Global estimates of incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in 2020: a baseline analysis of the WHO Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative

Tracking progress and providing timely evidence is a fundamental step forward for countries to remain aligned with the targets set by WHO to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem (ie, to reduce the incidence of the disease below a threshold of 4 cases per 100 000 women-years). We aimed to assess the extent of global inequalities in cervical cancer incidence and mortality, based on The Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) 2020 estimates, including geographical and socioeconomic development, and temporal aspects.

For this analysis, we used the GLOBOCAN 2020 database to estimate the age-specific and age-standardised incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer per 100 000 women-years for 185 countries or territories aggregated across the 20 UN-defined world regions, and by four-tier levels of the Human Development Index (HDI). Time trends (1988-2017) in incidence were extracted from the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5) plus database. Mortality estimates were obtained using the most recent national vital registration data from WHO.