There have been over 600,000 latest cases of cervical cancer and over 340,000 deaths worldwide in 2020, in accordance with an observational study published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

Although cervical cancer has decreased in lots of world regions over the past three a long time⁠-;notably in Latin America, Asia, western Europe and North America-;the burden stays high in lots of low- and middle-income countries.

The event of effective HPV vaccination and screening programs have made cervical cancer a largely preventable disease. In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a goal to speed up the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem, aiming to cut back incidence below a threshold of 4 cases per 100,000 women per 12 months in every country by 2030. This study tracks the progress on cervical cancer rates and identifies the countries and regions where efforts require scaling up to achieve WHO targets.

HPV vaccination and screening technologies mean that cervical cancer is now largely preventable. Our study finds encouraging decreases in some high-income countries following successful implementation of HPV vaccination programs and screening-; reminiscent of in Sweden, Australia, and the UK-;but globally the burden stays high. All around the world, women needs to be free from the chance of preventable cancer, and with development of effective vaccines and screening over the past 20 years, we’ve the tools to make this a reality.”

Dr Deependra Singh, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) / WHO, France

The study used IARC’s GLOBOCAN 2020 database to estimate the burden of cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates in 185 countries. Moreover, the study analyzed the connection between cervical cancer cases and deaths in relation to national levels of socioeconomic development. Finally, the authors checked out data from 1988 to 2017 to discover increase and reduce trends.

In 2020, rates of cervical cancer cases were 13 per 100,000 women per 12 months and there have been seven deaths per 100,000 women per 12 months. Incidence rates in 172 out of 185 countries, still exceeded the 4 cases per 100,000 women per 12 months threshold for elimination set by WHO.

Rates varied significantly between countries, with a 40 times difference in cases and 50 times difference in deaths. Case rates ranged from two cases in Iraq to 84 cases in Eswatini per 100,000 women per 12 months; while mortality rates ranged from one death in Switzerland to 56 deaths in Eswatini per 100,000 women per 12 months.

There was substantial socioeconomic inequality in cervical cancer globally. There was a transparent socioeconomic gradient in incidence and mortality, with higher rates observed in countries with lower socioeconomic development.

When taking a look at the trend data from 1988 to 2017, the authors observed major declines in cases in some Latin American countries, including Brazil, Colombia, and Costa Rica. An analogous pattern was observed in Asia in India, Thailand, and South Korea, in addition to in Eastern Europe in Poland, Slovenia, and Czechia. Nevertheless, there have been increases in cases in Eastern Europe, in Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria, and Eastern Africa previously decade, in addition to in The Netherlands and Italy. The explanations for recent increases might include increased prevalence of HPV among the many younger generations of ladies and lack of effective screening programs.

Countries with the most important average declines in incidence rates per 12 months included Brazil (8%), Slovenia (7%), Kuwait (7%), and Chile (6%); whereas the best increases in rates were in Latvia (4%), Japan (3%), Ireland (3%), Sweden (3%), Norway (2%), Northern Ireland (2%), Estonia (2%), and China (2%).

Dr Valentina Lorenzoni, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy, says, “Cervical cancer cases are much higher than the brink agreed by the WHO initiative on cervical cancer elimination in most countries, indicating that there remains to be much work to be done before 2030. While a decrease in screening intensity because of the COVID-19 pandemic may need left a latest group of susceptible women, the pandemic also boosted the introduction of self-administered HPV testing, offering latest possibilities to extend screening coverage. Other latest advancements, reminiscent of thermal ablation for treating cervical pre-cancer, the usage of mobile phones to enhance follow-up after screening, and machine learning to enhance visual assessment, can be utilized in low resource settings to lower cervical cancer rates.”

Finally, the authors note that the estimates were based on one of the best available cancer data in each country, but caution that these could also be incomplete or inaccurate. As an illustration, cases may appear low in countries where there aren’t any effective screening programs or there is proscribed local population-based cancer registry data available.

Source:

Journal reference:

Singh, D., et al. (2022) Global estimates of incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in 2020: a baseline evaluation of the WHO Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative. The Lancet Global Health. doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00501-0.