Readiness assessment for cervical cancer elimination and prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers in Europe – are we winning the RACE?

Abstract

Introduction To address the cervical cancer burden globally, the World Health Organization and European Union released strategies to facilitate HPV-related cancers prevention, including cervical cancer elimination. This research assessed European country level readiness to achieve cervical cancer elimination by adhering to such strategies.Areas covered Readiness for cervical cancer elimination was assessed across a range of guiding questions relevant to three defined key domains: vaccination, screening, and treatment, each with two sub-domains focusing on decision making and implementation efforts. Publicly available data sources were used to inform the scoring across domains, to tier countries into either high, moderate-high, moderate-low, and low readiness archetypes.Key parameters identified associated with the high readiness archetype were high vaccination coverage rates (>70%), availability of gender neutral and catch-up vaccination, school-based vaccination availability, organized screening programs, use of HPV DNA primary screening tests, and data surveillance.Expert opinion Our analysis highlights significant variability in decision making and implementation of vaccination, screening, and treatment programmes across Europe. Country scores expose the need for a multifaceted approach to achieve cervical cancer elimination in Europe, encompassing solid decision making commitments, implementation of these commitments, and the ability to collect, surveil, and apply the data use accurately.

Keywords

• Cervical cancer
• policy
• readiness assessment
• cancer prevention
• cancer management
• vaccination