Towards global elimination of cervical cancer in all groups of women

The study by Kate Simms and colleagues1 inspires hope for global elimination of cervical cancer, the burden of which is now predominantly in countries with low and middle Human Development Index (HDI).1 However, as the authors note, considerable disparities exist within countries with high HDI. This fact was not considered in their analysis, so findings based on average rates of cervical cancer within a country or HDI category do not imply that elimination will be achieved in all high-risk subgroups within such countries. It is concerning that elimination at a national level might not include high-risk subgroups, such as Indigenous women, who have higher cervical cancer incidence than their non-Indigenous counterparts in countries with high-quality data.2