But interestingly, HPV didn’t affect cancer risk in either study. In fact, the findings suggested chlamydia conferred a greater risk of developing cancer compared to HPV.
What’s more, the risk rose among anyone who had ever been infected, regardless of how long they’d had it for.
Researchers were unable to determine, however, whether treating the STI early could lower the risk of cancer.
The lead author, Britton Trabert, of the National Cancer Institute, said at the time: “Our data is lending support for there being a role of pelvic inflammatory disease in ovarian cancer and the prime cause of pelvic inflammatory disease, particularly in the US, is chlamydia infection.