(At Least) Once in Her Lifetime: Global Cervical Cancer Prevention

Abstract

Cervical cancer disproportionately burdens lower-resourced settings, in which nearly 90% of cervical cancer and cervical cancer-related deaths occur. Targeting human papillomavirus (HPV) by prophylactic HPV vaccination in young adolescent girls and HPV-based screening in mid-adult women offers the most cost-effective strategy to reduce cervical cancer burden worldwide and mitigate the health disparities in cervical cancer burden between low-resourced and high-resourced settings. Political and social will, along with the necessary financial investments, will be necessary to realize the opportunity for significant global reductions in the cervical cancer burden. Perfect cervical cancer prevention (total eradication) is practically and financially unrealistic.

Keywords: Cervical cancer; Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN); Cytology; Global health; Human papillomavirus (HPV); Pap; Screening; Vaccination.