Girls being vaccinated for HPV to prevent cervical cancer
Cervical cancer vaccinations in Africa ©️ Shutterstock

Uniting to End Cervical Cancer

22nd June 2020

The Cervical Cancer: Action for Elimination (CCAE), co-chaired by American Cancer Society, Cancer Research UK and UICC, is a community of organizations and individuals working to accelerate global progress towards cervical cancer elimination.  

 “For more than a century, the American Cancer Society has worked to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer. Now, we have an extraordinary opportunity to make history by eliminating HPV cancers as a public health problem, starting with cervical cancer. Forging a path to elimination will take sustained action by organizations and individuals in cancer control, immunization, and public health communities around the world.” Meenu Anand, Director, Global Cancer Prevention, American Cancer Society.

Standing with the World Health Organization’s global strategy to accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer as a Public Health Problem, the CCAE recognises the essential role of civil society to meet the elimination targets and share resources.

“With so much momentum around global action to eliminate cervical cancer, CRUK was delighted to join the CCAE network in 2019 to support these efforts. We bring our experience from the UK to the network – in particular our work laying the foundations for HPV vaccine development. We hope that partners from across the globe will join the conversation, to ensure a coordinated and robust civil society voice on this ambitious agenda.” Bekki Field, Senior Programme Lead, International Cancer Prevention, Cancer Research UK.

In the coming months, the CCAE website will feature a range of tools and resources for individuals and organisations focused on HPV vaccination, screening and treatment of precancerous lesions, and treatment and palliative care for invasive cancers.

“For the first time, a generation is making a global commitment to eliminate a specific cancer. We call on all stakeholders to recognise the enormity of the opportunity to save millions of women’s lives in the next ten years, by making a concerted effort to achieve the 90-70-90 coverage targets by 2030, and in the coming decades by putting women and communities at the heart of the national response.” Julie Torode, Director, Special Projects, Union for International Cancer Control.

You can learn more about CCAE here and stay up to date by signing up to their newsletter.