Prevention of cervical and breast cancer mortality in low- and middle-income countries: a window of opportunity

Breast and cervical cancer are the two most common women’s cancers worldwide. Countries have invested for decades in early detection programs for breast and cervical cancer through screening, community education, and opportunistic case detection by health professionals. However, effectiveness in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been limited due to low coverage, insufficient laboratory capacities for diagnosis, health information systems (HIS) that are not designed to track patients or monitor program performance, barriers that inhibit women’s uptake of services, and inadequate treatment options. Even where some screening activities exist, there has not been sufficient attention to ensuring completion of appropriate diagnosis and treatment after women receive a positive screening test result or report symptoms suggesting cervical or breast cancer. Because of this failure to provide adequate follow-up care, these women miss the potential benefit from early detection and have a higher than average risk to develop cancer or progress to more advanced cancer stages that could have been avoided. There are several critical steps in a woman’s journey from good health to elevated cancer risk, then to cancer prevention or diagnosis, and finally to treatment. There is a window of opportunity that extends from the time a positive finding is identified—by a cervical or breast screening test or recognition of a breast abnormality—to the point when cervical precancer treatment is delivered or a treatment plan for diagnosed breast cancer is initiated. Building on existing health systems and adapting measurable, affordable, and culturally acceptable interventions can achieve a lasting impact. If women can successfully navigate this window of opportunity, they can avoid progression to cervical cancer or greatly reduce the need for invasive treatments for breast cancer and improve their chances for survival and improved quality of life. We propose several actions that can lead us on the path towards reduction of this cancer burden.