Meritxell Mallafré Larrosa: Cities Taking Action for Gender Equity in Cancer Care

Meritxell Mallafré Larrosa shared a post on LinkedIn:

“After a great WCC2024, I’m here in New York for UNGA79 to launch C/Can’s groundbreaking seven-year strategy: Cities Taking Action for Gender Equity in Cancer Care!

It’s been an incredible journey that started with my time as a mentee at The Lancet Commission on Women, Power, and Cancer, and has now led me to spearhead the technical efforts at City Cancer Challenge in co-designing this strategy alongside an amazing global group of women experts.

The statistics are staggering:

• 800,000 women die prematurely from cancer every year—lives that could be saved through better access to care
• 85% of women with cervical cancer living in LMICs
• 60% of breast cancer deaths occurring in developing economies

It’s clear that we must take urgent, gender-responsive action to close these gaps.

Our new strategy aims to break down these barriers by integrating gender equity into cancer care across C/Can’s network of 15 cities spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Together, we are committed to making cancer care more equitable for women in all their diversity.

A huge thank you to the C/Can team for their leadership, especially Isabel Mestres, and to the fantastic members of our Gender Working Group for their expertise and dedication: Nur Aishah Mohd Taib, Julia Ismael, MPH, MD, Nwamaka Lasebikan, Miriam Mutebi, MD, MSc, FACS, Elia Lara Lona, Elene Mariamidze and Carolina Goic.

And a special thanks to Ophira Ginsburg for her trust in welcoming me to the gender and cancer community, as well as Franciscka Lucien and Sarah Barton from CGI’s Health Equity and Women and Girls teams for their continued support.

Looking forward to seeing the evidence translate into practice and policy as we support the build-up of gender-responsive health systems for cancer care.”

Source: Meritxell Mallafré Larrosa/LinkedIn

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Meritxell Mallafré Larrosa is a Research Lead at City Cancer Challenge, where she develops and implements research initiatives to enhance cancer care and integrate evidence-informed decision-making into policymaking.

She previously served as an Early Career Visiting Scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization.