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Cervical cancer is caused by infection with certain types of the [[human papillomavirus]], or HPV. While other factors such as the oral contraceptive pill, smoking, a woman's immune system and the presence of other infections also seem to play a part, a woman has to have been infected with certain 'high-risk' HPV types before cervical cancer can develop. <ref name="ho1998">{{REFjournal |last=Ho |first=GY |author-link= |last2=Kadish |first2=Anna S. |author2-link= |last3=Burk |first3=RD |author3-link= |etal=yes |title=PV 16 and cigarette smoking as risk factors for high-grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia |trans-title= |language= |journal=Int J Cancer |location= |date=1998-10-29 |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=281-5 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/%28SICI%291097-0215%2819981029%2978%3A3%3C281%3A%3AAID-IJC3%3E3.0.CO%3B2R? |quote= |pubmedID=9766558 |pubmedCID= |DOI=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0215(19981029)78:3 |accessdate=2020-02-12}}</ref> High risk types 16 & 18 are responsible for ~70% of all cervical cancers. Abnormal cervical cells are also caused by HPV infection, and these may be detected when a woman has a routine Pap smear.

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