2.1. Subjects
Demographic information and blood samples were collected from 68 patients with cervical cancer and 202 healthy female
controls admitted to the Healthcare Hospital for Women and Children of Wufeng County in Hubei Province,China between March 2002 and December 2009. All patients were diagnosed with cervical squamous cell carcinoma based on pathological examination. The average age of the patients was 51.8 +10.0 years (mean standard deviation) and ranged from 35 to 75 years. The average age of the controls was 42.5 + 8.1 years and ranged from 22 to 73 years. All data from patients and controls were assigned randomly to one of two subsets. One subset comprised data from 63 patients and 192 controls and was used to establish the risk evaluation model. The other subset included data from five patients and 10 controls and was used to test the model. All patients and healthy controls gave written informed consent for the use of the specimens obtained for medical research. The study was approvedby the ethics committee of the local institution and the basic medical school of Wuhan University.