Pharmafile Logo

The Power Dynamics of Women and Cancer

Women, Power, and Cancer: a Lancet commission, studied the interaction of women and cancer through a social justice and equity lens. What does ‘power’ mean when it comes to cancer care?

- PMLiVE

“The origins of our commission, Women, Power, and Cancer, date back to a 3-part series of articles in the Lancet called Health, Equity, and Women’s Cancers that I was privileged to have led,” says Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Senior Advisor for Clinical Research at the National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health, National Institutes of Health.

For the series, 40 people from 18 countries came together to focus on breast and cervical cancer—diseases that we have adequate knowledge about how to prevent, control, and in many cases cure, Ginsburg says. And yet there were huge national and, more importantly, global health disparities with these two cancers in terms of women accessing essential information.

The articles, published online in 2016, drew attention to the social issues that prevent women from accessing care in different settings.

Several years later, The Lancet’s editor in chief asked Ginsburg if she thought enough progress had been made around women accessing vital healthcare. “Of course, the answer was no!” Ginsburg says. That led to the idea for a broader study, not just around cervical and breast cancer but across the cancer continuum, in terms of women understanding their risks; having the agency, the right, and the opportunity to prevent cancer from occurring in the first place; and being able to seek and obtain quality, respectful care.

As you’ll hear in this insightful episode, the commission studied the interaction of women and cancer “through a social justice and equity lens” to highlight the global inequities that women face with respect to cancer care and control. 

The “power” in the title refers to control in 3 domains: decision-making, knowledge, and economics, Ginsburg says. She, co-chair Verna Vanderpuye, and the other commissioners were stunned to find that cancer ranks in the top 3 causes of premature mortality among women in almost all countries worldwide. They found that of the 2.3 million women who died prematurely from cancer in 2020, 1.5 million such deaths could have been prevented if every woman had access to what we already know regarding primary prevention and early detection.

In 2020 alone, 1 million children lost their mothers to cancer. “And that number obviously is horrifying,” Ginsburg says.

Listeners of this episode will learn the 10 priority actions the committee identified for moving forward. “That may sound like a lot,” Vanderpuye says, “but the scope of the problem is so huge it’s the only way to make sure we can leverage our findings with what should happen in real life.”

Vanderpuye, senior consultant at the National Center for Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine in Accra, Ghana, and adjunct professor in the Department of Oncology at Queens University in Kingston, Canada, also touches on a theme that surfaces throughout all the conversations with women leaders in healthcare: “We need more women CEOs of hospitals all the way down to medical schools, to deans, to leaders in medical oncology, boards in oncology, societies, academic research.” Fewer women in leadership roles, she says, means funding and women-specific healthcare needs and issues get overshadowed.

Listen now to season 2, episode 2 on MedscapeSpotify or Apple.

Follow us on LinkedIn for updates on upcoming podcasts and more eye-opening conversations.

For more information, please contact Jelena Spyropoulos (Global) or Piyali Shin (US).

 

About Medscape Education Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free accredited CME and CE courses for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

This content was provided by Medscape Education

Company Details

 Latest Content from  Medscape Education 

The Power of Patient Insights to Improve Cancer Care

Two global patient advocacy groups—The Lymphoma Coalition and Lung Cancer Europe— are compiling data from their communities on the real-world experience of living with cancer. What the data reveals sometimes...

Medscape Education Continues Its Patient-Centric Mission at EHA 2024

Anticipation is building at Medscape Education as the team prepares for the EHA 2024 Congress. Medscape Education is excited to announce a significant presence during the congress including a Medscape...

Getting in-sync with Public Health at SYNC 2024

Medscape Education is bringing its public health efforts to Washington, DC for the SYNC conference on HIV, HCV, STIs, Harm Reduction, and LGBTQ health. During the conference, Lindsey will present...

Medscape Education and KDIGO Nephrology Collaboration Accelerates Improvements to Patient Care

Ahead of the 61st European Renal Association (ERA) Congress, Medscape Education and KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) announce an educational collaboration through a series of webinars to improve anemia-related...

Medscape Brings Impact and Data to ESPGHAN

The ESPGHAN Congress in Milan was full of impact as Medscape Education Global presented 5 scientific posters examining the outcomes of their education. The posters detailed the impact Medscape Education...

Empowering Nurses Through Education

Nurse education is powerful and makes an impact.

Pioneering Paths: Women Leadership in Rare Disease

Rare diseases are often thought of as affecting one in 100,000 or one in 1,000,000 people, and that is true for some conditions. But there are many rare diseases that...

TRANSFORMING CME IMPACT: MEDSCAPE’S GAME-CHANGING APPROACH

It’s time for the CME industry to evolve. During recent years, access to data, modern technologies, and methodologies have allowed for deeper analysis of data and a better understanding of...

Why Women in Medicine Should Embrace Social Media

Of course social media has its downside. But online platforms are a powerful tool for women in medicine in terms of forming communities, fighting misinformation, amplifying one another, and galvanizing...

Exceptional Impact Presented at ECCMID 2024

The ECCMID conference in Barcelona, Spain marked the start of Medscape’s publication season in Europe. With three posters being presented at the conference, Medscape shared highlights from the powerful impact...