Isabel Mestres: Take action to address gender equity in cancer care

Isabel Mestres shared an article on LinkedIn:

”Take action to address gender equity in cancer care.

Gender-inequity is negatively impacting women’s outcomes as well as care across the continuum of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) from cardiovascular disease, to hemophilia, and beyond. It is a critical but historically overlooked component of NCD care a fact that is costing lives.

The good news is that as we reflect on UNGA79 and march toward the Fourth High-Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025, we have a unique opportunity to leverage leadership in the cancer space to advocate for a more gender-responsive approach across all NCDs.

Thanks to the landmark Women, power, and cancer: A Lancet Commission report, we are ahead in addressing this challenge in cancer care or at least in articulating the challenge. We know from Dr. Ophira Ginsburg and The Lancet co-authors, for example, that a staggering 800,000 women out of 2.3 million who die prematurely from cancer annually could potentially be saved through improved access to optimal care. We know that this inequity is more pronounced in resource-limited settings, where women tend to be diagnosed at more advanced stages and that factors such as race and ethnicity further compound these delays.

Closing the gender equity care gap for women globally will require us to learn from pioneers who are already breaking down the barriers faced by women at the ground level. And that’s why City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) was delighted to host an expert roundtable during UNGA79 focused on Taking Action for Gender Equity in Cancer Care.

In the last year, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) has been working with seven pioneering leaders in cancer care from low- and middle-income countries to share what they know works in cancer care and believe is the path forward. Building on their insights, and in consultation with dozens of experts around the world, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) launched a new seven-year strategy to integrate a gender responsive approach to cancer care at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

As we reflected on this exciting step forward and joined together with our working group and other incredible allies in New York City, a few key themes stood out that can help all of us consider how to effectively address this issue in cancer care and beyond.

1. Measurement matters for progress and policy.

Better evidence generation, from the facility level up, is critical to both measuring progress as well as creating sustainable change. We need to make sure we are collecting gender-disaggregated data, that is, data which allow one to see and quantify the different experiences between genders, and are sharing these data and learnings in a way that can be easily understood by policymakers with the power to prioritise gender in cancer care.

At City Cancer Challenge (C/Can), fostering research and data collection at the nexus of women and cancer is a core element of our gender strategy. We look forward to strengthening the evidence base on the benefits of gender-responsive cancer care and supporting knowledge exchange across cities and countries.

2. It’s time to look beyond healthcare itself.

Women interact with cancer in multiple ways within and beyond the healthcare system and therefore interventions to address gender inequity must also take a holistic approach and do so in a way that is locally nuanced.

From Mexico to Malaysia, we’ve heard from our city leaders about the multiple and intersecting barriers women face in cancer care, from the risk of financial calamity to difficulty of facing stigma, or even the autonomy to make decisions about their own care.

Fortunately, we have the opportunity to learn from successful interventions, such as in maternal and reproductive health and implement proven strategies to quickly advance a more gender-responsive cancer care approach and in-turn improve outcomes.

3. We need to build multi-sectoral capacity and collaboration.

Given the intersectional nature of gender and cancer care, we need to apply a gender-sensitive lens across all sectors of society from health ministries, to journalists, scientists, the private sector, patient advocates, and beyond.

It’s time to take cancer care beyond the biomedical to address the social realities women face—considering not just the diagnosis or treatment a woman needs, but how she will get to or afford it. Through building and supporting multidisciplinary care teams and coalitions, we also can ensure broad engagement and support.

Turning commitment into action.

City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) has galvanised a $10M commitment to implement a gender-responsive approach, starting in three pilot cities: Tiblisi, Leon, and Nairobi and later to be scaled up across all 15 cities where we work.

We’ve secured initial funding and support from foundational partners, including Amgen, Global Focus on Cancer (US charitable organisation supported by donations from Eli Lilly and Company), MSD, Roche and Siemens Healthineers, in addition to backing from implementation partners such as health ministries within local governments. Now we’re ready to transform commitment into action.

The City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) model is a proven one and through it we can localise innovation, creating a bridge between global resources and city-level expertise. But we can’t do it alone.

Today, building on the insights of our expert roundtable and our growing network, we’re asking for everyone who touches the cancer care continuum from R and D to health literacy and post-surgical care to join us in building a gender-responsive cancer care approach.

Despite the continued lack of female representation at decision-making levels across the healthcare landscape, as we sat in a room with many accomplished female leaders and allies, we felt the power and potential of our community. By the UNGA80, we expect to be reporting out on our progress and supporting a UN declaration that rightly centres gender equity in cancer care, and beyond.

The event and presence of our City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) Working Group was made possible by Merck, known as MSD outside of U.S. and Canada, and Siemens Healthineers.

Isabel Mestres, CEO of City Cancer Challenge (C/Can).

For more than 15 years, I’ve worked in leadership roles in business development, stakeholder engagement, global resource mobilisation, communications and marketing for international NGOs and Private Sector organisations. My current role as CEO at Cancer City Challenge is to build a deeply connected organisation, serving all of our stakeholders and realising our vision of creating trusting, transversal relationships and partnerships, while always putting the patient at the centre.”

Isabel Mestres is the CEO of the City Cancer Challenge (C/Can), previously being the Director of Global Public Affairs. She also led initiatives in membership and partnership development at the International Union for Cancer Control. Mestres’ strategic sense positions her to propel C/Can forward, advancing its mission of enhancing cancer care accessibility in low- and middle-income nations.