HPV-Associated Cervical Cancer: Integrative Biomarkers and Systems Approaches for Precision Prevention and Care

Cervical cancer remains a global health burden, despite vaccination, screening, and early intervention. Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection drives disease, but only some infections progress to high-grade lesions or invasive cancer. Improving prevention and clinical management requires clearer understanding of interactions among viral factors, host genetics, epigenetic regulation, immune responses, environmental exposures, and healthcare access during progression from HPV infection to cervical carcinogenesis.Advances in molecular epidemiology, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and biomarker research help identify clinically meaningful signatures of risk, progression, treatment response, and recurrence. However, many biomarkers lack integration across biological levels or robust validation in clinical and population settings. This Research Topic will bring together studies that investigate HPV-associated cervical cancer through integrative and translational frameworks. It will focus on research that links molecular, genomic, epigenomic, immunological, clinical, and epidemiological evidence to improve understanding of disease initiation, progression, detection, and management.The Topic welcomes experimental, clinical, computational, and population-based studies with a mechanistic, integrative, or translational contribution. Contributions may examine host–virus interactions, molecular mechanisms of cervical carcinogenesis, biomarkers for early detection or prognosis, risk-stratification models, therapeutic targets, and precision prevention strategies. Multi-omics analysis, systems modelling, machine learning, and artificial-intelligence approaches are encouraged where they address well-defined biological or clinical questions and support interpretable findings. Studies focused solely on descriptive profiling or algorithm development without a clear link to HPV-associated cervical cancer biology, clinical decision-making, or prevention fall outside the core scope.Potential areas of contribution include, but are not limited to:• Molecular mechanisms of HPV persistence, integration, immune evasion, and cervical carcinogenesis• Host genetic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic determinants of cervical cancer risk and progression• Molecular epidemiology of HPV infection and HPV-associated cervical lesions• Biomarkers for screening, early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment response, and recurrence• Integration of viral, molecular, clinical, and population data for risk stratification• Systems approaches to host–virus interactions and disease progression• Multi-omics and computational models for clinically interpretable biomarker discovery• Precision prevention, including biomarker-informed screening and vaccination strategies• Novel therapeutic targets and translational approaches in HPV-associated cervical cancer• Nanomedicine and innovative diagnostic or therapeutic technologies with a defined molecular or clinical rationaleWe welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, Methods, and Data Reports that advance a systems-informed and clinically relevant understanding of HPV-associated cervical cancer. Topic editors: Berenice Illades-Aguiar, Marco Antonio Leyva Vazquez Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86164/hpv-associated-cervical-cancer-integrative-biomarkers-and-systems-approaches-for-precision-prevention-and-care