What is cervical cancer

Every year some 500,000 women worldwide get cervical cancer and more than 280.000 women die each year of cervical cancer. Eighty percent of these women live in developing countries, with most occurring in the poorest regions of the world; South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Latin America.


Healthcare providers in the developing world see a lot of women with advanced, incurable cervical cancer. Even though this disease is relatively easy to prevent and cure through screening and treatment and using relatively simple technologies when it is detected at an early stage. But unfortunately it is often discovered too late for effective treatment. Patients suffer excruciating pain, invalidity and often humiliating symptoms, followed by a painful death.It usually affects relatively young women who are planning to have a family or who have young children. Screening and early detection are crucial, but unfortunately not feasible in many parts of the world. This is a portrait of a disease that needs to be eradicated from the world as soon as possible - and a possible solution is being developed.





The incidence rate in most developing countries is very low in women under 25. Incidence increases at about ages 35 to 40 and reaches a maximum in women in their 50s and 60s. About 80 percent to 90 percent of confirmed cervical cancer occur among women age 35 or older, according to the official cancer registration systems.