How does cancer affect women’s lives? Not just as patients, as you might assume, but also as health professionals, researchers, policymakers and as unpaid caregivers. In all these areas, women often face multiple, overlapping forms of discrimination, which then restrict their ability to prevent cancer, access care, entrench them as unpaid caregivers, and hinder their 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. We speak to Prof Dr Nirmala Bhoo Pathy, Professor of Epidemiology from University of Malaya and one of the members of the Lancet Commission, as well as Prof Emeritus Dato Dr Yip Cheng Har, President of the International Society of Surgery.

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