What Is Cervical Dysplasia & Cervical Cancer?
Cervical cancer is cancer of the cervix, the narrow neck at the lower part of a woman’s uterus, just above the vagina (Figure 1). It connects the uterus to the vagina.
Approximately eight out of 10 cervical cancers originate in surface cells lining the cervix (squamous cell carcinomas). These cancers do not form suddenly. Over time, healthy cervical cells can become abnormal in appearance — this is called dysplasia. Although these cells are not cancerous, they can become cancer over time.
Research
A case control study was undertaken to examine the association between common MTHFR C677T/ A1298C polymorphisms and the risk for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or invasive cervical cancer (ICC) in women with the HPV virus.
Result suggested that the A1298C polymorphism contributed to the genetic risk for both CIN and ICC.
Finding an accurately marker in the follow up of women diagnosed with the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) maybe improve rates of cervical cancer prevention. The authors Brandsma et al (2014) previously studied 113 samples of HPV genes and discovered different levels of methylation at different levels of pre-malignancy (cancer growth). Studying samples of cervical cells with both pre-cancer and cancerous presentations found a great trend for increased methylation with increased severity of cancer tissue. Overall, the results supported the potential of using methylation levels of HPV type 16 cells as a predictive biomarker of disease severity.
