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Advancing the elimination of cervical cancer across Africa
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  • Review Article
  • Open access
  • Published: 13 March 2026

Advancing the elimination of cervical cancer across Africa

  • Kelvin Stefan Osafo  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5210-22261,2,3,
  • Yan Zhang  ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0005-5632-13181,2,3,
  • Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4562-92944,
  • Bin Sun5,
  • Hua Yang6 &
  • …
  • Pengming Sun  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5072-60911,2,3,7 

Nature Communications , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Cancer prevention
  • Cervical cancer

Abstract

Though cervical cancer is largely preventable, Africa faces a high burden with thousands of deaths. Highlighting the urgent need for action toward the WHO’s 90-70-90 elimination strategy, this study presents the epidemiological burden of HPV and cervical cancer in Africa and advocates for decisive measures to improve screening and implement effective prevention through vaccination. Here, we discuss which is the better option for Africa: a single-dose or a two-dose vaccine regimen. Furthermore, we explore screening methods, such as methylation markers and AI-based screening, as well as treatment-related side effects and the prognosis of cervical cancer in Africa.

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Data availability

The compiled and processed dataset generated from these sources for the analysis and visualizations in this study has been deposited in the Zenodo repository under accession code https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17722637 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17512055). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

R software (version 4.4.2) was used for all analyses and visualization. The custom code used in this study has been deposited in the Zenodo repository under accession code (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17534613) (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17511134).

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their profound gratitude to Wenyu Lin, Yuxuan Huang, Jingxuan Ye, Afia Boadu Poku, Andoh Sheikh A., Dingjie Wang, and Yashi Shi for their additions to this work. Also, thanks to Bamisope Steve Basimile (PhD) for his guidance in editing this work. The following grants support this work: 1. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82271658)(P.M.S). 2. The Major Scientific Research Program for Young and Middle-aged Health Professionals of Fujian Province, China (grant no. 2021ZQNZD011) (P.M.S). 3. National High-Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding under Grant 2022-PUMCH-C-060 (H.Y). 4. Beijing Natural Science Foundation (grant no. L232074) (H.Y).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University; Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    Kelvin Stefan Osafo, Yan Zhang & Pengming Sun

  2. Fujian Clinical Research Center for Gynecologic Oncology, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Fuzhou, China

    Kelvin Stefan Osafo, Yan Zhang & Pengming Sun

  3. Fujian Key Laboratory of Women and Children’s Critical Diseases Research, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Fuzhou, China

    Kelvin Stefan Osafo, Yan Zhang & Pengming Sun

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah

  5. Division of Birth Cohort Study, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Fuzhou, China

    Bin Sun

  6. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Clinical Research Centre for Obstetrics & Gynecologic Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Common Mechanism Research for Major Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

    Hua Yang

  7. School of Population Medicine and Public Health, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100730, Beijing, China

    Pengming Sun

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K.S.O.–conceptualization, drafting, tables, and figures, revision; Y.Z.–drafting, tables, and revision; D.O.Y.– revision; B.S.–revision; H.Y.–revision; P.M.S.–conceptualization and revision.

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Osafo, K.S., Zhang, Y., Obiri-Yeboah, D. et al. Advancing the elimination of cervical cancer across Africa. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70450-y

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  • Received: 29 September 2024

  • Accepted: 30 January 2026

  • Published: 13 March 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70450-y

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