World Health Organization

October is recognised as Breast Cancer Awareness Month or Pink October, a time to create awareness, honor the millions of lives affected by breast cancer and to reaffirm commitment to equitable access to care and improved survival for all. In 2025, WHO highlights the theme ‘Every Story is Unique, Every Journey Matters. 

Cervical cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women in low- and middle-income countries. Effective treatment of precancerous lesions detected during cervical screening is critical to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

Every year cervical cancer kills nearly 350 000 women globally, 90% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). More than 95% of cervical cancers are caused by oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV).

This WHO and HRP guideline is designed to help countries make faster progress, more equitably, on the screening and treatment of cervical cancer. It includes some important shifts in WHO’s recommended approaches to cervical screening, and includes a total of 23 recommendations and 7 good practice statements.

In 2025, the World Health Organization released the World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day 2025 toolkit. 

Download the document here

In 2020, the World Health Organization approved a strategy aimed at eliminating cervical cancer worldwide within generations. The Global Strategy identifies the following threshold: cervical cancer would no longer be considered to be a public health problem when all countries reach an annual incidence rate of 4 cases per 100,000 women or less.