Challenges and Opportunities for Global Cervical Cancer Elimination: How Can We Build a Model for Other Cancers?
Cervical cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related death among women globally, despite the availability of effective prevention through human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and HPV-based screening. This review explores the state-of-the-art technologies for cervical cancer prevention, examining their efficacy, implementation challenges, and global disparities in access. Prophylactic HPV vaccination and HPV DNA testing have demonstrated high efficacy in reducing cervical cancer incidence, yet their uptake remains uneven—especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the disease burden is greatest. Barriers include infrastructure limitations, workforce shortages, sociocultural obstacles, and competing health priorities. Strategies such as single-dose vaccination, early childhood immunization, self-sampling, and screen-and-treat approaches offer promising pathways to expand access. In high-income countries (HICs), where HPV vaccine uptake is higher and screening systems are more established, the reduced risk of infection and high negative predictive value of HPV testing support a shift toward screening deintensification. Precision prevention frameworks—leveraging biomarkers, genotyping, and artificial intelligence—offer further opportunities to enhance accuracy and efficiency. The review also underscores the importance of health system strengthening, international collaboration, and policy support to achieve the WHO's 90-70-90 targets for cervical cancer elimination. Moreover, innovations developed for cervical cancer prevention—such as decentralized screening, mobile health platforms, and task-shifting—offer a valuable model for improving strategies for primary and secondary prevention of other cancers.
