**1. Introduction**

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First evidence that transmissible agents are involved in the development of cervical cancer dates back to the mid 19th century and is based on investigations of the Italian physi‐ cian Demonico Rigoni-Stern who recognized that cancer of the womb is found most frequently among women in their fourth and fifth decade and that factors such as age of sexual debut and promiscuity attribute to the risk of acquiring this type of cancer [1]. However, only with the advent of molecular biology in the early 1970s, and after ruling out Herpes Simplex Viruses, a link was established between cervical cancer and infec‐ tions by certain types of human papillomaviruses (HPV). After isolation of HPV 6 from a condyloma and subsequently of HPV 11 from a laryngeal papilloma the genomic DNA of these two types allowed tracing of other, novel HPVs in biopsies of cervical tumors [2, 3]. The detection of HPV DNA in tumor cells, including the HeLa cell line, was initially met with much doubt and disbelief in the scientific community but could subsequently be confirmed. In fact, the initial observation by Dürst et al. [4] that 11 out of 18 cervical cancer biopsies from German patients were positive for HPV 16 is consistent with today's knowledge of HPV 16 being present in more than 50% of malignant tumors from the cervix. In the following years the findings by Harald zur Hausen and his colleagues were confirmed by numerous laboratories worldwide and a causative link between HPV infections and cervical cancer in humans was established due to the vast amount of epidemiological studies and an overwhelming body of data obtained in different *in vivo* and *in vitro* models. In 2008 Prof. Harald zur Hausen was awarded the Nobel Prize which recognizes his pioneering findings and fundamental role in HPV research.

© 2013 Ribeiro-Müller et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
