Scientists discover cellular origin of cervical cancer

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

SINGAPORE -- A team of scientists has identified a unique set of cells in the cervix that cause human papillomaviruses (HPV) related cervical cancers.

Significantly, the team from A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) together with clinicians from Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has also showed that these cells do not regenerate when excised.

These findings have immense clinical implications in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. The study was published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), this week.

Cervical cancer is the seventh most common female cancer in Singapore and about 200 cases are diagnosed every year.

Dr Christopher P. Crum, Director of Women's and Perinatal Pathology of the Department of Pathology at BWH, said: "It has been a decades-old mystery why cervical cancers caused by HPV arise only from a discrete region of the cervix, known as the 'squamocolumnar junction,' despite the presence of the virus throughout the genital tract.

"The discovery of these cells finally resolves this mystery and will have wide-ranging impact from developing more meaningful animal models of early cervical carcinogenesis to clinical implications."

Dr Wa Xian, Principal Investigator at IMB, said, "Our study also revealed that this exotic population of cells does not reappear after ablation by cone biopsy.

This explains the low rate of new HPV infections in the cervix after excisional therapy and also raises the distinct possibility that preemptive removal of these cells in young women could reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

This could be an alternative to current vaccines which only protect against HPV 16 and 18. 

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