International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Pharmaceutical companies Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have negotiated a rate of $4.50 per dose to supply HPV vaccines to developing countries, a cost described by campaigners as "unjustifiably high".

Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said the Gavi Alliance, which funds vaccine programmes in the world's poorest countries, had received a poor deal from the two companies.

Cervical cancer screening is a necessity for Zimbabwean women, the country's health and child welfare minister has said.

Henry Madzorera made the statement as he launched the £60 million, four-year integrated support programme at Wilkins Hospital, reports the Zimbabwean.

Elizabeth Owusuah, the principal midwife at the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital in Sunyani in Ghana, has urged local women to go for a voluntary cervical cancer screening check-up.

The Indonesian municipality of Denpasar has pledged to lower cervical cancer figures by providing free vaccinations and pap smears for 2,000 young girls this year.

Many women could be saved from cervical cancer in South Africa if the cost of a vaccine was reduced, a charity has said.

Women in Zambia are being encouraged to get screened for cervical cancer sooner rather than later.

According to the Livingstone General Hospital, many females are only getting treatment for the disease when it is at an advanced stage, the Times of Zambia reports.

HIV-positive women in Zimbabwe are now living longer, but as a result are finding that they have an increased risk of cervical cancer, new research suggests.

Around 5,000 women are set to benefit from a free cervical cancer screening in Nigerian's Oyo State.

The three-day programme has been set up by the Zonta Club of Ibadan, a non-governmental organisation which has been established to improve the status of women, reports the News Agency of Nigeria.

A new study has suggested that the success of a commonly used breast cancer drug could depend on a woman's levels of a certain liver enzyme.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group examined how genetic differences in CYP2D6 affect the way tamoxifen works.

Ultrasounds could provide a viable alternative to mammograms when it comes to detecting breast cancer in its early stages.

This is according to research by the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine in the US, which suggested that this could be a particularly significant finding for countries where women find it difficult to access mammograms.