About cervical cancer

The burden of cervical cancer

In 2018, over 500,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer, with close to 85% of the global burden occurring in developing countries. Despite being one of the most preventable cancers, over 300,000 women died from cervical cancer in 2018. Without further action to prevent or screen for cervical cancer, or to improve its treatment, a 25% increase in the number of new cases is predicted in the next 10 years.

Cervical cancer incidence (527,624 cases)

Cervical cancer prevention

Cervical cancer is a called a ‘silent killer’: the disease develops slowly and without symptoms over a period of 10 to 15 years. This window of time offers the opportunity to detect pre-cancerous stages that can be more easily treated. Through conventional screening, i.e. taking a cervical smear or pap smear, cells of the cervix are examined under the microscope to verify for cellular changes.

Low screening coverage is an important driver of high cervical cancer incidence. In countries where organised screening programmes are poorly designed or inadequately implemented, and consequently, the proportion of under- or never-screened women is higher, cervical cancer tends to affect more women.

The main reason for poorly implemented screening programmes is that they require a high investment in medically trained staff, equipment and lab infrastructure. Moreover, while the method has proven to be successful in terms of lowering cervical cancer incidence, it needs to be repeated regularly to ensure a high detection rate. As such, sexually active women need to be screened every 3 to 5 years.

The Human Papillomavirus

Cervical cancer is caused by the Human Papillomavirus, which is sexually transmittable. The virus is very common and up to 80% of all women will become infected with HPV once in their life. Most women can clear such an infection and do not develop cervical cancer. There are also many types of HPV and only a few cause cervical cancer, the so called oncogenic or high-risk HPV types. Other HPV types are the causal agents of (genital) warts.

HPV testing is a relatively new form of cervical cancer screening in that it is now possible to detect the presence of HPV in a cervical smear and as such prevent the development of cervical cancer at an earlier stage. As a result, women don’t need to be screened for HPV that regularly compared to conventional screening. However, due to the high prevalence of HPV infections, false positives results happen more often (i.e. the detection of HPV infections that do not lead to the development of cervical cancer).