Cervical Cancer Elimination in Scotland Expert Group Final Report

7. Cervical Cancer Elimination – Expert Group and Subgroups

The Expert Group held its inaugural meeting on 25^th April 2024. Three subgroups were subsequently established to focus on the three pillars of the WHO’s elimination strategy: HPV vaccination, cervical screening and cancer treatment. The Expert Group and its three constituent subgroups have crystallised advice to the Scottish Government’s Public Health Capabilities Division and the advice and recommendations in this report are presented to Ministers for their consideration / agreement. The subgroups have also engaged with the Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (SVIP), Screening Oversight and Assurance Scotland (part if NHS National Services Scotland) and the Scottish Cancer Strategic Board.

Remit of Groups

To focus efforts on how to achieve cervical cancer elimination in Scotland, the groups were asked to:

• ensure clarity and agreement on the WHO call for elimination of cervical cancer targets by 2030, as applicable to Scotland
• identify current barriers to achieving the target and available Scottish data on vaccination and cervical screening to understand the current position
• explore interventions that are potentially effective in overcoming barriers:
  • within relevant services
  • among the relevant target population
• consider what additional data/modelling may be required to understand the effectiveness of interventions to achieve the WHO targets in vaccinations, screening and treatment necessary to achieve elimination of cervical cancer
• explore how to implement agreed interventions and how to monitor/evaluate their impact on targets
• discuss and recommend policies to ensure that effective interventions are sustained

Membership

The membership^[13] of the Expert Group and subgroups comprises experts from across public health, including: clinicians, laboratory scientists, data analysts, primary care, third sector representatives, Scottish Government officials and Public Health Scotland (PHS).

The Expert Group has met on four occasions, and each subgroup has held several meetings since September 2024. Topics of discussion have included:

• the current individual pathways to vaccination, screening and treatment
• key elements for development, to allow optimisation of the programmes
• actions already underway to address the issues, and those still requiring action