Oncoproteins Encoded by the Cancer-associated Human Papillomaviruses Target the Products of the Retinoblastoma and p53 Tumor Suppressor Genes
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
The evidence now associating specific human papillomaviruses (HPVs) with certain human cancers, most notably cervical cancer, is quite strong. Observations implicating a venereally transmitted agent in human cervical carcinoma date back to the middle of the nineteenth century. Sexual transmission of an agent with a latency of up to 25 years has been suggested by epidemiological studies (Kessler 1976; zur Hausen 1977). The implication of an infectious agent in the etiology of cervical cancer has led investigators in the past to propose a variety of genital pathogenic organisms as potential candidate agents, including herpes simplex virus type 2. The initial evidence suggesting a link between the HPVs and cervical cancer was the observation that the pathologic abnormalities in cervical dysplasia (also referred to as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or CIN) were due to the cytopathic effects of a papillomavirus infection (Meisels and Fortin 1976; Purola and Savia 1977; Laverty et al....
