A School of Public Health (SPH) study of cervical cancer in the developing world has shown that new strategies for the prevention and treatment of the disease could reduce mortality rates by up to 30 percent, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association this summer.

The study—led by Sue Goldie of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and Thomas Wright of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons—used a computer model to test new approaches to the leading cause of cancer deaths in women in developing nations.

Cervical cancer kills approximately 190,000 women a year, almost exclusively in developing nations.

In wealthier nations like the U.S., pap smear tests to detect pre-cancerous lesions are commonly available, and incidences of the disease are very low.

Although the World Health Organization recommends that women have three pap smears a year, many poorer countries lack the money, technology and trained clinicians required to perform the tests—as well as the infrastructure needed to track women whose tests are abnormal.

The SPH study suggests that alternative screening methods could save thousands of lives.

“Other screening options such as [DNA] testing for human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the virus that causes cervical cancer, or simple visual screening methods called Direct Visual Inspection (DVI) of the cervix followed by immediate treatment, could save up to one third of these women if used just once in each woman’s lifetime around the age of thirty-five,” Goldie says.

Furthermore, the study suggests that such new testing methods are cost effective.