Australia has reached a major milestone in its effort to become the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem, according to new research showing the nation has already met the World Health Organization’s 2030 screening coverage target.
Researchers from the Centre of Research Excellence consortium report that Australia has achieved the WHO elimination scale-up target for cervical screening coverage of 70 percent, well ahead of schedule. The country is now projected to reach WHO’s definition of cervical cancer elimination potentially as early as 2028.
The positive development stems from Australia’s world-leading approach combining HPV vaccination and screening programs. Australia was the first country to initiate a fully funded national human papillomavirus vaccination programme in 2007, using the Gardasil vaccine to protect against HPV types implicated in more than 70 percent of cervical cancers.
The program initially vaccinated schoolgirls and later expanded to include boys. About 79 percent of 15-year-old girls have received the voluntary vaccination. In 2023, Australia simplified the program to require just one dose of the HPV vaccine for protection when administered before age 26.
In December 2017, Australia transitioned to five-yearly HPV-based screening for women aged 25-74, replacing the previous two-yearly Pap test. The new test looks for the presence of HPV, the virus that causes almost all cervical cancers, and is expected to lower cervical cancer cases and mortality by at least 20 percent.
Research published in the Lancet Public Health Journal indicates that cervical cancer incidence is likely to decrease below four new cases per 100,000 women annually by 2028. The disease is expected to be classified as rare cancer—affecting fewer than six in 100,000—by 2022.
Currently, the incidence rate of cervical cancer in Australia sits at about seven per 100,000 women, half the global average. Since the introduction of the National Cervical Screening Program in 1991, cervical cancer mortality rates have halved.
In November 2023, the Australian Government unveiled the National Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer in Australia, matched with an investment of $48.2 million over four years. The strategy sets a goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2035 with a focus on improving access to screening and follow-up services for priority populations.
Priority populations include First Nations people, people with disability, people living in rural and remote areas, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and LGBTIQA+ people. First Nations women are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer compared to non-Indigenous women.
The strategy includes $8.3 million for innovative screening models and $12.7 million provided to the National Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisation to improve access for First Nations women. In July 2022, Australia introduced self-collected Cervical Screening Tests to help break down barriers for thousands of people who have never been screened.
Australia is also investing $12.5 million in the Elimination Partnership in the Indo-Pacific for Cervical Cancer to share expertise with governments across the region. A quarter of global cervical cancer cases occur in the Indo-Pacific, with women in the Pacific dying at up to 13 times the rate of women in Australia.
Professor Karen Canfell, director of research at Cancer Council NSW, celebrated the achievement. “This is such exciting news for women across Australia,” she said. “We’ve been leading the way in cervical cancer control for many years and we’ll be sharing our research and approaches with the rest of the world as part of a global push to eliminate this highly preventable cancer.”
There were no cervical cancer cases diagnosed in women under age 25 in 2021, the first time that has occurred in data going back to 1982.
