“We are honored to be a part of this funding initiative that extends the huge impact that years of partnership in Botswana has had on improving care for cervical cancer patients,” said Surbhi Grover, MD, an associate professor of Radiation Oncology and the director of global radiation oncology at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania. Grover co-leads the grant with Katharine Rendle, PhD, an assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn Radiation Oncology has been working with colleagues in Botswana since 2011, with Grover leading efforts in cervical cancer care since 2014 when she moved full time to Botswana. “This grant provides the opportunity for our clinical and research teams at Penn and the University of Botswana to test innovative strategies that can directly improve the lives of women diagnosed with cervical cancer in Botswana,” said Rendle, who is also deputy director for research at the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I).
Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for females in Botswana and is the most common cancer among younger women between the ages of 15 to 44, according to 2021 data from HPV Information Centre. In fact, the age-standardized mortality rate for cervical cancer is 10 times higher in Botswana (20.1 per 100,000) than in the United States (2.1 per 100,000) according to 2020 Globocan estimates.
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