Abstract: Cervical cancer is the second-largest female malignancy in the world, with about 520,000 new cases a year. With the continuous improvement of cervical cancer screening technology and strategy, the incidence of cervical squamous cell carcinoma has decreased, while the incidence of cervical adenocarcinoma is still rising. The treatment strategy and biological behavior of cervical adenocarcinoma are different from cervical squamous cell carcinoma and the prognosis of cervical adenocarcinoma is poor. Although more and more studies have been conducted on cervical adenocarcinoma, its etiology is still unclear, mainly including the following four aspects: ①The infection of long-term continuous high-risk human papillomavirus. ②Molecular biological factors such as epigenetic variation, cell mutation and apoptosis. ③Changes in tumor microenvironment caused by chronic inflammation. ④Sexual behavior, hormone levels and reproductive factors and other individual heterogeneity. Cervical adenocarcinoma is difficult to be detected, progresses rapidly and has a poor prognosis, so it is urgent to have a deep understanding of its etiology and find better preventive measures. This paper is summarized the research progress of cervical adenocarcinoma etiology at home and abroad, and provided reference for the formulation of cervical adenocarcinoma prevention strategies in the future.

Key words: Uterine cervical neoplasms, Adenocarcinoma, Papillomaviridae, Molecular biology, Inflammation