A direct link can be seen between the infection by malignancy-linked viruses and the development of cervical cancer among women who face high levels of stress, a recent study suggests. Daily stress affects the immune system of the body and reduces the capacity to fight against the sexually transmitted diseases and thus can cause cancer in them.

No direct association between the two could be established, however the past major life events, such as divorce or job loss could impact the body’s response to the infection.
Among such viruses, ‘Human Papillomavirus (HPV)’ also gets spread during sexual intercourse. Their further subtypes like ‘HPV16’ are found to be directly linked with the cervical cancer. However they are not capable alone to cause cervical cancer. They have to be supported by the weak immune system in a woman’s body.

Scientists at ‘Fox Chase Cancer Center’, Philadelphia found that only a small percentage of infections progress further to develop into cancer. Body has its own capacity to fight against this infection which can clear the virus on its own. However a weakened immune system provides no protection against this.

The scientists conducted a study to explore the direct relationship between the two. The study was based on the hypothesis that the stress could bring certain changes in the immune system and it loses its capacity to absolve the viral infection on its own, thus giving a clear indication to the association between stress and immune response to HPV among women.

They studied the women who had been suffering from precancerous cervical lesions. The women completed a questionnaire to assess all the major incidents in the family like a death, loss of job or divorce and the level of stress they have faced at the personal level.

However they found no direct relationship between these distressing incidents of life and the immune response to ‘HPV16’. They concluded that it could be because of the reason that much time had already passed after these events. It also depended on the individual how she reacted and coped with the stress.

“We observed that stress was associated with deficits in immune response to HPV 16,” said Carolyn Y. Fang, the study’s lead investigator.

The study done on the subjective daily stress gave a distinct and different indication. They found immune system gets damaged by the higher levels of daily stress among the women. The immune system is unable to fight against the ‘HPV16’. So it can lead to further indication that they are at higher risk of developing cervical cancer because their immune system can’t fight off ‘HPV16’ which is one of the most common viruses that causes the cancer.

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