Before returning to China in 1997, You-Lin Qiao, MD, PhD, trained for 11 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and Cancer Prevention Studies Branch, NCI/NIH, USA. He is also Director of the International Collaboration Department, Cancer Foundation of China, and Deputy Director of the Moh National expert Committee for Cancer Screening and Prevention in China. He is an author on over 480 peer-reviewed publications in both english and Chinese. As an expert in cancer prevention and control, he served in the WHO Director-general's Cancer Control Advisory Committee and WHO's Cancer Technical Advisory groups helping to promote cancer prevention and control programmes in developing countries. He is involved in many national and international projects to study the etiology, primary intervention, and early detection of a variety of cancers through multidisciplinary and global collaborations. he was awarded the IARC Medal of honour in 2011.
Experience with careHPV implementation in China
China like all countries faces many challenges in providing universal, high quality, affordable healthcare to its people. During the year 1988-2008, the morbidity and mortality of cervical cancer among Chinese women increased continuously, especially for rural women which the crude mortality in 2008 was almost five times higher than 1988. The average age of women diagnosed as cervical cancer was five years younger. Effective preventive measures were imminently needed to curb the deterioration.
By a grant support from Bill Gates Foundation, in 2007, careHPV was successfully proved to be accurate, fast, reproducible, and low-cost by our team cooperated with PATH, IARC, CICAMS and QIAGEN Inc. Personnel with limited laboratory experience could perform it correctly after simple training procedure, which is promising for use in LMICs. Besides, the following study implied that careHPV 16/18/45 might be used in LMICs for triaging HPV-positive women.
Inspired by the experience from China, more implementing studies were conducted in LMICs, such as Nicaragua, Uganda, India and Laos. We believe more women from developing countries would be benefited after careHPV test get the pre-qualification from WHO.
HPV testing is now recommended in the WHO guidelines as primary. In 2015, a nationwide implementing demonstration program of HPV testing as the primary screening was launched, aiming at evaluating the real world performance by local health providers with fundamental infrastructures. The clinical utility, health economic effectiveness, and acceptability of careHPV test among screened women, health providers, and government officials will be evaluated. The final results of the 3-years study are expected to provide more convincing evidence and practical advice for policy maker in future population-based HPV screening programs in whole China. It is the most promise candidate for HPV as primary screening of cervical cancer among 5 million women in next fiscal year.