1. Epidemiology and Global Health

Point of View: COVID-19 as a catalyst for reimagining cervical cancer prevention

  1. Rebecca Luckett  Is a corresponding author
  2. Sarah Feldman
  3. Yin Ling Woo
  4. Anna-Barbara Moscicki
  5. Anna R Giuliano
  6. Silvia de Sanjose
  7. Andreas M Kaufman
  8. Shuk On Annie Leung
  9. Francisco Garcia
  10. Karen Chan
  11. Neerja Bhatla
  12. Margaret Stanley
  13. Julia Brotherton
  14. Joel Palefsky
  15. Suzanne Garland
  16. on behalf of the International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) Policy Committee
  1. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, United States
  2. Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States
  3. University of Malaya, Malaysia
  4. University of California, Los Angeles, United States
  5. H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, United States
  6. National Cancer Institute, United States
  7. Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
  8. McGill University Health Centre, Canada
  9. Pima County Health Department, United States
  10. University of Hong Kong, China
  11. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
  12. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
  13. Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer, Australia
  14. University of California, San Francisco, United States
  15. Royal Women's Hospital, Australia
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86266
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Cite this article
  1. Rebecca Luckett
  2. Sarah Feldman
  3. Yin Ling Woo
  4. Anna-Barbara Moscicki
  5. Anna R Giuliano
  6. Silvia de Sanjose
  7. Andreas M Kaufman
  8. Shuk On Annie Leung
  9. Francisco Garcia
  10. Karen Chan
  11. Neerja Bhatla
  12. Margaret Stanley
  13. Julia Brotherton
  14. Joel Palefsky
  15. Suzanne Garland
  16. on behalf of the International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) Policy Committee
(2023)
Point of View: COVID-19 as a catalyst for reimagining cervical cancer prevention
eLife 12:e86266.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86266
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Abstract

Cervical cancer has killed millions of women over the past decade. In 2019 the World Health Organization launched the Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy, which included ambitious targets for vaccination, screening, and treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted progress on the strategy, but lessons learned during the pandemic - especially in vaccination, self-administered testing, and coordinated mobilization on a global scale - may help with efforts to achieve its targets. However, we must also learn from the failure of the COVID-19 response to include adequate representation of global voices. Efforts to eliminate cervical cancer will only succeed if those countries most affected are involved from the very start of planning. In this article we summarize innovations and highlight missed opportunities in the COVID response, and make recommendations to leverage the COVID experience to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer globally.

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Article and author information

Author details

  1. Rebecca Luckett

    Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    rluckett@bidmc.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    Rebecca Luckett, received a grant from NIH NCI 1K08CA271949-01. The author has no other competing interests to declare..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1975-8837

  2. Sarah Feldman

    Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    Sarah Feldman, received grants from NCI/NIH and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, and has received royalties from Uptodate. They have received payment for post-graduate talks at the Indian Health Service and Harvard Medical School, and for a community talk at Team Maureen. They received support for attending meetings of the ASCCP and the American Cancer Society. The author participated on the Mitre CDC sponsored initiative to integrate cervical cancer screening results into EHR and the American Cancer Society Advisory Committee ACS Cervical Cancer Roundtable. They are a Board Member of the IPVS and co-chair for ACS. The author has no other competing interests to declare.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5582-9401

  3. Yin Ling Woo

    University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
    Competing interests
    Yin Ling Woo, is a committee member for policy as part of IPVS. The author has no other competing interests to declare..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1742-1066

  4. Anna-Barbara Moscicki

    University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
    Competing interests
    Anna-Barbara Moscicki, has received from consulting fees from the Merck Advisory Board. The author participated on a Data Safety Monitoring Board/Advisory Board for CVIA 087 DSMB funded by PATH, and is an International Papillomavirus Society Board member. The author has no other competing interests to declare..

  5. Anna R Giuliano

    H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, United States
    Competing interests
    Anna R Giuliano, has received grants and consulting fees from Merck & Co, Inc. No other competing interests to declare..

  6. Silvia de Sanjose

    National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    Silvia de Sanjose, is a consultant at the National Cancer Institute (NIH, United States). No other competing interests to declare..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5909-676X

  7. Andreas M Kaufman

    Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    Andreas M Kaufman, has received grants from the EU EUROSTARS Program; has received payment for consultation from Paul-Ehrlich Gesellschaft e.V; has been issued with patent WO 2020/161285 A1 (Inventor); member of the Data Safety Monitoring Board/Advisory Board for the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). No other competing interests to declare..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7732-3009

  8. Shuk On Annie Leung

    McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  9. Francisco Garcia

    Pima County Health Department, Tucson, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  10. Karen Chan

    University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    Competing interests
    Karen Chan, member of Hong Kong SAR cancer coordinating committee (advisory board ) and the HK SAR cancer expert working group; President of the Hong Kong College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists; council member of the Asian Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ASGO); board member for the Asia-Oceania Research Organisation in Genital Infection and Neoplasia. No other competing interests to declare..

  11. Neerja Bhatla

    All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  12. Margaret Stanley

    Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    Margaret Stanley, Reviewing editor, eLife; has received consulting fees from MSD Merck UK; has participated in a Global Advisory Board for HPV vaccines for Merck. No other competing interests to declare..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6865-6060

  13. Julia Brotherton

    Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer, Melbourne, Australia
    Competing interests
    Julia Brotherton, has received donated HPV tests and swabs for validation and research from Cepheid, Abbott, Seegene, Roche, AusDiagnostics, BD, and Copan. No other competing interests to declare.

  14. Joel Palefsky

    University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
    Competing interests
    Joel Palefsky, has received grants from Merck & Co., Roche Diagnostics, Antiva Biosciences, Vir Biotechnologies and Virion Therapeutics; has received consulting fees from Merck & Co., Roche Diagnostics, Antiva Biosciences and Vir Biotechnologies; has received payment for consultation from Gilead Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals; has received support for attending meetings from Merck & Co. and Roche Diagnostics; participates on the Data Safety Monitoring Board/Advisory Board for the IPVS; is Chair of the International HPV Awareness Day Campaign; has stock or stock options in Virion Therapeutics; has received resources/services from Atila Biosystems. No other competing interests to declare..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5097-3818

  15. Suzanne Garland

    Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
    Competing interests
    Suzanne Garland, has received consulting fees and lecture fees from Merck; has participated in an advisory Board for Merck; is President of the International Papillomavirus Society; has received an education grant for a study of HPV in young women. No other competing interests to declare..

Funding

National Cancer Institute (K08CA271949)

  • Rebecca Luckett

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

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  1. Rebecca Luckett
  2. Sarah Feldman
  3. Yin Ling Woo
  4. Anna-Barbara Moscicki
  5. Anna R Giuliano
  6. Silvia de Sanjose
  7. Andreas M Kaufman
  8. Shuk On Annie Leung
  9. Francisco Garcia
  10. Karen Chan
  11. Neerja Bhatla
  12. Margaret Stanley
  13. Julia Brotherton
  14. Joel Palefsky
  15. Suzanne Garland
  16. on behalf of the International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) Policy Committee
(2023)
Point of View: COVID-19 as a catalyst for reimagining cervical cancer prevention
eLife 12:e86266.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86266

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    1. Part of Collection

    Special Issue: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention, control, care and survivorship

    Edited by Eduardo Franco et al.

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    1. Epidemiology and Global Health
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    Special Issue: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention, control, care and survivorship

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    Our latest Special Issue brings together research covering many different aspects of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes across the globe.