A team of U.S. medial researchers say they have found the specific cells in which cervical cancer, the third most common cancer in women, originates.

Scientists writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say their findings could lead to new ways to treat or even prevent the disease.

The doctors discovered a group of stem-like cells that when removed from a part of the cervix, do not regenerate. But when the cells are infected by the human papillomavirus — known to cause cervical cancer — they become cancerous while other cells do not.

Earlier research have turned up similar cells in the esophagus.

Cervical cancer is rarely fatal in the West because of medical screenings. But the World Health Organization says it remains a major killer of women in the developing world, causing 275,000 deaths every year.