New Books Network Linda Eckert, "Enough: Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Jan 11, 2026
Dr. Linda Eckert, an OB/GYN and global health advocate, discusses her essential work on preventing cervical cancer, a largely preventable disease responsible for 350,000 deaths annually. She highlights cultural and political barriers affecting women's health access and emphasizes the economic benefits of HPV vaccination and screening. With powerful personal stories, she reveals how education can destigmatize HPV and transform policy. Linda's passion shines through as she advocates for systemic change to ensure every woman can access lifesaving healthcare.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Long Window For Prevention
- Cervical cancer is highly preventable because it progresses slowly from HPV infection to precancer to cancer over 5–20 years.
- This long timeline creates multiple intervention points to stop progression before it becomes deadly.
Treatment Harms Extend Beyond Survival
- Treatment often removes fertility or uses radiation that causes lifelong sexual and physical side effects for women aged 35–50 on average.
- The individual and family consequences create heavy social and economic burdens beyond medical costs.
Global Burden Concentrated In Poor Settings
- Ninety percent of the global cervical cancer burden falls on low-resource settings that lack prevention and treatment.
- In those settings, cervical cancer is often a death sentence with massive generational impacts.
