Analysis of world-wide age-specific data for the association of cervical cancer with infections by herpes simplex virus type 2.

World-wide incidence data obtained from the scientific literature are used to expand to age-specific incidence rates the observation that the incidence of invasive cervical cancer in many human populations is related to the incidence of infections with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in the same community. The data for the incidence of the tumor were obtained from international registries. Data for prevalence of HSV-2 antibodies were used to evaluate the incidence of past primary infections with the virus and a model was used to generate the required age-specific data. Given the nature of the data used and the assumptions implied by the analysis, the conclusions remain speculative. They nevertheless constitute the best available assessment of the age distributions of cancer cases related and unrelated to the virus, and of the time elapsing from the initial virus infection to the development of an invasive tumor.