School of Medicine Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-21-2025
Abstract
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide and remains a significant cause of cancer-related mortality. Alcohol consumption is linked to an increased risk of several cancers and is a controversial risk factor for developing cervical cancer. This review updates existing information on the correlation between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing cervical cancer. Several comprehensive studies from different geographical regions have shown that moderate and heavy drinking is positively correlated with the development of cervical cancer. There is a synergistic relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) viral load and alcohol use among drinkers with a high HPV viral load. Excessive alcohol consumption and exposure to second-hand smoke may elevate the risk of persistent HPV infection. Furthermore, high-risk behaviors associated with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/HPV co-infection are more common among binge drinkers. However, several observations failed to establish a relationship between these factors. Despite some inconsistency in the literature, evidence suggests a modest association between alcohol consumption and increased risk of persistent HPV infection, causing cervical cancer.
Recommended Citation
Kashyap, V. K., Kenchappa, D. B., Singh, A. K., Singh, B., Yallapu, M. M., Cobos, E., & Chauhan, S. C. (2025). Alcohol Consumption and Cervical Carcinogenesis: Time to Draw Conclusions. Cells, 14(20), 1639. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells14201639
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Cells
DOI
10.3390/cells14201639
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Immunology and Microbiology
Comments
© 2025 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).