The Global Burden of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is a health crisis impacting women and their families across the world – especially in low-resource settings. Here are the facts:

• In 2020, an estimated 604,237 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer globally, representing 6.5% of all female cancers.
• Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in 36 low-and middle-income countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Cervical cancer killed an estimated 341,843 women in 2020, 90% of whom were in less-developed regions of the world, where access to prevention, screening, and treatment services are severely limited.
• Today, more women are dying of cervical cancer than are dying in childbirth.
• The odds of dying upon progressing to cervical cancer are similar to those upon contracting Ebola.
• A woman diagnosed with cervical cancer is almost twice as likely to die than a woman diagnosed with breast cancer.
• A woman living with HIV is six times more likely to develop cervical cancer than her HIV-negative peers.

 

These tragic numbers are real. So are the solutions. With wider access to HPV vaccines and cervical cancer screening and treatment, we can end this global epidemic in a generation, but not nearly enough resources are available for these critical programs.

 

Sources for cervical cancer statistics: 

Sung, Hyuna & Ferlay, Jacques & Siegel, Rebecca & Laversanne, Mathieu & Soerjomataram, Isabelle & Jemal, Ahmedin & Bray, Freddie. (2021). Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians. 71. 10.3322/caac.21660.

World Health Organization. Cervical Cancer. Last updated February 22, 2022.

Global Cancer Observatory. Cervix uteri (Fact Sheet). January, 2021.

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. HIV and Cervical Cancer. November 2022.