Professor Gail Garvey, a leading cancer researcher at Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) and Kamilaroi woman from New South Wales, co-authored an open letter published today in leading international medical journal, the Lancet Oncology.

Professor Garvey was part of an organising committee of cancer researchers from New Zealand and the Pacific for the Indigenous Peoples and Cancer symposium held in Wellington in February 2018.

You can read the full media release: Researchers call for global action to improve Indigenous health outcomes.

Letter author of the joint letter Professor Diana Sarfati from the University of Otago, Wellington, said cancer policy needed to have a clear focus on Indigenous populations to ensure health inequities were addressed.

Link to letter to Lancet Oncology from the New Zealand Symposium Organising Committee. 

Dr Tedros’s response letter.