Unitaid and Expertise France to intensify cervical cancer prevention

“We are very proud to be part of the SUCCESS project in partnership with Expertise France and Jhpiego and look forward to working with UICC members and partners to drive the elimination of cervical cancer forward”, said Dr Julie Torode, Director, Special Projects at UICC.

The objective of the SUCCESS project (Scale-up Cervical Cancer Elimination with Secondary prevention Strategy) is to strengthen screening and secondary prevention. i.e. to prevent the development of cancer in women who test positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) and who have precancerous lesions.

It targets at least 185,000 women within three years, 75,600 (40%) of whom living with HIV. People who are immunocompromised and infected with HPV are more likely to develop pre-cancer and cancer more quickly. Unitaid will invest a total of €22 million in the project, with a €600,000 additional co-financing from the French government.

“Ensuring equitable access to HPV-based screening for all women to have at least two lifetime cervical health checks by the age of 35 and 45 will make an enormous contribution to accelerating national action towards the elimination. It will help drive the aversion of 62 million cervical cancer deaths and 70 million new cases as projected by WHO”, says Dr Julie Torode, Director, Special Projects at UICC.

UICC will leverage its membership network to draw the attention to the importance of screening for the global elimination of cervical cancer. It will encourage the early adoption of high performance HPV testing and innovations such as self-sampling and e-health tools. In particular, UICC will work with partners in each of the four countries to drive national policies and the implementation of control services forward.