Online course: The Cervical Cancer Elimination Planning Tool (EPT)
UICC, in collaboration with the Cancer Elimination Collaboration (CEC) at the University of Sydney, is offering a new online course introducing the Cervical Cancer Elimination Planning Tool (EPT), designed to help countries develop effective and sustainable strategies for eliminating cervical cancer by tailoring interventions to their specific healthcare needs.
Cervical cancer is currently the fourth most common cancer and cause of death among women worldwide, with 670 000 cases diagnosed in 2024 and 350 000 deaths in 2024 globally.
Caused by persistent HPV infection, cervical cancer is both preventable and treatable. The Cervical Cancer Elimination Planning Tool (EPT) aims to enable countries to create effective, sustainable cervical cancer strategies that are specifically adapted to their unique demographic and health-care needs. By assisting policy-makers in planning, costing, and tailoring their cervical cancer programmes across the three pillars of the WHO global strategy – HPV vaccination, cervical screening, and treatment – the EPT aims to support countries to plan their roadmap towards elimination.
The course provides an introduction to the tool, developed through a collaboration between the Cancer Elimination Collaboration (CEC) within the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, and the IARC Initiative for Resilience in Cancer Control (IRCC), which is led by the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC, to support evidence-based cervical cancer elimination planning.
Using modelling evidence, the tool demonstrates why scaling up all three pillars of the WHO Global Strategy for cervical cancer elimination (vaccination, screening, and treatment) delivers the greatest and fastest impact.
Through practical demonstrations and country case studies, learners are guided on how to use the EPT tools, to set targets and scenarios and interpret outputs such as elimination timelines, lives saved, costs, return on investment, and budget impact.
Introduction to the EPT tool
Presenter – Prof. Karen Canfell and Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram
How to use the EPT tool
Presenters – Associate Professor Michael Caruana and Dr Daniela Rivas Romero
Role of the EPT in implementation programmes
Presenters – Dr Daniela Rivas Romero and Dr Carol Naidu
Nigeria: How do vaccine outcomes differ by state and what would be the impact of adjusting vaccine delivery models?
Presenter – Amina Abdulkarim
Cambodia: What is the optimal catch-up age range and service delivery strategy for implementing a multi-age cohort HPV vaccination campaign?
Presenters – Forum Mistry and Dr Diep Nguyen
Myanmar: When is elimination feasible and how should Myanmar plan for HPV screening scale up
Presenter – Tay Za Kyi Win
Modelling to support WHO screen and treat guidelines for the general population
Presenter – Dr Kate Simms
Modelling to support WHO screen and treat guidelines for women living with HIV (WLHIV)
Presenter – Dr Michaela Hall
Impact of combining screening and vaccination in women living with HIV (WLHIV)
Presenter – Dr Michaela Hall
Conclusions and future functionalities of the EPT
Presenters – Prof. Karen Canfell and Associate Professor Michael Caruana
Last update
Thursday 21 May 2026