Latin America cervical cancer initiative

The Cervical Cancer Foundation seeks to increase the interest of healthcare providers in diagnosing, managing, and treating cervical disease.

Program details

In Latin America and the Caribbean, cervical cancer represents the most common cause of cancer among women in the region with 52,000 new cases per year and the 4th leading cause of mortality in women ages 15 to 64 (25,000 deaths per year). Unfortunately, in Latin America and the Caribbean, many women do not know about cervical cancer, cancer screening availability, or treatment programs. Most Latin American and Caribbean countries offer Pap screening but lack treatment programs and therefore are unable to offer follow-up care for cancers detected by the Pap test or HPV test. This is unfortunate as cervical cancer is preventable when detected early.

Given these facts, the Cervical Cancer Foundation seeks to increase the interest of healthcare providers in diagnosing, managing, and treating cervical disease. The foundation also works to increase capacity by offering specialized training in HPV-related diseases. This includes (1) collaborating with non-profit organizations to lobby legislative stakeholders to increase support for HPV vaccination and secondary cervical cancer prevention (2) training health educators to use the Con Amor Aprendemos Program to educate the community on the importance of Pap or HPV screening tests and the vaccine.  The Con Amor Aprendemos Program has been sponsored by the  Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), and the American Cancer Society’s South Atlantic Division.  We hope to use the model previously used to train over 200 health educators in El Salvador in other Latin American countries with high rates of cervical cancer.

Date & time

ongoing

Venue

Latin America

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