Women with genital warts should be closely monitored for anogenital cancers.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Infection with a common virus that causes genital warts is a serious risk factor for vaginal cancer, according a recent large-scale study of women in western Washington.

The study, led by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was the largest population-based analysis of risk factors for vaginal cancer, a rare disease that affects about one in 100,000 American women each year.

Like cervical and other anogenital cancers, vaginal cancer was found to be strongly associated with prior infection with human papillomavirus, or HPV. In addition, almost one-third of women with vaginal cancer had been treated for a prior anogenital tumor, most often of the cervix. Other risk factors common to many of these cancers include multiple sexual partners, early age of first intercourse and cigarette smoking.

The results, published in the February 2002 issue of Gynecologic Oncology, suggest that women with genital warts should be monitored for the development of multiple anogenital cancers.

Janet Daling, PhD, lead author of the paper, said that the infrequency of the disease has hampered research on vaginal cancer, which accounts for about 3% of all female reproductive cancers.

"Besides our work, there has been only one other population-based study on vaginal cancer risk factors," said Daling, a member of Fred Hutchinson's Public Health Sciences Division. "Because of the rarity of the disease, it has been hard to accrue enough women to conduct a meaningful study," said Daling, also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

The new study included 156 western Washington women with squamous cell in situ (noninvasive) or invasive vaginal cancer diagnosed between 1981 and 1998 as well as 2041 unaffected women who served as controls. Both groups of women were interviewed in person about prior health conditions, sexual and other behaviors, and they provided blood samples.