The Discovery of HPV and its Clinical Implications

About 35 years ago human papillomaviruses (HPV) have been suggested as causative agent for cervical cancer whose infectious etiology had been suggested already many years before. The discovery of the plurality of HPVs encompassing a variety of types with particular biologic properties, the regular presence of the genomes of the so called high-risk types within tumor biopsies, the awareness about the transforming potential of the viral proteins and informative epidemiological surveys led to the consenting view of a causative link between these viruses and cervical cancer and ultimately triggered the development of HPV-specific vaccines for prevention of cervical cancer.