Bendigo Family Study staff at Parliament House Canberra to help Australia eradicate cervical cancer

In exciting news, Bendigo Family Study researchers Professor Julie Quinlivan and Associate Professor Rodney Petersen today attended Parliament House in Canberra to support the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC) with its goal to eradicate cervical cancer in Australia. The ACPCC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cervical cancer through HPV vaccination, screening, and laboratory and educational services. The ACPCC support the 5-yearly HPV-based Cervical Screening Test (for ages 25-74) and HPV self-collection testing.

After a breakfast meeting where we were pleased to see many Parliamentary Members present, we heard updates from senior program leaders. We also looked in at the Parliament House dining room that was converted into a cervical screening clinic for today. This is the first time Parliament house in Canberra has hosted a cervical cancer screening clinic and we were pleased to hear that many staff had signed up for a test.

Key outcomes of the Australian government and ACPCC program were discussed including reaching a milestone of 80% vaccination. We still have work to do to secure the goal of 90% vaccination but are well on the way to achieving this. Australia was the first country to move to a HPV screening approach for cervical cancer, and the program has unfolded as predicted with an initial increase in detection rates of HPV and a subsequent fall in cervical cancer rates.

We also heard today about the success of the cervical cancer self collection program. Now over 30% of all tests are performed using self collect methods.

In a moving consumer presentation we heard how self collection can help encourage under screened women to find the time for a swab, as opposed to being confronted by the full speculum examination. Underscreened women remain the main barrier to cervical cancer prevention. 

The results of these combined initiatives speak for themselves with Australia now having one of the lowest rates of cervical cancer in the world. However, the goal remains to eradicate cervical cancer in Australia and also to help our global neighbours develop their own programs.

The Bendigo Family Study is collecting data on cervical cancer screening in our population of new mothers. We hope our research will enable strategies to be developed to find and screen that under screened population of women who now carry the majority of Australia's cervical cancer risk burden. Rural women are more likely to be underscreened for cervical cancer as they face the barriers of distance from care. 

A long day with an early start, but as a bonus we managed to secure the dawn views from the entrance hall of Parliament house - a truely beautiful scene.

Best wishes

Professor Julie Quinlivan
Bendigo Family Study