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2001 MAY 24 - (NewsRx Network) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Among women infected with human papillomavirus (HPV), those who smoke and those who have had three or more pregnancies are significantly more likely to advance to high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and cervical cancer (CA), according to a study from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
A. Hildesheim and colleagues examined the risk factors for HSIL/CA by comparing 146 HPV-positive women with HSIL/CA to 843 HPV-positive women without evidence of HSIL/CA, in a population-based cohort of more than 10,000 Costa Rican women.
Their findings were as follows:
* Risk of HSIL/CA increased with increasing number of live births
* Among women with fewer than three pregnancies, oral contraceptive use increased the risk of HSIL/CA
* Women who smoked six or more, cigarettes a day had a relative risk (RR) for HSIL/CA of 2.7 compared with nonsmokers
* Current use of barrier contraceptives was associated with a RR reduction in HSIL/CA of 0.39
Source: HighBeam Research, Smoking, Multiparity May Put Women At Higher Risk of Cervical Cancer.