How the Next President Could Influence the Fight Against Breast Cancer

Savita Iyer
The fight for healthcare continues. (Photo: Getty Images)
The fight for health care continues. (Photo: Getty Images)

About 40,450 women are expected to die of breast cancer in 2016, according to the nonprofit organization Breastcancer.org. Breast cancer remains the No. 1 cancer killing women in the United States, even as death rates have been decreasing, thanks to more advanced treatments, greater awareness, and earlier detection through screening.

But many breast cancer advocates fear that that progress could be held back in an administration led by GOP nominee Donald Trump.

The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) has tried several times to reach Donald Trump’s office to ask him to endorse its 2020 Deadline to End Breast Cancer, but has not yet heard back from him.

That’s not surprising: Throughout the campaign, the Republican presidential candidate has made no mention of breast cancer.

For her part, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has not been as vocal on the subject as many might have hoped, yet NBCC president Fran Visco and others at the forefront of breast cancer advocacy efforts believe she is the best positioned to give breast cancer the requisite presidential support at a most crucial juncture for understanding, treating, and, hopefully, preventing the illness.

“Breast cancer has been an important issue for Hillary Clinton, and she’s worked closely with the NBCC, as first lady, as senator, and since that time,” Visco tells Yahoo Beauty. “She has endorsed our deadline, and we hope to work with her.”

That’s why it’s critical for the next president to ensure that research in promising areas such as immunotherapy and genomics get support and funding, Visco says, and to continue supporting the Moonshot Task Force, a national effort to end cancer that is currently chaired by Vice President Joe Biden.

“The lesson about breast cancer nationally is that we need to really focus on where science can provide targeted progress,” says Laura Esserman, a surgeon and breast cancer oncology specialist at the University of California San Francisco Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. “We want openness to change. We need to stay on the path of innovation.”

Science aside, repealing the Affordable Care Act — a key item on the Trump agenda — could prove detrimental to breast cancer patients, says Jean Sachs, CEO of Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

The ACA has given many women the insurance coverage they need for mammograms and other preventative services, and it has brought down the cost of highly priced drugs for metastatic breast cancers.

“As Hillary Clinton said in one of the debates, we cannot take any steps back from the Affordable Care Act,” Sachs says.

Visco hopes that a Clinton presidency will facilitate the passage of the 2013 Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act.

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