Effects of lifestyle on the occurrence of precancerous conditions and cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is an important social problem. It is the fourth most widespread neoplasm in women, preceded by breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer. The etiology of cervical cancer is certainly associated with a highly oncogenic type of human papillomavirus (HPV) and its long progression. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of lifestyle on the occurrence of precancerous conditions and cancer of the cervix. Materials and Methods: The study group comprised of 100 patients diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade III and diagnosed with cancer of the cervix. The control group consisted of 100 healthy women. In further analyses logistic regression and the χ2 test were used. The χ2 test is used to verify whether two variables are related to one another. Apart from verifying whether there is any relationship, attention is also paid to its strength. As the Pearson’s χ2 value cannot be used as the only measure of strength, Kendall’s τ (tau) b and c coefficients were also employed. Each model had to be verified in terms of accuracy, thus the Hosmer-Lemeshow test was employed. This is a goodness-of-fit test that shows whether a given model is suitable for the data and the area under the curve (AUC). Results: The analysis demonstrated that women suffering from cervical cancer more frequently had previous gynaecological surgery (r = -0.19; p = 0.00003), had a history of cervical erosion (r = -0.21; p = 0.0088), received treatment due to reproductive tract infections (r = -0.29; p = 0.00004), declared being smokers (r = -0.14; p = 0.045), had hazardous sex (r = -0.28; p = 0.000001), used contraception (r = -0.16; p = 0.0017), and declared a family history of this type of neoplasm (r = -0.17; p = 0.00028). Conclusions: The main risk factor in the development of cervical cancer is having so-called hazardous sex; this behaviour is associated with a high, 21-fold increase in the risk of HPV infection, and thus the possible development of cervical cancer. The lifestyle-related risk factors analysed in the study, including: smoking cigarettes, using oral hormonal contraception, numerous reproductive tract infections and early sexual initiation, are all factors predisposing to the development of cancer. A history of cervical erosion has the most significant impact on the probability of cervical cancer incidence. This variable results in increasing the probability of this disease by a factor of 175.

Cervical cancer; Lifestyle; Genetic factors.

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