HPV-associated cervical cancer: Current status and prospects

Every year, 570,000 new cases of cervical cancer (CC) are diagnosed in the world, and 311,000 people die from this disease. CC is the fourth most common type of cancer and therefore the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Numerous data on the occurrence and development of cervical cancer indicate an association in most cases (up to 90 %) with human papillomaviruses (HPV) of high carcinogenic risk (HCR).

CC prevention strategies are based on screening, and deaths from this oncopathology can be prevented through vaccination and treatment with early detection of the disease.

In this review, much attention is paid to current issues of detection and prevention of HPV-associated pathologies, and cervical cancer in particular, aiming to summarize and analyze the latest international literature data on this issue. As a result of this study, it was shown that for countries implementing the National program of vaccination against HPV of high carcinogenic risk, a decrease in the incidence of both cervical pathologies of varying severity and other cancers associated with the HPV carriage was registered.

While effective implementation of actual experience and future advances in human papillomavirus vaccine prophylaxis may make it possible for all countries to move to the high levels of vaccination coverage required to eliminate HPV-associated pathologies, the results also suggest that the path to complete cervical cancer elimination as a global public health problem can be extremely difficult due to a number of existing limitations.

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