I’m proud of the impact Breast Cancer Action has had over the last few months.

It's clear that when you join us and we raise our voices together we are powerful enough to bring about real change. Here’s a snapshot of how far we’ve come and what you did to help.

It’s time for the administration to step up and make breast cancer a priority. This past month you joined us in calling on the Biden-Harris administration to take the necessary steps to address breast cancer through systemic interventions, actions that will pave a path to prevention. We sent a letter to the administration demanding they address the systemic racism in our healthcare systems, environmental policies, and economic policies, increase transparency and accountability in our regulatory agencies, focus on primary prevention, ensure the development of more effective and less toxic treatments, and enact universal healthcare. We are committed to ensuring the administration addresses breast cancer through a health justice lens. 

The leadership at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays a crucial role in improving the lives of people living with breast cancer. President Biden has yet to nominate a candidate to be the permanent Commissioner of the FDA. Dr. Janet Woodcock is a potential candidate for the position despite her ill-suited relationship with industry, which could lead to conflicts of interest resulting in unsafe drugs and devices being rushed to market. Over many decades, we have seen the grave consequences that result from the FDA allowing industry to rake in profits while exposing patients to expensive and toxic treatments that don’t improve survival. We need an agency that will ensure transparency in the approval and regulatory processes, and that will prioritize public health and safety above all else. It’s not too late to take action and tell your Senators to oppose Woodcock for FDA Commissioner.

We are changing how the National Cancer Institute (NCI) addresses breast cancer prevention. This past October, you joined us in our Think Before You Pink® campaign “We Can’t Be Pink’d: Say No to Pink Policies” to call on NCI to stop downplaying the connection between exposure to environmental toxins and breast cancer. In response to our campaign, the agency has agreed to revise, update, and publicly share more accurate information on their patient prevention webpage. We haven’t let up on this work. We will continue this work until we successfully shift the breast cancer narrative to include real prevention.  

The last three months of President Biden’s transition into office have been accompanied by the long-lasting effects of the previous administration that failed to make ending the nation’s breast cancer crisis a priority. We will continue to challenge broken and failing systems and demand bold action to address and end the devastation caused by this disease. 

Our work is now more urgent than ever and we can’t do this work without you. Join us in taking action today!

With gratitude for our community, 

Zoë Christopher
Program Officer and Operations Manager