Abstract
Epidemiologic studies, some of which had already been performed during the last century, strongly suggest that the development of cervical cancer is associated with an infectious agent. Although there is good evidence for an involvement of human papillomaviruses in the development of other genital cancers (e.g., penile, vulvar, or anal carcinomas), in this article only the experimental data supporting the link of human papillomaviruses to cancer of the uterine cervix will be presented.