Cervical cancer is the “fastest-rising form of cancer” in Canada and a “silent national health crisis” that doctors say the federal government must do more to eliminate.
That was the message from a press conference on Wednesday from the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada in Ottawa, and comes despite the government of Canada’s action plan released in July 2025 that committed to “eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2040.”
“Canada is currently serving a silent national health crisis,” said Dr. Shannon Salvador, president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada, on Wednesday morning. “While many celebrate the advancements in modern medicine, there is an alarming outlier.”
Salvador said that in 2025, an estimated 1,650 Canadians were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 430 would die from the disease, which she said was “avoidable.”
She also said Canada has relied on papanicolaou (Pap) testing and is seeing insufficient levels of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, which can prevent cases of cervical cancer caused by HPV.
Salvador says Canada is now facing some major setbacks.
“For years, we have relied on PAP testing, and our initial enthusiasm for the HPV vaccine upon its first debut in the mid-2000s in Canada, but Canada has now evolved, science has now evolved and our policies have not kept pace,” she said.
Currently, the national HPV vaccine completion rate has stalled at 64 per cent, which Salvador said is “far below the target needed for elimination.”
“I can tell you that this statistic is not just a medical failure, it is a policy failure,” said Salvador.
The Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada is now recommending an “immediate, national shift in HPV DNA testing for cervical cancer screening” and “implementation of HPV self-collection swabs and kits” to try to make it easier to screen people.
Salvador said the kits provide “at home swabs that remove the barriers of travel, history of trauma or cultural marginalization and the lack of a family doctor,” noting that a “health gender gap” has existed for years, especially for those in “rural, Indigenous and underserved communities” who are now “falling through the cracks of a fragmented system.”
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“Indigenous women are diagnosed at higher rates, with more advanced disease, and they experience worse outcomes. This is not due to biology,” said Dr. Sarah Kean, provincial lead for cervical cancer in Manitoba for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada.
“It is due to barriers, lack of access to screenings resources, geographic isolation, systemic racism in healthcare and poverty in the enduring impacts of colonial practice.”
Kean called for the need for a “robust, accessible HPV screening across Canada and for federal legislature to support it.”
“Robust HPV screening must mean more than updating guidelines. It must mean universal access to primary HPV testing across all provinces and territories with clear national standards,” she said.
“Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers.”
On Monday, Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi announced she had been diagnosed with Stage 1 cervical cancer, which was detected through the results of a cone biopsy, a surgical procedure that involves removing a cone-shaped piece of tissue from the cervix to diagnose or treat precancerous cells.
Salvador said the costs of treating cervical cancer to the Canadian health-care system was $132 million in 2024.
She also noted that the cost to screen eligible Canadians would amount to $106 million over a five-year period.
Five years after the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) released a report in November 2025 suggesting that Canada’s progress has stalled.
The report states that cervical cancer is the “fourth most diagnosed cancer and fourth leading cause of cancer death among females worldwide” and “projected 1,600 females in Canada were diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2024, and 400 died from the disease.”
For those diagnosed, the five-year survival rate is 74 per cent, while the 10-year survival rate is 68 per cent.
The report states that cervical cancer rates had been declining between 1984 and 2005, with an annual decrease of 2.2 per cent. However, between 2005 and 2021, the annual decrease was 0.3 per cent, with variability ranging from a 0.8 per cent decrease to a 0.4 per cent increase, representing a decrease.
Kean said both Canada and WHO have committed to eliminating cervical cancer, which “relies on three pillars: vaccination, HPV based DNA screening and access to treatment.
“All other cancers in our country are decreasing in incidence except for the one that is entirely preventable,” said Kean.
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