ECRF PEACH MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

September 2025

Dear Friends,

Welcome to our second edition of the newsletter! September marked significant progress in gynecologic and endometrial cancer awareness and research worldwide. As you know, Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month (#GCAM) highlights five types of cancer: vaginal, vulvar, cervical, ovarian, and uterine (endometrial). These vital areas of women’s health are often overlooked. At ECRF, we work to increase research funding, raise awareness, and promote equity in care, with a focus on endometrial cancer. This prevalent gynecologic cancer is too often marginalized in women’s health.

This September brought significant global developments. The release of “Spotlight on Uterine Cancer: Shaping Access to Equitable and High-Quality Care” and the launch of the IHE Global Policy Report on Women’s Cancer Care at the United Nations General Assembly, co-hosted by IGCS CEO Mary Eiken, underscored a central message: women’s cancers are solvable when access, equity, and research remain global priorities.

Momentum increased with global awareness and research efforts. The 7th World Gynecologic Oncology Day on September 20, 2025, was the most extensive awareness campaign to date. World Cancer Research Day on September 24 underscored the urgent need for ongoing investment. Dr. Kimberly Leslie and her team also received a $12.9M National Cancer Institute grant to study hormonal therapies for endometrial cancer, offering hope for patients and future care.

At ECRF, we are proud to share and highlight these successes while remaining committed to our mission of breaking barriers, raising awareness, and advancing research. You can read more about these updates below. We are also pleased to announce the launch of the ECRF Blog. Our first post, “Uterine Cancer vs. Endometrial Cancer: Understanding the Difference,” is now live, a space to inform, empower, and foster meaningful conversations in research, advocacy, and awareness.

These advancements remind us of the importance of our mission and why we must continue to move forward. We invite you to support ECRF with a gift today. Your donation fuels research, strengthens advocacy, and offers hope to patients with endometrial cancer, their families, and future generations.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who has reached out with encouragement and support, and we appreciate your kindness. This month brought inspiring collaborations, volunteers & partners, and we’re just getting started.

We invite you to join ECRF as a partner, volunteer, or collaborator and help us make a lasting impact in the endometrial cancer community. Together, we can drive progress, amplify awareness, and bring hope to those who need it most.

Warm regards,

Corby Arthur
Founder & President of Endometrial Cancer Research Foundation (ECRF)

Celebrate with Purpose 🍑✨

Turn life’s meaningful moments into opportunities for impact. Whether it’s your birthday, a cancer anniversary, or honoring the memory of a loved one, you can support ECRF by inviting family and friends to give in your name.

Every contribution fuels groundbreaking research, raises awareness, and strengthens advocacy, ensuring that endometrial cancer is no longer overlooked. By celebrating with purpose, you help create lasting change and inspire hope, paving the way for better care and more substantial support for you, for patients everywhere, and for the patients and families who will follow.

How to Get Started:

1. Choose Your Dedication
   Mark a birthday, anniversary, milestone, or honor someone’s memory.

2. Share the ECRF Giving Page
   Direct family and friends to the ECRF Giving Page.

3. Encourage Support
   Ask loved ones to donate in your honor or in memory.

4. See the Impact
   Every gift fuels research, advocacy, and awareness for endometrial cancer.

Let’s Connect & Collaborate with ECRF!

We are truly grateful to everyone who has reached out—we’re thrilled by the encouragement and support we’ve received so far! Your energy inspires us to keep pushing forward.

• Collaborators: Join us in driving research, community engagement, and awareness initiatives.

• Volunteers: Share your time and talents in digital marketing, podcasting, fundraising, awareness, or patient advocacy.

• Partners: Partner with us to expand our impact through shared resources, funding, and collaborative outreach programs.

• Curious to Learn More: Explore our mission, upcoming projects, and ways to get involved at your own pace.

👉 If you’re ready to collaborate, volunteer, or partner with us, let’s connect and explore how we can create meaningful change together.

Spotlight on Uterine Cancer – A Global Call to Action

Uterine cancer is the second most common gynecological cancer globally. Yet it is often missing from national cancer plans and global health priorities.

The position paper on uterine cancer, “Spotlight on uterine cancer: Shaping access to equitable and high-quality care”, which IGCS co-authored with like-minded organizations from around the world, including AstraZeneca, is a call to governments and policymakers everywhere: the time to act is now.

Launched at the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit, held in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting, the paper outlines clear, actionable steps to change the trajectory of uterine cancer.

The paper urges governments and health systems to:

• Integrate uterine cancer into national health strategies.

• Invest in early detection so more women are diagnosed in time.

• Guarantee equitable access to care options and innovation.

These practical changes can save lives, reduce disparities, and bring uterine cancer into the spotlight. We urge policymakers to listen, take action, and prioritize uterine cancer on the global health agenda.

On September 24, 2025,  IGCS CEO, Mary Eiken was invited to co-host a high-level roundtable during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The event, Transforming recommendations into impact: advancing women's cancer care, marks the release of the Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE) report, “Bridging the Gap in Women’s Cancer Care: A Global Policy Report on Disparities, Innovations, and Solutions.”

The report demonstrates that women’s cancers are solvable. Treatments exist, but access remains the greatest barrier. It shows that investing in women’s cancer care yields significant health and economic benefits, yet calls for equitable scaling of diagnostics and treatments and for women’s cancers to remain a priority on local, national, and global agendas.

Kimberly Leslie, MD, a professor at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center, has received a 5-year, $12.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to lead a six-university research team studying hormonal therapies for the prevention and treatment of endometrial cancer.

• Why it matters: Endometrial cancer cases are rising, with younger women increasingly affected. In 2024, deaths from endometrial cancer in the U.S. surpassed ovarian cancer for the first time.

• Survival disparity: If caught early, the survival rate is 95%, but it drops to less than 20% once the cancer has spread.

• Research goals: The team will test all available hormonal regimens, identify biomarkers to match therapies to patients, and explore prevention strategies.

• Collaboration: Scientists from UNM, Iowa, Utah, Kansas, Virginia, and UC San Diego will work together, building on previous funded studies by the Department of Defense.

Dr. Leslie emphasizes: “In many cases, endometrial cancer can be prevented with appropriate hormonal preventive strategies.”