Women’s Cancer Initiative in the Americas
To save lives across Latin America, PAHO Foundation and IFPMA join forces to strengthen prevention capacity for breast and cervical cancer, as well as to support national cancer policies and planning with the improved collection of reliable data.
Partnership objectives
- To empower women and healthcare professionals to improve prevention, screening and treatment rates of breast and cervical cancers;
- To improve the quality and completeness of cancer data and reporting to inform cancer control plans.
Breast and cervical cancer are the most common cancers affecting women. These diseases are highly amenable to early detection and cure, but women continue to die prematurely from breast and cervical cancer because of limited access to cost-effective screening and treatment, among other barriers.
The inadequacy of screening and early detection programs is a substantial social and economic burden on individuals, families and the whole society. Effective screening programs drastically improve survival rates for women affected by breast or cervical cancers.
Cancer registration is necessary for cancer control, as knowledge of the country’s particular cancer situation and patterns is needed to make informed decisions on the targeted interventions to reduce incidence and mortality. High-quality population based cancer registries (PBCR) at the national level are the ideal standard for cancer registration.
To help empower women and healthcare professionals to improve prevention, screening and treatment rates of breast and cervical cancer, the PAHO Foundation-IFPMA partnership is helping countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to strengthen prevention and improve the quality and completeness of cancer data and reporting to inform cancer control plans.
PAHO Foundation and IFPMA are supporting the efforts of Ministries of Health, the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Global Initiative on Cancer Registration, civil society groups, non-governmental organizations and women’ s groups.
Each year 400,000 women
are diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer in the Americas
92,000 women die
from breast cancer each year in the Americas
36,000 women die
from cervical cancer each year in the Americas
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