World Cancer Day 2017

Although most deaths from cervical cancer could be prevented with adequate prevention measures, such as vaccination of girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) and screening programmes to detect and treat precancerous lesions, in many countries HPV vaccination is still not taking place. Dr Rolando Herrero, Head of the Section of Early Detection and Prevention at IARC, explains why scaling up HPV vaccination is critical to curb the epidemic.

Since the licensing of the first HPV vaccine in 2006, 75 countries have introduced HPV vaccination to protect women against cervical cancer. Dr Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, Special Advisor on Cancer Control and Head of IARC′s Screening Group, gives an overview of the progress made in scaling up the implementation of HPV vaccination around the world.

HPV vaccination plays a key role in protecting women against cervical cancer. Yet many developing countries have still not implemented HPV vaccination programmes. Dr Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, Special Advisor on Cancer Control and Head of IARC′s Screening Group, explains why it is critical that HPV vaccination is implemented in Asia.

Dr Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, Special Advisor on Cancer Control and Head of IARC′s Screening Group, highlights three key barriers in developing countries to the implementation of HPV vaccination, which plays a key role in protecting women against cervical cancer.

Dr Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, Special Advisor on Cancer Control and Head of IARC′s Screening Group, stresses why political will is needed to scale up HPV vaccination in order to fight cervical cancer in developing countries.