condyloma
Meaning of condyloma: Soft warty growths on genital or anal skin, caused by types of a common virus that rarely lead to cancer.
Definition of condyloma
Condyloma is a soft, raised growth on the skin or mucous membrane of the genital or anal area, caused by human papillomavirus. The growths may be single or clustered, flat or shaped like a small cauliflower, and they are usually painless. They spread by skin-to-skin contact, most often sexual, and the types of virus that cause them are rarely the types that cause cancer.
Which virus types cause it?
More than a hundred types of human papillomavirus exist, and they divide roughly into two groups by behavior. The distinction matters, because the ones that cause visible warts are largely not the ones that cause cancer.
| Group | Typical result | Cancer risk |
|---|---|---|
| Low-risk types | Visible condyloma | Very low |
| High-risk types | Usually no visible growth | Cervical, anal and throat cancer |
Infection with both groups at once is possible, so a visible wart does not rule out a silent high-risk infection alongside it.
How does it spread and appear?
Transmission is by direct contact with infected skin, not by blood or by objects. Condoms lower the risk but do not remove it, because they do not cover all the skin involved. Weeks to months usually pass between exposure and the appearance of a growth, so the timing rarely identifies when infection occurred. The growths favor warm, moist skin: the vulva, the shaft of the penis, the area around the anus, and sometimes inside the vagina or the anal canal. Most people who carry the virus never develop any visible genital wart at all, and clear it without knowing they had it.
What is condyloma latum?
The word is also used in a second, quite different sense. Condyloma latum refers to flat, moist, gray patches that appear in secondary syphilis, a bacterial infection with no connection to papillomavirus. The wart caused by the virus is properly condyloma acuminatum, meaning pointed. The two look different and are caused by different organisms, and the qualifying word is what separates them in a written report.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
Examination noted perianal condyloma consistent with papillomavirus infection.
Good to know
Condyloma acuminatum is caused by low-risk papillomavirus types and rarely becomes cancer, while condyloma latum is a lesion of secondary syphilis and is unrelated.
Word origin
Where “condyloma” comes from
From the Greek kondyloma, a knob or swelling, from kondylos, a knuckle.