Prevention and diagnosis of cervical cancers in the UK and Europe: What have we learned in the last 10 years and what is next?

This review presents an outline of the state of the knowledge on the prevention and diagnosis of cervical cancers over the last decade. Screening and prevention methods are considered, such as cervical self-sampling, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) in diagnostics and screening, as are some success stories. However, despite the successes stemming from the UK and Europe–such as that no new cases of cervical cancer have been detected in a cohort of Scottish women vaccinated against HPV between 12–13 years old–cervical screening rates are falling and social, cultural and economic barriers to HPV vaccination uptake remain. There are several clear pathways that could reduce not only incidence rates of cervical cancer, but also non-cervical HPV related cancers such as oropharyngeal and anal cancers.