High levels of daily stress could explain why some women infected with malignancy-linked types of human papillomavirus (HPV) develop cervical cancer, a new study suggests. The research found that slightly more than 55 percent of the women tested positive for one or more types of HPV, a sexually transmitted infection that can cause genital warts as well as cancer.
Most HPV infections in healthy women disappear over time without progressing to precancerous cervical lesions or cancer. That means HPV infection alone is not sufficient to cause cervical cancer. No significant association between the occurrence of major stressful life events and immune response to HPV 16, possibly because of the amount of time that had passed since the event and how the women coped.However, women with higher perceived levels of daily stress were more likely to have an impaired immune response.