What is it?
Cancer of the cervix affects the cells lining the entrance to the womb.
About 70 per cent of women treated for invasive cervical cancer are alive five years later, although survival rates are much higher when the disease is caught in its earlier stages.
What's the cause?
Exactly how cervical cancer develops isn't known, but it's most likely to result from a combination of triggers. Risk factors include:
- Infection with certain types of human papilloma virus (HPV), but not the type that causes genital warts. HPV is found in virtually all cases of cervical cancer and HPV types 16 and 18 carry the highest risk.
- Other sexually transmitted infections in combination with HPV. Women with chlamydia or HIV as well as HPV have a significantly increased risk of cervical cancer.
- Any factor that increases the risk of exposure to HPV, including having many sexual partners, first having sex at a young age and not using barrier contraceptives suc
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