Collaborating Across Sectors to Eliminate Cervical Cancer

The elimination of cervical cancer stands as one of the greatest opportunities for public health of our time. For the first time in history, we have the tools, strategy, and collaborative momentum to eliminate a cancer entirely. 

Yet, currently, over 350,000 women lose their lives to this preventable disease every year, with the overwhelming majority in low- and middle-income countries. While we are within touching distance of elimination, achieving those last, challenging steps will depend on action from all sectors, including the healthcare industry.

The World Health Organization’s 90-70-90 strategy provides us with a clear roadmap: 90% of girls to be vaccinated, 70% of women to receive high-performance screening, and 90% of women identified with cervical disease to receive treatment. It’s a strategy that could save as many as 14 million lives by 2070.

But challenges remain. While we have the technology to meet these targets, implementing solutions at scale, and ensuring they can be accessed by some of the most marginalised populations, requires the combined effort of governments, health systems, the private sector and communities working together. None of us can succeed alone.

The basis of elimination

Cervical cancer elimination is possible because of three essential elements: screening, vaccination, and treatment. Together, they provide a powerful toolkit, saving individual lives and offering a path to global elimination.

Screening has long been the cornerstone of cervical cancer prevention. High-income countries with established screening programmes have drastically reduced cancer rates by detecting abnormalities early, and ensuring patients receive treatment at an early stage, when it’s most effective. Vaccination has further transformed this landscape, protecting against the root cause of 99% of all cases – HPV infection. But it’s not a perfect solution.

Vaccines delivered today will take decades to fully impact incidence, meaning that millions of women at risk today and the 100,000’s who will be diagnosed annually need prevention interventions now. This is why screening is essential, to change the course of the disease for women, working alongside vaccination to protect future generations.

Australia offers a glimpse of what is possible when these tools are combined effectively. By integrating high vaccination coverage with accessible and innovative screening approaches and treatment, the country is on track to become the first in the world to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem within the next decade. 

Breaking down barriers to cervical screening

HPV infections are common, and in most cases, the immune system controls them effectively, reducing the virus to undetectable levels without causing harm. But left untreated, HPV infections can develop into cervical cancer, making screening a vital step in preventing deaths. Yet, despite its importance, many women face barriers that stop them from accessing screening in the first place.

A recent survey highlighted the emotional and practical challenges that women face when it comes to screening. Fear of pain or discomfort, embarrassment, and anxiety about test results prevent 30% of women from attending screenings. Practical barriers such as family responsibilities, work commitments, and difficulties booking appointments were also an issue cited by 22% of respondents. A lack of awareness or support further compounds the problem; only 18% of women said they had discussed their fears about screening with someone else.

When women avoid screening, the entire care pathway breaks down, leaving preventable cancers undetected and untreated. Addressing these barriers is essential to achieving global elimination.

Making cervical screening easier and more accessible

The healthcare industry has an important role to play here. Innovative approaches to cervical screening are beginning to remove some of the key barriers that stop women from engaging with prevention. Innovations like self-sampling kits allow women to collect their own samples privately, removing concerns related to discomfort, stigma, or lack of time. Survey data reflects the potential of this approach, with 27% of millennials – the generation most likely to cancel or postpone a screening appointment – saying they would be more likely to participate in screening if self-collection were available.

Other breakthrough solutions, such as menstrual blood diagnostics, are being trialled to make testing even less invasive and more accessible, particularly in low-resource settings. These innovations have the potential to revolutionise cervical cancer screening by making it easier, faster, and more inclusive. To realise their full potential, these innovations must be integrated into health systems and made widely available to the women that need them most.

Enabling equity at scale

Addressing systemic inequalities in cervical cancer prevention is as much about implementation as it is about innovation. While tools like these are helping break down the barriers women experience, ensuring they deliver meaningful impact requires collaboration across governments, health systems, communities, and the healthcare industry. Each stakeholder has a role to play, and the private sector’s contribution is critical – not only in driving innovation but in ensuring that these solutions are adaptable, affordable, and accessible to women everywhere.

In many low-resource settings, gaps in healthcare infrastructure, from fragmented laboratory systems to insufficient diagnostic and treatment capacities, mean that even the most promising tools fail to reach women at risk. Tackling these challenges requires collaboration to build and strengthen systems capable of delivering effective care at scale.

In Peru, an industry partnership with the Ministry of Health has enabled the successful introduction of HPV self-collection and molecular testing for nearly half a million underserved women – many of whom live in rural or hard-to-reach areas. By reducing the need to travel to clinics and offering the chance for women to collect their own samples privately and at their convenience, logistical barriers and cultural sensitivities have been overcome, ensuring women are not prevented from seeking care.

This partnership also demonstrates how industry can work with health systems to embed innovations sustainably. By integrating HPV self-collection into Peru’s public healthcare infrastructure, the programme has created a sustainable model for cervical cancer prevention that can serve communities for years to come.

Collaborating to overcome systemic barriers

Achieving elimination at scale depends on partnerships that bring together governments, healthcare providers, industry, and communities to align resources, strengthen infrastructure, and ensure lasting impact.

Blended financing models offer one way to support the long-term sustainability of prevention programmes. By combining public funding with private sector contributions and donor investments, governments can ensure that cervical cancer prevention becomes an enduring feature of national health strategies. 

In practice, this might mean a government funds and operates clinical infrastructure, such as screening centres and treatment pathways, while industry partners provide comprehensive support beyond just diagnostic technologies. Government tenders can group volumes together to lower costs and require additional services like specialised training for laboratories and education for healthcare workers. In Peru, the Ministry of Health co-ordinated the screening programme, while Roche provided the molecular testing platforms, self-collection kits, and logistical expertise required to integrate these tools into a nationwide screening strategy for remote communities.

The value of this approach has been reinforced by recent roundtable discussions involving national ministries of health, healthcare professionals, and industry leaders. These discussions highlighted how aligning government priorities with multilateral efforts and private sector collaboration creates opportunities to anchor cervical cancer elimination initiatives within national health plans and insurance schemes. Such mechanisms, including multilateral procurement frameworks and cost-sharing models, provide predictable resources to sustain long-term progress and reach marginalised populations.

Collaboration at the community level is also essential to driving uptake. Partnering with grassroots organisations, local leaders, and advocates ensures interventions resonate with the cultural and social contexts of women’s lives. Strong community engagement helps build trust, address stigma, and empower women to engage confidently in prevention and care. Designing programmes alongside communities ensures that solutions respond to women’s lived realities, making prevention efforts more inclusive and effective.

Conclusion: turning commitment into action

The elimination of cervical cancer is no longer a distant goal. With effective tools, robust strategies, and growing collaborative momentum, achieving this vision is within reach. However, success depends on how we act now.

Governments must lead by embedding cervical cancer prevention into national health systems, creating long-term strategies that integrate vaccination, screening, and treatment as core services. Communities must play their part by driving awareness, building trust, and empowering women to engage with care. The private sector, meanwhile, must continue to support innovation and access while partnering with governments to deliver equitable and sustainable solutions.

The WHO’s 90-70-90 strategy provides a clear path forward. But it’s only through collective action and an unwavering focus on equity that this promise can be fulfilled. Together, we can eradicate cervical cancer as a global health threat and ensure that no woman dies from this preventable disease. Now is the time to turn ambition into action and deliver one of the most profound public health achievements of our time.