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Genesa M. Greening: A milestone for women’s health in Breast Cancer

Photo of Genesa M. Greening/LinkedIn

Jan 14, 2024, 17:46

Genesa M. Greening: A milestone for women’s health in Breast Cancer

Genesa M. Greening, Chief Executive Officer of Vancity Community Foundation, shared on LinkedIn:

“I wanted to take a moment to celebrate a milestone for women’s health in Breast Cancer that was announced earlier this week by the Province of Breast Cancer.

‘As of Jan. 29, 2024, women and individuals from 25 to 69 with a cervix can choose to order a kit to self-screen for the human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer, or have their screening sample collected by a health-care provider.’

Why is this important? (other than the obvious reasons!)

‘Whereas pap tests detect changes to the cells of the cervix that have been caused by HPV, HPV testing can detect the presence of high-risk types of HPV before cell changes have occurred,’ said Dr. Gina Ogilvie, Tier 1 Canada research chair in global control of HPV-related diseases and prevention, University of British Columbia, and affiliate scientist, Breast Cancer. ‘Cervix self-screening is not only more effective, but also safe and easy and will help us prevent many unnecessary deaths.’

I want to congratulate Dr. Gina Ogilvie, and her team, for relentlessly leading the work resulting in this important change in women’s health policy.

I had the deep privilege of taking an ask to the federal government leading up to the Women Deliver Conference in June 2019. We were able to secure a $10M investment and a commitment from the Canadian Government to the eventual elimination of cervical cancer.

The Canadian Federal Minister of Health, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, allocated a $10 million dollar grant to the Global HPV Control team, led by Dr. Gina Ogilvie. This enabled the pilot that was able to prove out the efficacy of HPV testing.

In case you ever wonder what the value of research is – here it is!”

Genesa M. Greening: A milestone for women's health in Breast Cancer