From Prevention to Follow-Through in Cervical Cancer Care

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable forms of cancer, yet thousands of women in the United States continue to be diagnosed each year. The American Cancer Society estimates that 13,490 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in 2026 and approximately 4,200 women will die from the disease. More than 90% of cervical cancers are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). 

Healthcare organizations have multiple opportunities to intervene before cervical cancer becomes invasive. HPV vaccination can prevent infection with cancer-causing HPV types, while routine screening can identify HPV infection and cervical precancer before disease progresses. The challenge is making sure patients receive these preventive services at the right time and receive appropriate follow-up when screening identifies a potential problem. 

Prevention Can Change the Trajectory 

Most HPV infections clear on their own, but persistent infection with high-risk HPV can cause cervical cell changes that progress over time. This progression from HPV infection to cervical precancer and, potentially, invasive cancer creates multiple opportunities for prevention and early intervention. 

Vaccination is an important part of that prevention. Routine HPV vaccination is recommended at ages 11 or 12 and may begin as early as age 9. The vaccine can prevent more than 90% of cancers caused by HPV. Screening provides another opportunity by identifying HPV infection and cervical precancer before invasive disease develops. 

The impact of earlier detection can be significant. National Cancer Institute data show five-year relative survival of approximately 91% when cervical cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, compared with 60% after regional spread and 19% after distant spread. The clinical case for prevention and screening is clear. The harder question for many healthcare organizations is how to translate those tools into consistent action across an eligible patient population. 

The Screening Gap Is Also an Access Gap 

Despite decades of progress in cervical cancer prevention, screening coverage has recently moved in the wrong direction. CDC data show that the percentage of U.S. women up to date with cervical cancer screening declined from 80.0% in 2019 to 79.1% in 2021 and 75.8% in 2023. 

Access to routine healthcare plays an important role in who gets screened. Women with private insurance, for example, had an 80.0% screening rate compared with 55.7% among uninsured women. Screening rates were also higher among women with a usual source of care and those without transportation barriers. 

These differences help illustrate why making a screening recommendation may not be enough. Patients may need education about why screening matters, help understanding when they are due, assistance scheduling an appointment, reminders to complete screening, or support addressing transportation and other access barriers. 

For patients who are less connected to routine healthcare, proactive outreach can be especially important. Cervical cancer screening is better viewed as a care pathway rather than a single preventive service. Identifying a gap is the first step. Closing it depends on helping the patient successfully move from being overdue to completing recommended care. 

Getting Screened Is Only the First Step 

Completing a cervical cancer screening does not necessarily mean the preventive care journey is complete. An abnormal result may require additional testing, diagnostic evaluation, or treatment of cervical precancer. Each additional step creates another opportunity for follow-up to be delayed or for a patient to become disengaged. 

Research examining the management of abnormal cervical cancer screening results across three U.S. healthcare settings found that only 52% of patients received guideline-concordant follow-up. That gap matters because the value of screening depends in part on what happens after an abnormal finding. 

For healthcare organizations, improving cervical cancer prevention requires looking beyond screening rates alone. A reliable preventive pathway also needs processes for tracking abnormal results, communicating next steps, coordinating recommended follow-up, and helping patients remain engaged through diagnostic resolution. 

What a More Coordinated Prevention Pathway Looks Like 

For healthcare organizations managing large patient populations, improving cervical cancer prevention requires repeatable processes that connect identification, education, screening, and follow-up. Rather than relying only on individual office visits to uncover gaps, care teams can proactively identify opportunities to move patients toward recommended preventive care. 

That may include: 

• Identifying patients who are due or overdue for cervical cancer screening  

• Conducting proactive outreach and providing education about the importance of screening  

• Helping patients schedule appointments and addressing transportation or other access barriers  

• Following up when recommended screening has not been completed  

• Tracking abnormal screening results and recommended next steps  

• Coordinating diagnostic evaluation or specialist referrals when needed  

• Reinforcing HPV vaccination and other preventive recommendations when appropriate  

• Helping patients remain engaged through follow-up and ongoing care  

None of these activities is particularly novel in isolation. The difficulty is making sure they happen consistently for every appropriate patient, especially when preventive, primary, specialty, and diagnostic care may take place across multiple settings. 

That continuity matters. A missed appointment, unresolved transportation barrier, or incomplete referral can interrupt a process that depends on patients successfully moving from one step to the next. 

Active Outreach Can Improve Follow-Through 

Knowing that a patient is overdue is only useful if there is a reliable process for helping that patient complete the next step. Evidence suggests that active outreach and navigation can make a difference. 

In a randomized clinical trial examining overdue abnormal cancer screening results, 22.9% of patients receiving usual care completed recommended follow-up within 120 days. When electronic health record reminders were combined with proactive outreach and patient navigation, completion increased to 31.4%. 

Technology can help care teams recognize where gaps exist, but identifying those gaps does not address the practical reasons care may remain incomplete. Outreach gives care teams an opportunity to reconnect with patients, understand what may be getting in the way, and help them navigate the next step. 

Supporting Patients Across the Cervical Cancer Prevention Journey 

At CareHarmony, our approach to care coordination is designed to support patients across preventive screening and follow-up while complementing the work of physicians and other members of the clinical team.

Depending on a patient’s needs, care coordination may include identifying overdue screenings, providing education, helping schedule care, addressing transportation or other access barriers, following up when recommended care has not been completed, and helping coordinate next steps after an abnormal result.

A patient may understand that cervical cancer screening is important but still need help scheduling an appointment. Another may have difficulty getting to that appointment because of transportation. Someone else may complete screening but need support navigating recommended follow-up. These needs can be easy to lose sight of when they occur between traditional clinical encounters.

Care coordination provides a structure for keeping those needs visible and helping patients continue moving through their care. It does not replace the physician-patient relationship or the expertise of primary care, gynecology, and oncology teams. Instead, it supports the work that happens around those relationships, helping connect preventive recommendations with the outreach, navigation, and follow-through patients may need.

From Prevention Guidelines to Prevention in Practice 

Healthcare organizations already have effective tools for preventing cervical cancer. HPV vaccination can reduce the underlying risk of HPV-related cancers, while routine screening can identify cervical precancer before it becomes invasive. The significant difference in survival between early and later-stage disease underscores why preventing progression and detecting disease earlier matter. 

The opportunity now is to build reliable processes around those tools. That means identifying patients with care gaps, reaching them before disease progresses, addressing barriers to preventive care, and maintaining continuity when additional follow-up is needed. 

For healthcare leaders, improving cervical cancer prevention is not simply about making another screening recommendation during an office visit. It is about creating a system that helps more patients successfully move from being due for preventive care to completing it and, when needed, through the next steps in their care. 

Prevention starts with the right tools. Achieving it at scale requires coordination. 

Sources 

American Cancer Society. Key Statistics for Cervical Cancer. 2026. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cancers Caused by HPV. 2025. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Genital HPV Infection. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HPV Vaccine Recommendations. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Use of Cancer Screening Tests, United States, 2023. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2025. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infection: STI Treatment Guidelines. 

National Cancer Institute. Cervical Cancer Causes, Risk Factors, and Prevention. 

National Cancer Institute. Cervical Cancer Prognosis and Survival Rates. 

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Cervical Cancer: Screening. 

Cheng D, et al. “Assessing Management of Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Results and Concordance with Guideline Recommendations in Three US Healthcare Settings.” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. 2024. 

Atlas SJ, et al. “A Multilevel Primary Care Intervention to Improve Follow-Up of Overdue Abnormal Cancer Screening Test Results: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA. 2023.