HPV infection alone is not sufficient to cause cervical cancer! May be it’s right. However, in women with stress, it could prove fatal! It has been confirmed by a new study published in ‘Annals of Behavioral Medicine’. It’s worth mentioning that HPV also known as Human papilloma virus, is quite a common virus that can cause warts on many different body parts. However, what’s interesting about HPV is that out of these different types of HPV, around 70 are considered quite harmless.
Before coming up with such assumption, Dr. Fang and her colleagues engaged around 74 women with precancerous cervical lesions to answer questionnaires about their perceived stress-related issues and surprisingly found stress a sort of booster enhancing the vulnerability to cervical cancer. The study also found that Moreover, in women with stronger immune system, HPV infections disappear spontaneously over time, leaving quite rare chances of precancerous cervical lesions or cancer. However, women with weaker immune system are comparatively more vulnerable to cervical cancer. Moreover, experts are of the opinion that stress could lead to alterations in the immune system, thereby making the body less scrupulous. Speaking on the issue Dr. Carolyn Fang of the Fox Chase Cancer Centre in Philadelphia said:
…some women are less able to mount an effective immune response to HPV.
Keeping in focus the above study, it could be stated that, no doubt, cervical cancer is not a much prevalent form of cancer, still we can’t ignore a fact that lackadaisical attitude towards its prevalence may bring in serious consequences.
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