[Smoking and nonmalignant changes in the uterine cervix]

The evidence of the association between smoking and cervical dysplasias has been established by several reports. It has been suggested that smoking might depress the immune mechanism and allow a sexually transmitted infective agent to result in an abnormal cellular development, leading to the onset of dysplasia. It, was also established that some chemical products of smoking could be selectively deposited in gynaecological tissues. The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of smoking habits in patients with non-malignant cervical changes and to compare it to the one in patients without cytological or colposcopical cervical abnormalities. The study group consisted of 63 patients with historically confirmed non-malignant cervical changes: 6 patients with cervicitis, 12 with leukokeratosis of the cervical epithelium, 13 with mild dysplasia, 21 with moderate dysplasia and 11 patients with sever dysplasia. 68 patients were without cervical changes and made the control group. The percentage of smokers among the patients with cervical changes (53.97%) statistically significantly differs from the results of the control group (32.35%). This percentage is increasing with the severity of cervical change. Testing for a dose-response relationship reveals no difference between the light and heavy smokers. An increased risk for development of cervical changes with increasing duration of smoking could not be established. The results are in agreement with the opinions that smoking is associated with an increased risk for development of cervical dysplasia which is considered to be a precursor lesion of cancer of the cervix. Although it could not be established by our analysis, it is thought that this risk increases with the increased frequency and longer duration of smoking.