Christopher Dolinsky, MD and Christine Hill-Kayser, MD Updated
By Lara Bonner Millar, MD Abramson Cancer Center of the
University of Pennsylvania Last Modified: January 16, 2011 The
cervix is the name for the lowest part of the uterus. The uterus
is an organ that only women have, and it is where a baby grows
and develops when a woman is pregnant. During pregnancy, the
uterus has an enormous increase in size. When a woman is not
pregnant, the uterus is a small, pear-shaped organ that sits
between a woman's rectum and her bladder. The cervix connects
the uterus with the birth canal (the vagina). The cervix can
both be visualized and sampled by your doctor during a routine
pelvic examination in his or her office. Cervical cancer
develops when cells in the cervix begin to grow out of control
and can then invade nearby tissues or spread throughout the
body. Large collections of cells that grow abnormally are called
tumors. Some tumors are not cancer, because they cannot spread
or threaten someone's life. These are