Announcing the joint venture this morning, Dr Sankaranarayanan of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that globally, cervical cancer affects 4,50,000 women every year and kills over two lakh. In India, one lakh women are detected with this cancer every year and 50,000 succumb to it.

``One of the few cancers that can be detected almost 20 years before its clinical manifestation, cervical cancer can be cured,'' Sankaranarayanan added. ``In the West andEurope, the number of deaths due to cervical cancer have come down drastically. The main reason for this is good screening facilities.''

The new study project being undertaken in India, Thailand, South America and Africa, will look for ``cost-effective screening methods'' to detect the disease which is caused by the 13 types of Human Pappilloma virus. The aim is to see which of the three methods is most effective and cost-efficient.

According to experts in the field, the existing facilities in India are not enough for the vast population. While in the West, annual screening has reduced cases of cervical cancer, in India and other developing countries, cheaper alternatives are required.

The Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention, which is coordinating the projects, is made up of five international organisations, including the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO body. This consortium will work with in-country partners in Central and South America, Africa, South and South-East Asia onvarious programmes for cervical cancer prevention and education.

Explaining, Dr K A Dinshaw, director of the Tata Memorial Centre said: ``This collaborative programme will investigate three different methods to detect pre-cancerous changes in the cervix. It will involve 120,000 women who will be tested by three different screening methods.''

While Tata Hospital will provide all the technical support, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Hospital in Barshi will conduct the actual field study. The Osmanabad district has been selected because of the high incidents of cervical cancer in the area as indicated by the Indian Cancer Registry statistics. Similar projects are being undertaken in Calcutta, Trivandrum and Madurai.