Women with HPV Grade 3 CIN have Increased Incidence of Anogenital Cancers
4/3/2007 web-based article staff CancerConsultants.com Researchers in Sweden have reported that women with grade 3 cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CIN) related to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are also at increased risk for the development of cancer of the vagina, vulva and anus. The details of this study appeared in the April, 2007 issue of Lancet Oncology.[1] Human papilloma viruses are probably the sole cause of cancers of the cervix and have been associated with cancers of the anogenital tract in homosexual men. Epidemiologic and molecular biology studies have also suggested that HPV infection may be associated with cancers of the head and neck. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between HPV related cervical CIN and other anogenital cancers. The main impetus of this study was to determine the possible effects of the newly available HPV vaccine on cancers other than cervical. These authors compared the incidence of cancer of the vagina, vulva and anus in women with CIN to those without CIN. This data base included all women in Sweden aged 18-50 in the years 1968 to 2004. These authors reported that women with grade 3 CIN had a 6.7 fold increase in the incidence of cancer of the vagina, 2.2 fold increased incidence of cancer of the vulva and a 4.68 fold increase in the incidence of anal cancer. They did not find an increased incidence of rectal cancer. They found that the increased incidence of these malignancies was age dependent and increased with time [...]