Evaluation of an Integrated Population-Based Cancer Screening Programme in Low-Resource Settings: A Demonstration Model from Villupuram, South India.

This paper reports on a demonstration model implemented to examine the design, execution, early outcomes and scalability of a population-based integrated cancer screening programme in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu. This programme aims to strengthen the advocacy of cancer awareness and screening uptake for oral, breast, and cervical cancers through oral visual inspection (OVI), clinical breast examination (CBE), and HPV-DNA testing, while systematically assessing performance across the cancer screening and care continuum. The central aim of this model is to generate robust, context-specific evidence on outreach strategies, screening modalities, and determinants of uptake, thereby providing actionable insights to guide the optimisation of combined population-based cancer screening programmes and the formulation of future evidence-based policies.