Galveston County Daily News, Feb. 16, 2007 GALVESTON - On June 16, her 35th birthday, the sharp stomach pains that had nagged Maria Alcorta for more than a year became unbearable. Alcorta, of Freeport, went to the hospital, where doctors gave her grim news. The divorced mother of three teenagers had advanced cervical cancer. More shocking to Alcorta was what the doctors told her next - the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, caused the cancer. "I had never heard of it," said Alcorta, hospitalized this week at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where she was receiving radiation treatment. Includes interviews with UTMB's Richard Rupp, Martin Myers, and Concepcion Diaz-Arrastia.