How is cervical cancer transmitted

Is cervical cancer contagious? Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecological malignancies, second only to breast cancer in incidence. One woman dies of cervical cancer every two minutes and there are about 460,000 new cases each year. Such a high incidence rate inevitably makes many people worry whether cervical cancer is contagious.

1. Relationship between cervical cancer and HPV
The relationship between HPV (human papillomavirus) infection and cervical cancer was first proposed in the 1870s. After more than 20 years of research, scientists found that HPV DNA can be detected in 99.7% of cervical cancers, which is the highest detection percentage of human tumor pathogens reported so far. It also confirms the etiological relationship between HPV and cervical cancer. Based on this discovery, scientists have carried out early detection of high-risk HPV infection, which has greatly promoted the prevention and early diagnosis of cervical cancer. The revelation of the relationship between HPV infection and cervical cancer has led to the production of the first anti-cancer vaccine in history. So how is HPV transmitted, and is cervical cancer contagious?
2. HPV transmission routes Although most HPV infections are subclinical (asymptomatic), they can still be transmitted and spread. The most common outcome of cervical HPV infection is no obvious clinical manifestations, and HPV can only be detected in the short term. Most HPV infections will be automatically cleared by the body's immune system. The average infection time for non-tumorigenic HPV is 8.2 months, and for tumorigenic HPV it is as long as 13.5 months.
Therefore, most HPV infections are one-off and temporary, and will automatically turn negative within 18 months, although some are chronic infections. Only a very small number of women who are persistently infected with HPV will develop cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (cervical precancerous lesions) and then develop cervical cancer during their lifetime, and the average incubation period is also quite long, up to several years or more.
Some unmarried young women with a history of sexual activity are confused about their HPV infection. In fact, the peak age for cervical HPV infection is between 15 and 25 years old. Literature reports that the HPV infection rate of normal women of childbearing age (including those with no abnormalities in cervical cytology) is between 5% and 50%. A foreign study on college students with sexual activity found that 43% of normal cervical tissues were HPV positive.
Is cervical cancer contagious? So in general, we have a certain understanding of whether cervical cancer is contagious. Generally speaking, most cancers are not contagious. Cancer is a disease of the patient's own cells, so there is no source of infection.