[Comment] Investing in gender equality and equitable access improves outcomes

Up to 80% of all patients with cancer will require surgical care. In 2015, the Lancet Oncology Commission on Global Cancer Surgery laid the foundations to address one of the most glaring disparities in cancer care: only 25% of patients with cancer worldwide will have access to safe, timely, and affordable surgery.1 Chandrakanth Are and colleagues’ new Commission2 examines the successes and persistent gaps in the provision of cancer surgery 8 years after the initial report’s publication, and provides contextual solutions that consider the current macrotrends of global health—pandemics, climate change, and conflicts—on a backdrop of widening inequalities within and between countries.