# Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan

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

## TL;DR

Ran the large Indian trials that showed a single round of HPV testing halves cervical cancer deaths and that visual oral examination cuts deaths in tobacco users, and led the study behind single-dose HPV vaccination.

## Summary

Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan trained at the Cancer Institute (WIA) in Chennai and spent most of his career at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, where he headed screening research. He led the Osmanabad cluster-randomised trial (131,746 women), in which one round of HPV testing cut cervical cancer deaths by about half (34 versus 64 deaths; hazard ratio 0.52), the Kerala oral cancer screening trial (191,873 people), which reduced oral cancer deaths by a third among tobacco or alcohol users, and the IARC India HPV vaccine study whose one-dose results underpin the WHO's single-dose recommendation.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Role: Former Head, Early Detection and Prevention Section and Screening Group, IARC; screening trialist
- Specialisms: Cancer screening trials; Cervical cancer prevention; Oral cancer screening; HPV vaccination; Global oncology

## Sources

- IARC: https://www.iarc.who.int
- PubMed author search: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Sankaranarayanan%20R%5BAuthor%5D%20screening%20India

## Connected records

- cancers: [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/), [Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/head-and-neck/)
- technologies: [HPV & HBV vaccination](https://onco.cc/technologies/hpv-vaccine/), [HPV DNA testing and self-sampling](https://onco.cc/technologies/hpv-testing/)
- institutions: [Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar](https://onco.cc/institutions/cancer-institute-adyar/), [International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/iarc/)
- trials: [IARC India HPV vaccine dose study (one, two or three doses)](https://onco.cc/trials/iarc-india-hpv-dose-study/), [Kerala oral cancer visual screening trial (Trivandrum)](https://onco.cc/trials/kerala-oral-screening/), [Osmanabad cervical screening trial (HPV testing vs cytology vs VIA)](https://onco.cc/trials/osmanabad-hpv-screening/)
- key papers: [Effect of screening on oral cancer mortality in Kerala, India](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-sankaranarayanan-oral-screening-lancet-2005/), [HPV screening for cervical cancer in rural India (Osmanabad)](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-sankaranarayanan-hpv-screening-nejm-2009/), [Vaccine efficacy against persistent HPV 16/18 infection at 10 years after one, two and three doses of quadrivalent HPV vaccine in girls in India](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-basu-single-dose-hpv-lancet-oncol-2021/)

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