Strengthening the Pathway to Cervical Cancer Elimination

Cervical cancer is the first cancer we can end for all time. Ending this threat to women’s health is possible by scaling up three cervical health interventions by 2030: 

  • Vaccines that prevent infection by cancer-causing strains of HPV;
  • Screening to enable early detection of high-risk HPV strains and/or precancerous lesions, and; 
  • Timely treatment of any cervical abnormalities.

In November of 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its global cervical cancer elimination strategy based on these three pillars. WHO modeling showed that scaling up these three interventions to targeted levels could prevent almost 40 million cervical cancer cases and save over 35 million lives within a century. To contrast, in a ‘status quo scenario’ cervical cancer cases will rise to 948,000 annually by 2050, with 543,000 women dying each year. 

Since the launch of the WHO strategy, HPV vaccination efforts have gone into overdrive, overcoming early delays stemming from the onset of COVID-19 to make remarkable progress in access. In 2021, global HPV vaccine coverage was 16%. By 2023, that had risen to 27%, with more progress on the horizon. 

This massive jump was enabled by committed partners, strong logistics, and an increase in the global supply of HPV vaccines. But the most significant success factor was political and financial support, most markedly from the funders and leaders of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. These efforts have deservedly received widespread praise for ensuring that millions of women across the world will live lives free from cervical cancer and other HPV-related cancers. 

Unfortunately, that same level of support has eluded the other two key cervical cancer elimination pillars: screening and treatment. If screening and treatment programs don’t receive similar commitment as vaccination, millions of women today bear unacceptable risk for a preventable disease. 

This prompted a session at the September 2024 World Cancer Congress organized around discussing the question, “Have you noticed that we hear less and less about the elimination of cervical cancer and more about HPV vaccination as a standalone intervention?” As the co-organizers of that session, TogetHER for Health, the Commonwealth, and Roche Diagnostics International Limited are proud to release a new policy paper based on that discussion: Strengthening the Pathway to Cervical Cancer Elimination(An annex of key graphics and takeaways is available here.)

This report lays out the case for increasing investments toward a holistic approach to global cervical health, with a focus on high-performance cervical cancer diagnostics such as HPV viral testing, providing case studies on successful implementation of programs in low-resource settings. It also highlights the importance of strengthening health systems and of building awareness of cervical cancer and cervical cancer prevention. 

Every January, we commemorate Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, a time to reflect on progress toward ending this preventable disease. This year, TogetHER is proud to join the Commonwealth in committing to and advocating for actions that will bring us closer to eliminating cervical cancer as a public health threat. That means equitable, holistic support for all three elimination pillars, preserving lives today as we build the foundation for a cervical cancer-free future.