Professor Karen Canfell and her co-investigators* have been awarded $2.5m to continue the work of the successful Centre of Research Excellence in Cervical Cancer Control – C4.
C4 is one of 14 successful Centre’s for Research Excellence (CRE) announced by Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler MP.
C4 brings together Australia’s leaders in cervical cancer control, in HPV vaccination and cervical screening and treatment, and involves researchers from the Daffodil Centre, The Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer, the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, the University of Melbourne, and Australian National University.
The prior work of C4 investigators has underpinned Australia’s major innovations in public health in terms of the successful delivery of HPV vaccination in girls and boys and the implementation of an HPV-based cervical screening program. C4 investigators have also directly supported the development of the World Health Organization (WHO) strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem worldwide by the end of the century, through a ‘triple-intervention’ approach, which sets out simple targets to place all countries on the path toward elimination by 2030. Australia is positioned as the first country in the world with the potential to achieve average cervical cancer incidence rates that are so low that cervical cancer would be eliminated.
Activities of this CRE will include the analysis of data from the Compass trial, Australia’s largest trial and the first to assess screening approaches in an HPV-vaccinated population in any country. It will also enable a range of new implementation studies focused on achieving high and equitable participation in HPV vaccination, cervical screening, triage and treatment, including developing and evaluating new pathways for HPV self-collection for screening for women in Australia and internationally.
This CRE will also build on major global health projects, including C4’s Eliminate Cervical Cancer in the Western Pacific (ECCWP) Project. Through the support of the Minderoo Foundation, ECCWP is a first-of-its-kind philanthropic and research effort to eliminate cervical cancer in the Western Pacific, which will provide the basis for critical implementation research on cervical cancer elimination strategies in low- and middle-income countries.
* C4 investigators: Prof Karen Canfell, the Daffodil Centre; Prof Julia Brotherton, Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer; Prof Marion Saville, Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer; Prof Andrew Vallely, University of New South Wales; Prof Suzanne Garland, University of Melbourne; Prof Deborah Bateson, the Daffodil Centre; Prof Rebecca Guy, University of New South Wales; Dr Kate Simms, the Daffodil Centre; Assoc Prof Lisa Whop, Australian National University; Prof John Kaldor, University of New South Wales.
