By Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Local researchers have found a link between a form of epilepsy and a common cause of cervical cancer.

Dr. Peter Crino, professor of neurology at Temple University School of Medicine, says Shriners Hospital pediatric researchers at Temple have discovered evidence linking human papillomavirus 16, which causes cervical cancer, to a common and difficult-to-treat form of epilepsy in children and adults.

“This is particularly interesting, because it provides a potential cause for how these brain lesions actually form during development and it would also be the first time that human papillomavirus has been identified in the human brain,” he says.

Crino suspects the virus is transmitted from mother to baby during development, and if a medical treatment is found for cervical cancer, that treatment could be used to treat this type of epilepsy.