Visitors and news

Throughout January, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will mark Cervical Cancer Awareness Month with a series of posts, including tweets, interviews, and infographics. Stay tuned to the IARC website, www.iarc.fr, the IARC Twitter account, @IARCWHO, and the IARC YouTube channel, IARC WHO, during January to learn more about cervical cancer and the worldwide initiative to eliminate this disease as a public health problem. Read the IARC news

Dr Walter Prendiville, senior visiting scientist in the Screening Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer published this opinion article in The Irish Times Journal, and discussed about the Irish cervical smear screening programme, "CervicalCheck", which came under intense scrutiny as the accuracy of hundreds of "negative" results were brought in question.
View the publication.

Continuation of the CanScreen5 Train the Trainers African course, with participants from 17 African countries. The CanScreen5 project is designed to be an instrument to improve the quality of cancer screening programmes by providing training and critical feedback regarding data analysis to the collaborators. We expect that, through capacity building, collaborators will gain knowledge on implementing, monitoring, evaluation and improving the quality of cancer screening; and that by analyzing their own data they will gain insights on how to propose improvements to the programme. Today the course participants followed a live demonstration about CanScreen5 data submission. Learn more about the CanScreen5 platform.

This WHO document brings a new focus to the management of invasive disease in the comprehensive control and eventual elimination of cervical cancer. Aligned with the WHO Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer as a Public Health Problem, it underpins its third pillar and assists countries to reach the target of treating 90% of women diagnosed with invasive cancer. It provides guidance for countries in establishing and strengthening diagnosis, staging, treatment, palliative care and survivorship care to achieve high quality, effective service provision. The importance of enhanced healthcare system supports in implementing cervical cancer management services is also described. Case studies illustrate successes that countries have achieved through thorough cervical cancer control planning and stepwise implementation.
View the publication.

A recent study conducted by scientists from the Screening Group from IARC and collaborators provides new insights into the attitudes and behaviours of general practitioners (GPs) regarding recommending vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) to their patients.
View the IARC News and view the article.

This publication published in Cancers reports the largest and most comprehensive assessment of the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in head and neck cancer (HNC) in Italy, which is a region currently considered bearing a low burden of HPV-driven HNC. p16INK4a, HPV-DNA, and HPV RNA biomarkers were used to assess the HPV status in head and neck cancer in a retrospective cohort of approximately 700 patients. In our study, HPV prevalence in oropharyngeal cancers was much higher than in oral and laryngeal cancers, and HPV positivity conferred better prognosis only in oropharyngeal cancers. Importantly, we have observed an increase of the prevalence of HPV positivity in oropharyngeal cancers in the most recent calendar periods, suggesting that this disease is increasing in Italy, as has happened before in other developed regions.View the article.

In this video, Dr Partha Basu, Head of the Screening Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), presents the Atlas of visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid for screening, triage, and assessment for treatment and explains important aspects of cervical cancer screening and assessment. This digital atlas is one such important publication that describes the use of visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid (VIA) as a primary screening test or as a test to triage women who test positive for oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) types, and explains how application of dilute acetic acid to the cervix can help in determining eligibility for ablative treatment. The atlas, which is freely available on the IARC website, was also published on 17 November 2020 to mark the launch of the Global Strategy. View the atlas and the video.

This Summit organized by the Digestive Cancers Europe (DiCE) is for all those who have a stake in colorectal cancer screening – screening agencies, industry, national and regional patient organisations, policy makers and medical experts. Dr Partha Basu, Head of Screening Group, Early Detection & Prevention Section at the International Agency for Research on Cancer will discuss about the importance of colorectal cancer screening, the current landscape and the challenges. View the virtual conference agenda and the registration.

A new study, published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases by scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and collaborators in Japan, reports that young women vaccinated with the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine had a significantly lower risk of developing cervical precancerous lesions – cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 (CIN2) and CIN3 – compared with an unvaccinated group. In Japan, the incidence rate of cervical cancer has increased continuously since the mid-1990s (with a 4.7% annual increase), and this is associated with an increased mortality rate. The burden of cervical cancer can be decreased through HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening. View the Read IARC Press Release 291 and the publication.

The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. The new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This new installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Dr. Partha Basu, Head of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Screening Group. View the interview.