Chlamydia Infection as a Risk Factor for Cervical Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

We reviewed studies onthe prevalence of Chlamydiainfection as a risk factor for developing cer-vical cancer in a meta-analysis studies published in that subject area.

Cochrane Library and PubMeddatabaseswere systematically searched forarticles (observational and randomized controlled trials) published from 2008-2018. A meta-analysis of studies was performed to analyse the association between chlamydia infection and cervical cancer.

Five articles were included in the final analysis (N=5271). All five articles were case-control studies, of which three studies sampled from population-based registries. All studies involved with sexually active women with minimum 15 years old. Three studies reported the association of C. trachomatisinfection cervical cancers, two other studies reported C.trachomatis-HPVco-infection in association with cervical cancer. Result showed C. trachomatishas an overall prevalence of 31.9%, pooled OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.67, OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.78 to 2.54 among cervical cancer. There was a mild publication bias detected at 3.0 effect estimation. Heterogenei-ty detected from clinical and methodological diversities particularly from C. trachomatis-HPV co-infection sub-group analysis, including sampling bias, geographical strain diversity, and different outcome endpoint meas-ured.

C. trachomatisinfection was significantly associated with the development of cervical cancer. Co-infection of C. trachomatis-HPV with cervical cancer is plausibly sound but temporality of C. trachomatis-HPV with the development of cervical cancer need to be proven in future prospective cohort studies.