Mushrooms may be able to combat cervical cancer, according to a recent study The Dispatch reported.

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center Medical School at Houston found that an extract from Basidiomycete mushrooms, active hexose correlated compound (AHCC), could kill the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) - a cervical cancer-causing virus, The Dispatch reported.

"The results of this study were very encouraging," Dr. Judith Smith, Associate Professor at the UTHealth Medical School, said in a statement. "This study ... shows that by itself AHCC has the potential to treat the HPV infection."

For the study, cervical cancer cells were treated with AHCC and incubated for 72 hours with sampling every 24 hours. They then repeated the study in two orthotopic mouse models, one HPV positive and other HPV negative control. Researchers found that the HPV expression was eradicated with once daily AHCC dosing for 90 days with durable response after 30 day observation off treatment.

Dr. Smith then repeated the study to confirm findings and added sampling for correlative testing of immune markers to determine the mechanism by which AHCC eradicates the HPV virus, according to a press release.

The mushroom extract works as an immunotherapy, which is a treatment that uses a body's own immune system to help fight disease, the Daily Mail reported.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States.  Up to 70 percent of sexually active adults will acquire HPV at some point in their lives. The DNA of the virus has been detected in 99.7 percent of cervical cancer biopsies, yielding the largest causative relationship of any cancer, according to a press release.

"AHCC is a common, well tolerated nutritional supplement that has been used for decades in Japan, I am very excited to be pursuing a nutritional approach to trying to find a treatment for HPV infections,"  Dr. Smith said.

The findings were presented at the Society of Gynecological Oncology 45th Annual Meeting on Women's Cancer in Florida.