Joanna Cain, professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Alpert Medical School, is now at the forefront of the global fight against cervical cancer. In her position as leader of a new World Health Organization committee for fighting the disease, she will be dedicated to revising and implementing new guidelines for detecting and treating cervical cancer in the developing world.
According to Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences at Brown, "since Joanna arrived in 2008, she has grown the faculty, redone the educational programs and has been a strong leader for an outstanding department."
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer afflicting women. According to the WHO, there are over 500,000 new cases and approximately 250,000 deaths from the disease annually.
In the U.S., cervical cancer is highly preventable due to readily available screenings and vaccinations for the human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted disease responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. According to the Center for Disease Control, about half of sexually active people will contract HPV, but only a fraction will go on to develop cervical cancer.
But in regions of southern Africa, South America and other developing areas, the incidence of cervical cancer and subsequent death is much higher because of economic instability and the low priority of women's health, according to Cain.
In addition, women in these areas must also cope with social stigmas regarding their affliction, especially in the late stages. "Women are ostracized for the bleeding and the smell," Cain said.
Receiving proper palliative care is also a problem.
"In many of these countries there is no access to morphine for pain control, so people die in agony, and many of these women are the main providers for their family," Cain said.
The WHO periodically produces and reforms guidelines for treating cervical cancer and other diseases in the developing world. "We started a cervical cancer control group because we were concerned that the WHO had produced their guidelines in 2006, and most of the major changes using HPV testing and vaccines happened after that," Cain said.
During a recent trip to Geneva, Cain and a committee of 30 attendees went through the previous WHO guidelines in detail and started making changes.
"The big goal is to have much of it done, especially the parts about vaccines and HPV testing, so that next year when the UN discusses non-communicable diseases, our work can be included in their thinking," Cain said. "The big changes with vaccines means fewer women will be at risk, and the new methodology will be more affordable for impoverished countries."
Wing called Cain "an international research leader on women's health issues."
"It makes perfect sense to have someone of her stature and knowledge to lead the fight for women and girls in developing countries around the world," he said.
