker days of winter. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease. Pap smears that test for HPV infection are commonly used worldwide as a tool to screen for signs of cervical cancer. The vast majority of women with HPV infection will not develop cervical cancer, but cervical cancer is a rare complication of this common infection. About 20 of the more than 230 types of HPV are considered high risk because of their close association with the disease. HPV Risks Rise During Sunny Months? In the study, researchers looked at seasonal patterns of HPV infection among 920,359 consecutive Pap smears collected from 1983 to 1998 and compared it with differences in sunlight exposure. The results showed that the number of HPV infections was twice as high in August compared with the lowest month, and the rates of HPV infection were closely linked to available sunlight exposure. "The sunnier the year, the higher the HPV rate, and the sunnier the month, the higher the HPV rate," says [...]