Part 3: A Series of Stories on Access, Equity, and Dignity in Breast Cancer Care
There is a particular kind of energy in a room full of people who have been through something and come out the other side.
Last year, ReSurge International experienced it firsthand at the New York Plastic Surgical Group’s (NYPSG) Breast Cancer Summit, an event that brought together breast cancer survivors, leading clinicians, advocates, and researchers for a day of honest conversation about where cancer care stands, and where it needs to go.
ReSurge was honored to be part of it.
What Was on the Agenda
The summit covered the frontiers of the breast cancer field: artificial intelligence and early detection, the intersection of mental health and cancer recovery, the latest in reconstructive techniques, and the persistent inequities that shape who gets access to which treatments. Real survivor stories ran alongside expert presentations, grounding the clinical conversations in lived experience.
ReSurge’s presence at the summit was focused on a question that threads through all of those topics: what does it mean to offer comprehensive cancer care to women in low- and middle-income countries, where reconstruction after mastectomy is rarely even discussed?
The answer — and the work ReSurge is doing in Vietnam and Ethiopia to build it — resonated with the room.
Why This Conversation Belongs Here
The energy in the room was unmistakable: a community of survivors, clinicians, and advocates who showed up unapologetically, in full solidarity with one another.
It would be easy to think that a summit convened in New York, focused on the American breast cancer experience, has little to do with a woman in Central Vietnam or Addis Ababa. But the barriers are more connected than they first appear.
Stigma around mastectomy? Present everywhere. Gaps in insurance reimbursement? A shared challenge in high- and low-income settings alike. Too few reconstructive surgeons? A shortage that spans geographies, not just low-resource ones. The research, the advocacy, and the survivor-led movements growing in the U.S. have direct counterparts — and direct implications — for what ReSurge is building abroad.
Moments like the NYPSG summit reinforce that this is a shared field. The challenges facing breast cancer survivors in Vietnam, Ethiopia, and across the developing world are not separate from the conversations happening in leading cancer centers. They are part of the same story.
The Partnership Behind the Work
ReSurge’s presence at the NYPSG summit reflects a broader partnership: NYPSG and ReSurge work together to deliver in-country access to breast cancer care in communities where it is needed most. That collaboration — connecting clinical expertise in New York with surgical training programs in Southeast Asia and East Africa — is one of the ways ReSurge continues to expand its reach.
We left New York energized by the room and more committed than ever to ensuring the women in Vietnam, Ethiopia, and beyond have the same opportunities for comprehensive care — and the same sense of solidarity — that filled that ballroom.
This year, we’re currently participating in the New York Plastic Surgical Group’s Breast Cancer Summit. Stay tuned for recent event updates.
