The Landscape
Breast cancer affects approximately one in eight women in the United States over their lifetime. Ovarian cancer — often called a silent killer because it is frequently diagnosed at advanced stages — has a five-year survival rate that drops sharply from early to late diagnosis. Cervical cancer, largely preventable through HPV vaccination and regular screening, still kills thousands of American women each year, disproportionately women without access to preventive care.
Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States, and its rates are rising — a trend associated with increasing rates of obesity, but also with underinvestment in understanding the disease’s biology in diverse populations.
The Equity Dimension
Black women are diagnosed with breast cancer at later stages and die from it at higher rates than white women, despite lower overall incidence. This is not a biological inevitability. It is the product of unequal access to screening, unequal quality of care, and clinical cultures that have consistently underinvestigated and undertreated cancer in Black women.
Cervical cancer mortality is concentrated in rural areas and among women without insurance — the direct result of inadequate access to HPV vaccination and Pap screening. This is preventable.
The Screening Policy Agenda
The Breast Cancer Early Detection Coalition, affiliated with Women’s Health Advocates, has been pressing for comprehensive access to early detection tools for all women. The goal is straightforward: no woman should die from a cancer that could have been detected early because she lacked access to a screening.
Coverage requirements, community outreach, mobile screening programs, and rural health infrastructure are all part of making that goal real.
What We Track
We monitor FDA approvals for cancer diagnostics and treatments with sex-specific implications, screening coverage decisions under ACA and Medicare, HPV vaccination policy, NCI research funding, and legislative activity on cancer prevention and equity.
