Didactics-Innovative Technologies for Cervical Cancer Prevention & Treatment

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In this video, the speaker discusses projects related to cervical cancer prevention and treatment conducted by the bioengineering group at Rice University. The speaker highlights the inequity in cervical cancer incidence and death rates, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. They emphasize that cervical cancer is preventable, thanks to vaccines and screening techniques such as VIA, pap testing, and HPV DNA testing. They also mention the treatable pre-invasive phase and the importance of early intervention. However, they note that current prevention systems are not user-friendly and require multiple visits and access to pathology services, which are often lacking in low-resource settings. The speaker introduces two technologies being developed by Rice University: a paper-based HPV DNA test for affordable and accessible screening, and the high-resolution micro endoscope (HRME) for real-time diagnosis of precancerous lesions without the need for biopsies. The HRME has been tested in Brazil and El Salvador, showing promising results. The speaker concludes by mentioning ongoing studies in Mozambique and notes the publication of a related paper on a cervical cancer prevention course conducted in Nepal.

Asset Subtitle

Kathleen Schmeler
March 2020

Keywords

cervical cancer prevention

bioengineering group

Rice University

HPV DNA testing

high-resolution micro endoscope

low-resource settings