Please join the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP) in honoring International Women's Day with a stimulating exploration of how novel approaches to cancer screening can be coordinated with HPV vaccination programs to dramatically reduce cervical cancer deaths worldwide.

Cervical cancer is the number one cancer killer of women worldwide, taking 270,000 lives each year. In a sense cervical cancer maps the inequities of our time-inequities related to gender, geography, age, and income. Women in developing countries bear the brunt as 85 percent of cervical cancer deaths occur in poor countries. This is due to lack of sophisticated cancer screening and treatment programs, and stands in stark contrast to the United States, Europe, and Australia, where cervical cancer rates have dropped dramatically over the past 40 years.

Now the world has an extraordinary opportunity: recently we have gained new insights into the potential of simple, visual screening methods that can detect human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer. In addition, US companies and research institutions have developed high-tech solutions that hold great promise for the developing world, like innovative, low-cost screening technologies and HPV vaccines that protect young women early in life.

These new tools have dramatically focused the world's attention on cervical cancer and mobilized unprecedented political commitment to prevent hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Now is the time to consider how the United States can play a leadership role in this important women's health and equity issue and help ensure every woman's right to access cervical cancer screening and other life-saving technologies, no matter where she lives.

When and Where:

• Date: Wednesday, March 5
  • 8:30-9:00: delicious continental breakfast
  • 9:00-10:00: panel presentation with Q&A
  • 10:00-11:00: reception and refreshments
     
    
• Location: Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh Street, NW, Washington, DC
  • At 7th and I Street, less than a block from the Chinatown gate.
  • Metro: take the Red, Yellow, or Green line to Gallery Place/Chinatown (7th and H Street exit).
  • Bus: Take 70/71/73, 80, P6, or X2 to the corner of 7th and H Street NW.
    

Panelists:

• Dr. Jacqueline Sherris, PATH, Seattle
• Ms. Silvana Luciani, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC
• Dr. R. Sankaranarayan, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
• Dr. Harshad Sanghvi, Jhpiego, Baltimore

Please RSVP to bbalderston@path.org.