[Cancer of the uterine cervix: epidemiology and virology]

Numerous epidemiological studies have made it possible to isolate groups of women at risk or developing an epidermoid carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Among the factors studied, age at the time of the first sexual intercourse and number of male partners were found to be statistically significant factors. No study has yet proved that smegma facilitates cancer and that circumcision may prevent its occurrence. However, the importance of the "male factor" has been enhanced by many studies suggesting the possibility of an oncogenic factor transmissible by sexual intercourse. Several data suggest that some types of human papillomavirus are the necessary, if not sufficient, factors of cervical oncogenesis. Some types of herpes virus, notably HPV 16, can be identified in the majority of invasive cancers and their direct precursors: intraepithelial neoplasias. The carcinogenic role of papillomaviruses in animals ans in laboratory experiments supports the theory that these sexually transmissible viruses are involved in the origin of epidermoid cervical carcinoma.