Technology Challenges and Opportunities for Cervical Cancer Prevention
PHC facilities serve an essential role in the prevention of cervical cancer. They face multiple challenges, however, to fully implement national and WHO guidelines for cervical cancer control. New technologies and improvements to existing ones are needed to address these challenges and create new opportunities to stop the progression of HPV infection to cervical cancer. Missed pre-cancer detection is currently a critical gap to fill, with tools and equipment needed that can be effectively used for care at the PHC level.
GH Labs has focused on developing devices that are low-cost, easy to use by care providers, and readily accessible at the PHC level so they can enable the screen-and-treat approaches recommended in WHO guidelines: AVE, an AI-supported Automated Visual Evaluation device for enhanced visual assessment of the cervix, and NAATOS HPV, a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) with lateral flow technology on-a-strip (OS) for HPV detection (including multiplexing to simultaneously detect a greater number of HPV strains).
Screening
Screening to identify women at high-risk of developing cervical cancer is crucial so they can quickly start preventive treatment. New screening tools to identify and confirm cervical pre-cancer are needed that are low-cost, easy to use by care providers, readily accessible at the PHC level, and suitable for the local context. These tools will accelerate progress towards the screen-and-treat approaches recommended in WHO guidelines. Annual cytology-based screening by Pap smears is an effective strategy in high-income countries but not routinely available in LMICs.