Ophira Ginsburg, Verna Vanderpuye, Ann Marie Beddoe, Nirmala Bhoo-Pathy, Freddie Bray, Carlo Caduff, Narjust Florez, Ibtihal Fadhil, Nazik Hammad, Shirin Heidari, Ishu Kataria, Somesh Kumar, Erica Liebermann, Jenna Moodley, Miriam Mutebi, Deborah Mukherji, Rachel Nugent, Winnie K W So, Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis, Karla Unger-Saldaña, Gavin Allman, Jennifer Bhimani, MarÃa T Bourlon, Michelle A B Eala, Peter S Hovmand, Yek-Ching Kong, Sonia Menon, Carolyn D Taylor, Isabelle Soerjomataram
The Lancet – September 26, 2023
Women interact with cancer in complex ways, as healthy individuals participating in cancer prevention, as patients, as health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and as unpaid caregivers. In all these domains, women often are subject to overlapping forms of discrimination, such as due to age, race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, that render them structurally marginalized. These myriad factors can restrict a woman’s rights and opportunities to avoid cancer risks, are a barrier to diagnosis and quality cancer care, maintain an unpaid caregiver workforce that is predominantly female, and hinder women’s professional advancement. The Lancet Commission on women, power and cancer was created to address urgent questions at the intersection of social inequality, cancer risk, and outcomes, and the status of women in society.