Reaching the Root of Disparities in Cancer Care

Not all patients have equal access to quality cancer care. Equal Hope has spent more than a decade identifying and addressing the sources of such disparities in the Chicago area, with remarkable results.

Winner of the 2021 Catalyst for Equity Award — Equal Hope

Equal Hope, originally the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force, works to save lives by eliminating health disparities across women’s cancers in Illinois. Through assiduous research and community activity, Equal Hope has contributed to significant decreases in cancer-care disparities. Molecular geneticist Anne Marie Murphy joined Equal Hope in 2009 as the director of equal care and became the executive director in 2010. Under her leadership, Equal Hope has developed a unique community wide model to understand healthcare disparities by identifying barriers to the highest quality care and then designing interventions to address them. As a result, Chicago has gone from one of the worst to first in the United States for reducing breast cancer deaths among Black women.

For more remarkable stories from the 2021 Winners of the Cancer Community Awards, visit our Heroes of Cancer Care collection.