Black women and cervical cancer

PRESS RELEASE: Cervivor Founder and Chief Visionary, Tamika Felder Invited to Share Opening Remarks for First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden and the American Cancer Society’s Launch of The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Roundtables

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In February 2022, the American Cancer Society announced they would be launching two national roundtables: one for cervical cancer and the other for breast cancer. This was a response to President Biden’s call to action in reducing cancer incidence and death rates faster. This initiative is to bring together leading organizations and experts in the cervical and breast cancer space to drive progress and improve the lives of cancer patients, as well as their families.

The objectives of the national roundtables align with the President’s Cancer Panel’s report Closing Gaps in Cancer Screening: Connecting People, Communities, and Systems to Improve Equity and Access. 

The report addresses the need to:

  • Improve and Align Communication: Develop effective communications about cancer screening that reach all populations; and expand and strengthen National Cancer Roundtables that include a focus on cancer screening.
  • Facilitate Equitable Access: Barriers contribute to lower rates of cancer screening initiation and the recommended follow-up observed among many populations in the United States; there is a need to provide and sustainably fund community-oriented outreach and support services to promote appropriate screening and follow-up care plus increase access to self-sampling for cancer screening.
  • Strengthen Workforce Collaborations: Team-based care has the potential to improve implementation of cancer screening but in order to accomplish this, supportive policies and a commitment to team-based care approaches are needed which include the empowerment of healthcare team members to support screening plus having the opportunity for training and residency programs; and expanding access to genetic testing and counseling for cancer risk assessments to catch cancer early.
  • Create effective health IT: Providers and patients alike are faced with more information than they can process in a reasonable amount of time. Health information technology (IT) has potential to help providers, patients, and healthcare systems quickly access and effectively use clinical knowledge and patient-specific data.

Cervivor Founder and Chief Visionary, Tamika Felder was invited to speak on behalf of cervical cancer patient advocates and their families to increase awareness, impact change, and work collectively towards eliminating cervical cancer. Tamika and Cervivor, Inc. have been long-standing influencers on the panel since 2003, helping to provide vision as well as patient stories. She shares, “For me it is personal. My legacy won’t be the lives that I bring into this world but the lives I will save.”

First Lady Jill Biden attends an American Cancer Society Roundtable event, Monday, October 24, 2022, in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Recording artist and cancer prevention advocate, Mary J. Blige shared the personal impact cancer has had on her family in recent years and why she has dedicated so much time to awareness. She phrases a key message, “I’ve dedicated time to making people understand their health is their wealth and urging them to make it a priority.”

American Cancer Society CEO, Dr. Karen Knudsen states, “We at the American Cancer Society represent all 1.9 million Americans that hear each year that they will have cancer and we are absolutely resonating with the goal of the Cancer Moonshot to end cancer as we know it.”

Dr. Karen Knudsen, Tamika Felder, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and Mary J. Blige

Dr. Knudsen also brings to light that breast cancer still remains to be the second leading cause of cancer death for women in this country and number one for Black and Latina women. 14,000+ women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and over 4,000 will die from the disease. Black and Latina women are again, impacted at nearly twice the rate as their Caucasian peers.

First Lady, Dr. Biden emphasizes there should be no woman left behind. There is an absolute need for collaborative efforts including the patient advocate voice because this impacts us all. The focus is to put patients and their families at the center of their cancer – from diagnosis to survivorship and we are rewriting the narrative of cancer.

“We don’t have to be afraid of cancer anymore!” 

First Lady Jill Biden bids farewell to singer Mary J. Blige, American Cancer Society CEO Dr. Karen Knudsen and cancer survivor Tamika Felder after an American Cancer Society Roundtable event, Monday, October 24, 2022, in the Red Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Erin Scott)

We stand with the First Lady, the American Cancer Society, and so many more leading organizations. We are committed to this mission as we are reminded of the daily impact in our community of a cervical cancer diagnosis, the treatment and difficulties in survivorship, and of those lives that have been lost from a preventable disease.  

Watch the full livestream recording here.

Black Women Take On Cervical Cancer

Teolita and her mom, Dr. Nina Rickenbacker Edwards

Teolita repeatedly told other women, “Do not let stigmas, lack of knowledge, or shame, prevent you from taking care of yourself. What I want all women to know is make sure you listen to your body and seek medical attention if something isn’t right.” She was a staunch believer that being assertive and advocating for yourself was half the battle around cervical cancer. Her mother, Nina, now carries on Teolita’s message. Teolita passed away in August 2019, after a five-year fight with stage 4 cervical cancer. 

Despite the fact that cervical cancer is preventable and treatable, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimated that 4,290 women would die of cervical cancer in the United States in 2021. As the country observes Black History Month, it is especially poignant to recognize the fact that Black women throughout the U.S. are dying from cervical cancer at a disproportionate rate, according to a January Human Rights Watch report entitled We Need Access.

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Getting to the root of health disparity 

This difference, linked with social, economical or environmental disadvantage, or health disparity, is posing a major concern for Black women in the state of Georgia, like Teolita who was never screened for cervical cancer, diagnosed at a later stage, and had a lower than five-year survival rate. 

While we at Cervivor are hellbent on focusing on surviving cervical cancer and thriving, we must look at the barriers, challenges and be laser-focused on the points that make some of us uncomfortable. Yes, we’re talking about economic, historic, and structural or institutional racism.

Here’s the breakdown of how Black women are impacted, disenfranchised, and disproportionately impacted: 

  • Healthcare affordability and access
  • Lack of comprehensive sexual health education
  • Historic mistreatment of people of color, particularly Black people, by the healthcare community

HRW women’s rights researcher Annerieke Daniel, said, “We really have to look at the result of racism and discrimination in the health care field and especially looking at gynecological care, which we know is rooted in abuse and exploitation of Black people, of Black women, of Black bodies.”

How can we make a meaningful difference?

  1. Help increase screening rates. Increasing screening rates could greatly reduce deaths from cervical cancer among Black women, Hispanic women, and other underrepresented communities. This requires the delivery of interventions directly to underserved women such as screenings based at accessible locations closer to their places of residence – such as via mobile vans and/or screening locations at local community centers instead of medical clinics. This can substantially lower cervical cancer mortality rates through early detection.
  2. Encourage HPV vaccination. (Watch and Share Chellese’s Video: https://youtu.be/2ORHPF6lcBk).
  3. Encourage clinical trial participation.A lack of racial and ethnic diversity in both cancer research and the healthcare workforce is one of the major factors contributing to cancer health disparities, according to the American Association of Cancer Research. Clinical trials lead to the development of new interventions and new drugs. They are used to make better clinical decisions, but there is often a significant underrepresentation in clinical trials by non-White races and ethnicities. With a focus on targeted therapies and precision medicine, representation in clinical trials is increasingly important so that research includes and reflects all groups. Where to start? Share links to www.clinicaltrials.gov – where clinical trials are listed and searchable by location, disease, medicine, etc.

Gladys knows all too well the struggle of health care challenges as a Black woman. Before she was diagnosed with stage one squamous cell carcinoma in 2013, she had to demand medical attention, she said.

“I went to have my annual physical exam and requested to have a Pap smear. The physician did not want to give me one, according to the guidelines, stating that I was not required to have a Pap smear,” said Gladys. “I insisted that I have one and reluctantly, he gave me one. A few days later, the physician called to tell me that I needed to see a gynecologist. My test came back abnormal. I made an appointment to see my gynecologist. He did an exam and told me I needed to see an oncologist. The oncologist said I had stage I cervical cancer.”

The advocacy and support required is the very reason Cervivor exists. It also exists to educate everyone – whether they are diagnosed or not, whether they know someone with cancer, or not, and no matter how they identify – about cervical cancer and its prevention.

Black women helping to change the course and legacy of cervical cancer

One of those lessons includes the impact of Henrietta Lacks whose cells were used in groundbreaking cancer research. Lacks, a Black woman, was 31 when she lost her battle with cervical cancer in 1951. Despite her passing, she posthumously helped advance cancer research. Her cells, referred to in the medical field after Lacks as “HeLa” cells were cultured from her tumors, survived and multiplied outside her body thus contributing to medical breakthroughs including the development of several treatments and vaccines, including the HPV vaccines. Despite the fact that doctors did not tell Lacks’ family that her cells were being cultured, the groundbreaking effort is a notable moment in Black history. 

Chellesse Parker, was diagnosed at 29 and years later is thriving. One thing she made sure of during her own journey, was to ensure her daughter is armed against cervical cancer despite the challenges facing Black women. 

“There are a lot of things I can’t protect her against but this is something that I can prevent,” she said.

Research tells us that when cervical cancer is detected and treated early enough, women have a 93 percent five-year survival rate. We like these numbers and must rid ourselves of the disparate stats harshly impacting Black women. Every woman deserves to be screened, to receive equitable treatment, and to know they have a fighting chance at being a Cervivor! Let’s fight collectively to protect, prevent and prevail!

Read more about Black women cervical cancer survivors who we honor, celebrate and appreciate. For more resources on cervical cancer, awareness, and representation connect with us on our social media platforms and Cervivor.org.