# Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/institutions/acpcc/  
OnCo record `acpcc` (Institution). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A Melbourne organisation founded in 1964 as the Victorian Cytology Service that ran Compass, the trial behind Australia's switch to HPV-based cervical screening, and partnered the government on the national strategy to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.

## Summary

The ACPCC was founded in December 1964 as the Victorian Cytology Service and has changed its name as its work widened; as the VCS Foundation it sponsors Compass, the randomised trial of five-yearly primary HPV screening against two-and-a-half-yearly liquid-based cytology registered as NCT02328872, which enrolled 76,181 women. The Compass pilot showed, in a population where the youngest women had been offered HPV vaccination, that primary HPV screening found more high-grade precancer than cytology; it was published in 2017, the year the national programme moved to HPV testing every five years, in December.

The Department of Health's National Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer in Australia was developed in partnership with the ACPCC. It extends the World Health Organization's targets to Australia: 90 percent HPV vaccination for boys as well as girls, 70 percent five-yearly screening participation from 25 to 74, 95 percent treatment, and fewer than 4 cases of cervical cancer per 100,000 women, with elimination by 2035. The ACPCC states on its own site that Australia is anticipated to be the first country to reach that threshold.

## Fields

- Kind: Institution
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Also known as: ACPCC; VCS Foundation; Victorian Cytology Service
- City: Melbourne, AU
- Type: research-institute
- Website: https://acpcc.org.au

## Sources

- ACPCC: about: https://acpcc.org.au/about-acpcc/
- National Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer in Australia (Internet Archive copy, 18 May 2026): https://web.archive.org/web/20260518025524/https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-strategy-for-the-elimination-of-cervical-cancer-in-australia
- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02328872: Compass: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02328872

## Connected records

- cancers: [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/)
- fronts: [Prevention & Risk](https://onco.cc/fronts/prevention/)
- technologies: [HPV & HBV vaccination](https://onco.cc/technologies/hpv-vaccine/)
- institutions: [Cancer Australia](https://onco.cc/institutions/cancer-australia/)
- trials: [Compass (primary HPV cervical screening trial)](https://onco.cc/trials/compass-cervical-hpv-screening/)
- people: [Karen Canfell](https://onco.cc/people/karen-canfell/)
- key papers: [Cervical screening with primary HPV testing or cytology in a population of women in which those aged 33 years or younger had previously been offered HPV vaccination: results of the Compass pilot randomised trial](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-canfell-compass-pilot-plos-med-2017/), [The projected timeframe until cervical cancer elimination in Australia: a modelling study](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-hall-cervical-elimination-australia-lancet-public-health-2019/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/acpcc.json