Australia in the process of eliminating cervical cancer by 2035

According to new research on the success of the country's prevention program, cervical cancer could be virtually eliminated in Australia within 20 years.

A study conducted by the Cancer Council NSW and published in the medical journal The Lancet revealed that, if screening and vaccinations continue to be performed at its current rate, cervical cancer will be considered a rare form of cancer within four years.

A rare cancer is a cancer that affects six or fewer people per 100,000. At present, the incidence of cervical cancer in Australia is about seven cases per 100,000 women.

By way of comparison, Cancer Research UK recorded 9.5 cervical cancer diagnoses per 100,000 women in the UK in 2015, "making it the 14th most prevalent cancer in the country at women, "says CNN.

According to the report, Australian doctors will diagnose four new cases or fewer of cervical cancer per 100,000 women by 2035, at which time the disease would be "considered eliminated as a public health problem. ".

Cervical cancer mortality is also expected to fall to less than 0.15 cases per 100,000 women each year, less than three deaths per million women.

The country's success in fighting the disease can be attributed to its rapid adoption and the consistent application of prevention techniques.

Australia introduced national cervical cancer screening for women in 1991. In the following decades, "cervical cancer rates among women dropped by about 50%, because anomalies had been identified before they developed, "reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

A new, more sophisticated screening test introduced last year, which looks for early warning traces of HPV rather than the signs of cancer itself, should continue to improve prevention.

In 2007, Australia once again led the way by becoming the first country in the world to offer schoolgirls free vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus linked to the vast majority of cervical cancer cases. . The vaccination program has since been extended to boys.

Professor Karen Canfell, Director of Research at the NSW Cancer Council, said the findings represent "such exciting news for Australian women."

"We have been leading the way in the fight against cervical cancer for many years and we will share our research and approaches with the rest of the world as part of a global campaign to eliminate this highly preventable cancer," he said. she said.