{"entity":{"id":"idea-prev-hpv-same-day-screen-and-treat","kind":"idea","name":"Same-day HPV test and heat treatment of precancer by nurses in low-income settings","aka":[],"tldr":"Where women cannot return for results, test for HPV and treat any precancer the same day with a battery-powered heat probe. This is the fastest route to WHO's cervical elimination target.","summary":"Where women cannot return for results, this idea has nurses test for HPV and treat any precancer the same day with a battery-powered thermal ablation probe, supported by point-of-care HPV testing and digital tracking and financed through Gavi and Global Fund mechanisms. WHO recommends HPV DNA testing as the primary screen and thermal ablation for screen-positive women in screen-and-treat settings, and loss to follow-up is the largest leak in low-income screening, so same-day delivery closes it. The test is a cluster RCT of same-day versus two-visit models in three countries. Being tested at scale, it addresses the bottlenecks Prevention we already have is not deployed and Most of the world has almost no cancer care.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"WHO cervical cancer elimination initiative","url":"https://www.who.int/initiatives/cervical-cancer-elimination-initiative"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["cervical"],"sections":["prevention"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-prevention-adoption","b-global-access"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Same-day programmes achieve at least 80% treatment completion of screen-positives (versus under 50% for multi-visit models) and reduce cervical cancer incidence by at least 30% in covered populations within ten years.","rationale":"Loss to follow-up is the largest leak in low-income screening; same-day closes it.","test":"Cluster RCT of same-day versus two-visit models in three countries.","maturity":"being-tested-at-scale","actor":"policy","cost":"large","horizonYears":5},"route":"/ideas/idea-prev-hpv-same-day-screen-and-treat/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"cervical","kind":"cancer","name":"Cervical cancer","route":"/cancers/cervical/"}],"section":[{"id":"prevention","kind":"section","name":"Prevention & Risk","route":"/fronts/prevention/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-global-access","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Most of the world has almost no cancer care","route":"/bottlenecks/b-global-access/"},{"id":"b-prevention-adoption","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Prevention we already have is not deployed","route":"/bottlenecks/b-prevention-adoption/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-hpv-self-sampling-bmj-2018","kind":"paper","name":"Self-collected HPV samples are as accurate as clinician samples and reach women who never attend screening","route":"/key-papers/paper-hpv-self-sampling-bmj-2018/"}],"technology":[{"id":"via-cervical-screening","kind":"technology","name":"Visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) for cervical screening","route":"/technologies/via-cervical-screening/"}]}}