Clinical significance of human papilloma virus infection in the cervical lesions

Cervical lesions have been regarded as the common and frequently occurring diseases in China. Recently, the morbidity and youth tendency of cervical cancer have gradually increased. Cervical cancer, related with human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, has been one of the severest diseases threatening health and life of women, and is an infectious disease. The universality of HPV infection in the reproductive tract should not be ignored. The well-known risk factors of HPV infection in cervical lesions consist of high-risk sexual behaviors, immunosuppression, age, contraceptive methods, the concurrent infection of other sexually transmitted diseases, etc. The variation of cervical lesions induced by HPV infection is involved in the continuous pathological process, including the subclinical, latent, and persistent infection of high risk (HR)-HPV, chronic cervicitis with abnormal results of cytological examination, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and cervical cancer. The outcome of patients with HPV infection is influenced by many factors, such as HPV subtype dominance, persistent HPV infection, HPV loading dose, and multiple HPV infection. Controlling HR-HPV persistent infection should be an important strategy for reducing cervical lesions. © 2010 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.