Women’s oncology encompasses a broad set of cancers that either occur exclusively in women or disproportionately affect women in incidence, biology, or outcomes. This article focuses on women-specific cancers, including breast, ovarian, endometrial, cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancers. Together, these represent one of the largest and most consequential segments of women’s health. While breast cancer has benefited from decades of investment and innovation, many gynecologic cancers face disproportionately poor outcomes and significant unmet need.
Beyond women-specific cancers, additional adjacent indications also present meaningfully different burdens and outcomes in women. While this piece focuses on breast and gynecologic cancers, the broader potential to address oncology from a women’s health perspective extends farther.
The clinical burden is significant. In the US alone, breast and gynecologic cancers account for more than 400,000 new diagnoses annually—nearly half of all cancer cases in women.12
Breast cancer is the single most common cancer in women and has seen decades of sustained funding, screening infrastructure, and therapeutic development. But gynecologic cancers have received much less attention. Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate among them, driven largely by the absence of reliable early detection.13 Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the US and its incidence is rising.14 And while cervical cancer incidence has declined substantially due to screening uptake, younger and underserved women remain affected.
