Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women in the world and there were about 528,000 new patients and 266,000 deaths in 2012. In Hong Kong, its crude incidence rate dropped from about 14 per 100,000 women in late 1990s to around 10.5 in early 2010s, and is currently the 9th commonest female cancer. (Table 1a and 1b)¹ This phenomenon may be attributed to the implementation of cervical smear screening programme.  Nevertheless, it remains as the 8-9th leading cause of female cancer death over the last decade and the crude mortality rate rose from its trough at 3.0 per 100,000 women in 2003 to 4.0 in 2011. From these results it is obvious that cervical cancer still poses a threat to women’s health. This article aims to review the causal relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer and discuss existing methods that prevent HPV from leading to cervical cancer.

Ultrasonography has been widely used as a routine component of antenatal care. During the assessment of the foetus and the placenta, an adnexal mass may be discovered at the time of the ultrasound examination. Occasionally, an adnexal mass can also be suspected either on physical examination or as a result of clinical symptoms.