Cervical cancer kills one woman every seven minutes in India – but screening rates are abysmally low

The flow of patients is incessant at the outpatient departments of the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute. The tertiary cancer centre caters to 25,000 patients annually from across the state, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and the treatment is mostly subsidised under various government schemes.

In the gynaecology out-patient department on the ground floor, nurses call out patients and a team of two doctors examine the patient. Between seeing patients, Chetna Parekh, professor of gynaecological oncology at the institute, explains that unlike most other cancers, cervical cancer is fully preventable and treatable yet it has poor outcomes in India. “Most of our patients come in the third and fourth stage and die within six months to a year of diagnosis,” she told Behanbox.

These tragedies are unacceptable because unlike most cancers that lack a clear cause, we know that cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus and there exists a vaccine to prevent HPV infections. Yet, in 2023, 123,000 Indian women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and almost 80,000 of them died. India bears one-fifth of the global burden of cervical cancer and the highest number of deaths.

Every seven minutes, one woman dies of cervical cancer in India. Yet, screening rates remain abysmal, the HPV vaccine...

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