The Screening Nobody Mentions: Anal Cancer. A Conversation with Dr. Tamzin Cuming

Dr. Tamzin Cuming — a colorectal surgeon and the second woman president of the International Anal Neoplasia Society (IANS) — discusses teamwork, gender bias, and the urgent need to destigmatize conversations about anal cancer.

She highlights IANS's impact on her career and its commitment to structured training and organized prevention, urging clinicians to listen carefully, examine thoroughly, and speak openly about symptoms and risk factors.

Addressing misconceptions about women's risk, she envisions a future in which screening is routine and cross-specialty collaboration is standard. Though decades away, she imagines a time when these efforts will succeed in "putting ourselves out of business."

Dr. Cuming is also working on a book, Bottoms Up: Tales from Surgery's Back End.