cervical cancer

Cancer of the cervix (neck of the womb). It can be detected at an early stage through screening by cervical smear.

Gardasil, a vaccine against those types of human papillomavirus (HPV) that trigger most cases of cervical cancer, was approved for use in the USA in June 2006. Figures in 2001 showed that around 400,000 women a year develop the disease, of whom 200,000 die.

A Finnish study published in 2001 indicated that a woman's risk of developing cervical cancer is 2.5 times higher if she has been previously infected with sexually transmitted chlamydia. Some strains of chlamydia appear to increase the risk 7 times.