Commissioner name

 Narjust Florez

Job Title

 Thoracic Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, United States of America  

What is your role on the Lancet Commission for Women, Power, and Cancer?

Commissioner and co-author 

What drew you to join the Commission?

 It was an honor to be invited to join the Commission. A large portion of my work has been dedicated to increasing gender equity within the oncology workforce, advocating for the increased recruitment of women in clinical trials, and seeking to develop sex-specific treatment guidelines, so the mission of the Lancet Commission seamlessly aligns with my goals of promoting health equity on a global scale. Moreover, I am inspired by the selfless work and resilience of the women highlighted by the Commission and am honored to provide them a platform to share their stories. I was also drawn to the Commission to collaborate with and learn from other like-minded female leaders. From a global perspective, I was eager to discover the breadth of our shared experiences and curious about how we would use our cultural differences to disseminate knowledge. It has been a wonderful experience, and I am grateful for the impassioned relationships that I have developed within our community. 

Why are you passionate about your work on the Commission?

I am passionate about our work because it provides a platform to share diverse perspectives about gender equity in medicine. In the oncology workforce, among academic leadership positions, and within clinical trials, women remain starkly underrepresented, contributing to both institutional policies and environments that diminish the voices of women and contribute to a lack of tailored treatment guidelines and approaches. In under-resourced settings, these paradigms are exacerbated yet not as publicized, underscoring the importance of the Commission’s commitment to highlighting diverse viewpoints to reflect the challenges of cancer control and advancement on a global scale. 

I look forward to contributing to the development of actionable strategies and tangible outcomes to work towards in the future, with the aim of revisiting these goals in the near future to assess progress and refine our focus. Leveraging the high-impact nature of the Commission, I am passionate about engaging a multi-disciplinary team of policy leaders, community advocates, and health care personnel to shape our work. 

What excites you most about the ongoing work of the Commission in 2024?

I am excited by the interest and favorable reception that the Commission has received and hope to build on this. I was pleased to see that our work not only fostered awareness of various social and cultural issues disproportionately affecting women, especially those in under-resourced settings, but also corroborated their stories and emphasized how these issues are also prevalent in settings outside of medicine. Similarly, I was excited by the breadth of questions that the Commission received, especially during our presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in June. It was refreshing to witness physicians’ desire to understand how they can expand their role as a healthcare provider and positively contribute to changing policies and frameworks within their institutions. 

I am also excited about the global partnerships that are developing because of the Commission to promote gender equity in low- and middle-income countries. I hope these partnerships will respond to the unique needs and culture of each setting to drive change that can realistically be implemented and accepted in the regional landscape. 

What do you like to do outside of work?

When I am not traveling for work or seeing patients, I love going to the beach with my fiancé, though Boston has been exceptionally hot lately! I also love to cook new recipes and enjoy spending time with my cat, Nella. Lastly, I am currently planning my wedding, which takes up much time.