HPV prevention, screening innovation and sentinel lymph node biopsy

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers worldwide – and yet over 340,000 women die from it every year. In the period 2025/2026, several developments have fundamentally changed the field: The ESCUDDO study proves for the first time in a large randomized trial the non-inferiority of a single HPV vaccine dose compared to the two-dose regimen. The American Cancer Society and the US HRSA have updated their screening guidelines and officially integrated vaginal self-sampling for the primary HPV test. The SENTIX study provides final survival data confirming sentinel lymph node biopsy without systematic pelvic lymphadenectomy in early cervical cancer as oncologically safe.