Eliminating HPV Cancers: From Flagship Policy to Flagship Practice

Alessandra Moretti MEP is a Member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. After a law degree and some years in the Regional Council and the National Parliament, in 2019 Alessandra Moretti was elected member of the European Parliament where she is member of ENVI (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee), TRAN (Transport and Tourism Committee) and FEMM (Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee). Alessandra is committed in her fight against inequality and social fractures and to address the challenges of our time: climate change, gender equality and social justice.

Jeff Andrews, MD, FRCSC is Medical Affairs Global VP for Integrated Diagnostic Solutions, BD Life Sciences. A Board-Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr. Andrews has provided care in community settings in both metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Washington, DC. He has also provided care in academic settings as an Associate Professor at Duke University Medical Center and at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Andrews has held several prestigious roles at academic centers, including Medical Director of Women’s Services, Director of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Director of the Vulvar Diseases Clinic, Medical Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, and lead physician of the Colposcopy Clinic. More recently, he was a Senior Scientist of the Vanderbilt University Evidence-Based Practice Center and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease. Before joining BD, Dr. Andrews was the Chief Medical Research Advisor for the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as a member of the International Papillomavirus Society, the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and the GRADE Working Group. Dr. Andrews is also the author of many peer-reviewed articles, evidence-based guidelines, patient decision aids, algorithms, and care pathways. At BD, Dr. Andrews has focused on molecular diagnostics and the prevention of cervical cancer through early detection of cancer precursors, and on novel approaches to the diagnosis of infectious diseases in women.

Laia Bruni, MD, MPH, PhD –. Dr Bruni is Head of Unit at the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain. For the past 10 years she has coordinated the ICO/IARC Information Centre on HPV and Cancer. Her team focuses on three main lines of research: the global epidemiology of HPV infection and related cancers; the design of public health interventions for their control and prevention; and the economic evaluation of such interventions. She is currently collaborating with the World Health Organization in the surveillance of HPV vaccination and screening practices worldwide, particularly in the methodological development and estimation of coverages. Together with the Pan-American Health Organization, she is also developing a practical guide to evaluate the impact of HPV vaccination in Latin American countries. At local level, she is supporting and organising with the Department of Health of the Catalan Government the new HPV-based screening program. She and her group are also responsible for the evaluation and monitoring of the impact of cervical screening and HPV vaccination practices in the region.

Mario Preti received his Medical Degree in 1986, Specialization in Gynecology and Obstetrics in 1990 and Specialization in Medical Oncology in 1994 at the University of Turin. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Torino, Italy and Co-Chair in the Lower Female Genital Tract Unit, University of Torino, Italy. He is one of the Regional Referents for diagnosis and treatment of lower genital tract neoplasms. He was Director of the Unit of Preventive Gynecological Oncology European Institute of Oncology, Milan from 2014 to 2015, President of the ISSVD (International Society for the Study of Vulvo-vaginal disease) from September from 2017 to 2019 and President & Founding Member of the Italian Interdisciplinary Society of Vulvology (SIIV). He was member of the Scientific Committee Italian Society of Colposcopy and Cervico-Vaginal Pathology (SICPCV) from 2003 to 2012 as National Referent for Vulvar Pathology. Professor Mario Preti participated as an invited speaker to 40 International Congresses on vulvar and cervico-vaginal diseases. He published more than 200 scientific papers with 98 of them indexed in Scopus and Pubmed. His publications had 1714 citations with Hi-index = 20.

Matthias has an MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (among other diplomas) and has extensive experience in public health through the various positions he had held in the past 20 years: programme manager then Secretary General of the European Health Forum Gastein, a consultant to the European Public Health Alliance. Presently he is appointed as a team leader responsible for preparing DG SANTE’s work on the ‘Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’ at the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission.

In May 2016 Steve Bergman was diagnosed with Stage 4 HPV Squamous Throat Cancer. He was 56, fit and healthy, eating a good diet and was a keen cyclist and runner. It took him by complete surprise and within two weeks was admitted to Whipps Cross hospital, in North East London, for what he thought was a routine exploratory operation but had to have radical surgery to remove a massive growth on his right tonsil. He woke up and to his complete surprise was fitted with a tracheostomy. He was in his hospital for a further two weeks to recover. There then came a period where he underwent six weeks of chemotherapy followed by six weeks of radiotherapy. He then went through a period of physical recovery and the psychological impact affected his everyday life. Throughout his illness and treatment, along with a professional director and cameraman, Steve recorded his progress and made a short film to support the vaccination of boys against HPV. Girls had been vaccinated since 2008. Since his recovery, he has been a significant voice in campaigning for boys to receive the HPV vaccination. He has made television and radio appearances, spoken at conferences, written newspaper articles, fund raised by rowing across the Mediterranean nonstop and lobbied MPs, as well as working with different HPV charities. In 2019, alongside others, all his efforts paid off and government changed their policy and decided to allow boys to receive the HPV vaccination. He continues to work with cancer charities; the aim is to keep the focus on research and development as well as working towards completely eradicating HPV.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, a native of Hungary, was appointed Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2019, after having served as WHO Regional Director for the European Region for nine years. The Deputy Director-General’s portfolio includes WHO’s technical programmes for universal health coverage, the life course, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, healthier populations and antimicrobial resistance, alongside other programmes. Dr Jakab has held a number of high-profile national and international public health policy positions in the last three decades. She served as the founding Director of the European Union's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden. Between 2005 and 2010, she built ECDC into an internationally respected centre of excellence in the fight against infectious diseases. Between 2002 and 2005, Dr Jakab was State Secretary at the Hungarian Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs. Between 1991 and 2002, she worked at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in a range of senior management roles.