A Five-Year Initiative To Take Cervical Cancer Prevention To Scale

London, 4 November, 2015 — Cervical Cancer Action (CCA), a coalition of global health advocates, hosted leaders from governments in Africa, Latin American and Asia, along with representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Agencies, global philanthropies, international not-for-profit organisations and vaccine and medical diagnostic companies in London today to launch a global initiative to tackle the growing burden of cervical cancer in low- and lower-middle income countries. 

Taking Cervical Cancer Prevention to Scale: Protecting All Women and Girls is a landmark initiative that aims to increase collaboration, commitment and investment to ensure that all women and girls are protected within ten years. It is focused on expanding and aligning global efforts to ensure that all girls are vaccinated against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, and all women receive screening and preventive treatment of cervical precancer, especially in low-income and lower-middle income countries.

The global burden of cervical cancer is high and inequitable. As described in Progress in Cervical Cancer Prevention: The CCA Report Card, each year an estimated 528,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and 266,000 die from the disease. Of these women, 85% live in developing countries1. Protecting women from cervical cancer is critical to preserving our investments in maternal health, HIV and other global efforts to safeguard the lives of women.

The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, the number of cervical cancer cases is expected to rise to 443,000 cases globally, more than double the anticipated number of deaths from pregnancy-related complications (estimated to be 200,000)2. The global cost of cervical cancer is expected to grow from $2.7 billion per year in 2010 to $4.7 billion per year in 2030.3

Today’s meeting drew public health leaders committed to working together to reverse these trends. “Over the past decade, we have built knowledge, experience and tools to take cervical cancer prevention to scale. We hope this meeting will serve as a tipping point for our global efforts to ensure that every girl and woman is protected,” said Dr. David Fleming, Vice President, Public Health Impact at PATH, based in Seattle, Washington.

During the meeting, new data on the cost of action to prevent cervical cancer in low-income and lower-middle income countries was released by the American Cancer Society in partnership with a team at Harvard University. “We know what to do, we have the tools, and with the evidence presented at this meeting we also know what it will cost to act,” said Ambassador Sally Cowal, Senior Vice President, Global Cancer Control at the American Cancer Society. US$3.65 billion are required over the next ten years to vaccinate all 10-year-old girls and provide screening and preventive treatment to women at highest risk for cervical cancer in low-income and low-middle income countries.

Cervical Cancer Action, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Cancer Research UK, Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), American Cancer Society, PATH, Grounds for Health, Jhpiego, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), International Planned Parenthood Federation, UNAIDS and Women Deliver are among the initial partners.

The initiative was kicked off with twenty six global commitments for action. A full list of commitments will be posted on the Cervical Cancer Action website, including:

• Colleen McGuffin, Vice President Health Sciences from Merck & Co expanded its commitment to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Gavi countries by extending its current Gavi prices for Gardasil® [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16, and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant] and RotaTeq® (Rotavirus Vaccine, Live, Oral, Pentavalent) for 10 years through 2025 to Gavi-graduated countries with GNI per capita not exceeding $3,200.
• Dr. Sharon Kapambwe, National Coordinator for Cancer Prevention, Ministry of Health Zambia announced national commitment to finalising Zambia’s application to Gavi for HPV vaccine in 2016 and to expand screening services nationally by increasing the number of trained providers and ensuring screening programs in each district of the country.
• Jill Sheffield, President, Women Deliver committed to 1) help facilitate and prompt public conversations about cervical cancer and related topics in the NCD arena, and 2) encourage more groups to include and increase the issues surrounding cervical cancer in their advocacy, programming and collaborative efforts. Women Deliver will use its arsenal of advocacy tools to promote the inclusion of cervical cancer in the global women's health agenda, especially the reproductive, maternal and adolescent health agenda.
• Lori Sloate, Deputy Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance underscored Gavi’s commitment to helping countries scale up from HPV demonstration projects to national introductions with the aim to reaching with HPV vaccines 30 million in 40 countries by 2020.
• Dr. Enriquito Lu, Head of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Jhpiego committed to investing $1.5 million to continue Jhpiego’s role of translating evidence into practice, translating practice into service delivery models that are scalable and championing cervical cancer globally.
• Professor Isabel dos-Santos-Silva, Professor of Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine announced her institution’s commitment to serving as driver of research on the epidemiology and control of HPV and cervical cancer.
• Dr. Mark Dybul, Executive Director and Dr. Marijke Wijnroks, Chief of Staff, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria committed to carrying forth a recent Board decision to accept funding requests for the prevention and screening of cervical cancer and encourage and support countries to make use of this opportunity.

Cervical Cancer Action

Cervical Cancer Action - a global coalition to stop cervical cancer - was created in 2007 to expedite the availability, affordability and accessibility of new and improved cervical cancer prevention technologies for women and girls in developing countries. A coalition representing more than 2,000 individuals and organisations from over 90 countries, Cervical Cancer Action seeks to maximise the impact of individuals, organisations and governments working to prevent cervical cancer globally through strategic advocacy, information sharing, human and resource mobilization and collaborative partnerships. The coalition is governed by nine global civil society and public health organisations: the American Cancer Society, AVAC, Cancer Research UK, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Grounds for Health, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), PATH, and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).

For more information visit: www.cervicalcanceraction.org
To download CCA’s new report card on progress on cervical cancer prevention, click here.

Media contact: Sarah Goltz - Sage Innovation, +1 646 623 4462, sarah@sageinnovation.com

1 The WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): GLOBOCAN 2012: Estimated Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide in 2012. Cervical cancer fact sheet. Available at: http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/fact_sheets_cancer.aspx

2 WHO: Health Statistics and Information Systems, Projections of mortality and causes of death 2015-2030. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/projections/en

3 Bloom, D.E., Cafiero, E.T., Jané-Llopis, E., Abrahams-Gessel, S., Bloom, L.R., Fathima, S., Feigl, A.B., Gaziano, T., Mowafi, M., Pandya, A., Prettner, K., Rosenberg, L., Seligman, B., Stein, A.Z., & Weinstein, C. (2011): The Global Economic Burden of Noncommunicable Diseases. Geneva: World Economic Forum.