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Fighting cervical cancer around the globe

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Limited awareness and access to cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers today, thanks to vaccination, screening and early treatment. Unlike most cancers, the main cause of cervical cancer is well known; over 95% of all cases are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV)and two of the highest risk types HPV16 and HPV18, are responsible for close to 70% of all cases. Yet, it remains a leading cause of death in women worldwide, with one woman succumbing to the disease every two minutes.

Nearly 90%of annual cervical cancer deaths occur in low and lower middle income countries. Of the 20 countries worldwide with the highest burden of cervical cancer in 2018, 19 were in Africa.In some countries in the Asia Pacific region, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer and in Latin America, a woman dies from cervical cancer every 19 minutes. Women living with HIV are six times more likely to develop invasive cervical cancer.

In 2020, 194 countries signed up to the World Health Organization's (WHO)global strategy for eliminating cervical cancer worldwide within the next century. This requires a comprehensive, triple-intervention strategy of vaccination, advanced screening and diagnostics, and the early treatment of precancerous or cancerous lesions.

Central to the strategy are WHO’s 90-70-90 targets that call on countries to take action now, in order to meet the 10-year ambition by 2030. To date, and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, progress has not ramped up to the level of expectations.

In 2021, the WHO also published updated guidelines that recommend HPV DNA-based tests as the primary screening method, rather than visual inspection or cytology.

Increasing awareness and raising standard of care for cervical cancer

Through its Global Access Program, Roche is working on eradicating cervical cancer by increasing awareness, screening accuracy and linkage to care for all women - no matter where they live. In low and lower-middle income countries, we are working with governments, healthcare facilities and international agencies to strengthen the infrastructure needed to run scalable cervical cancer screening programs. We engage in a range of activities including disease awareness and educational programs, healthcare worker training, improving lab efficiency, digital solutions, along with global advocacy. Our primary goal is to increase screenings to identify precancerous lesions caused by HPV so they can be removed to prevent invasive cancers from developing, and to find cervical cancers at an early stage, when they have a chance to be treated successfully.

For example:

A strengthened cervical cancer care ecosystem

To date, as part of the Bridge program in LATAM, first key achievements include:

The WHO estimates that achieving and sustaining the 90:70:90 targets set for countries as part of the cervical cancer elimination strategy will avert 74 million new cases of cervical cancer, and 62 million deaths in 78 low and middle income countries in the coming decades.

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