Unhealthy dynamics

Gender bias in cancer care reflects a larger health care crisis

Barely a week after Indian politicians basked in the triumph of passing a law mandating reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha for women, The Lancet published a sobering study highlighting the innate gender bias in cancer care. The study, titled “Women, Power and Cancer”, examined women and cancer in 185 countries and discovered a clear link between societal power dynamics and women’s access to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Cancer ranks among the top three causes of premature deaths in most countries. For India, The Lancet findings should be worrying for public health administrators. It said around 63 per cent