The Global Fight Against Cancer

American Cancer Society to Join African and Mediterranean NGOs at Cancer Conference in Paris in October

The French National League against Cancer, founder of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and founding member of the Cancer Network for International Cooperation (RCCI), is launching a new effort to enable African and Mediterranean cancer nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to exchange ideas and create a supportive network. This collaboration will provide better support for patients and their caregivers, and foster cooperation among health professionals and institutions in the region.The French National League against Cancer will hold, at its Paris headquarters on October 9-10, the first meeting of the Francophone African & Mediterranean Leagues in the Fight Against Cancer, which will be attended by NGOs and experts invested in this cause in the region. For more information about the upcoming event, click on this link to view the conference Web site (all information available only in French; English version to be added soon): liguesafromed.com. Sylvana Rochet-Belleri, North Africa program manager, American Cancer Society, will attend the conference to meet with partners and stakeholders.

Leading Cancer Control Experts Issue Call for the Inclusion of Cancer and Other Noncommunicable Diseases in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals

John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer, and Nathan Grey, national vice president, International Affairs, American Cancer Society, have joined other leading global cancer control experts in a call for the inclusion of cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Their views appear in a joint editorial in the September 2009 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Cancer Society. The authors describe the growing global threat of NCDs, particularly to low- and middle-income countries. Eighty percent of NCDs worldwide occur in these countries, and mortality rates there due to NCDs are rising, threatening to overwhelm health systems ill-prepared for such a growing pandemic. The MDGs are recognized by many as the world’s development and public health agenda. Placing NCDs on this agenda would help to balance growing public health disparities and reduce the economic costs and personal suffering associated with these diseases. Other co-authors of the editorial include David Hill, PhD, president, International Union Against Cancer (UICC); Werner Burkhart, deputy director general, International Atomic Energy Authority; Ian Magrath, MB, BS, FRCP, FRCPath, president, International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR); Rajendra A. Badwe, MD, MBBS, director, Tata Memorial Centre; Twalib Ngoma, MD, president, African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC); Alejandro Mohar, MD, director general, Mexican National Cancer Institute.  
 
To read the editorial in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, please click on this link.

American Cancer Society Leads Delegation to WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Working Group in Seoul, South Korea, on Tobacco Dependence Treatment

 

The American Cancer Society was invited by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) to head a delegation to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Working Group on Article 14 of the FCTC, "Demand Reduction Measures Concerning Tobacco Dependence and Cessation," September 2-4 in Seoul, South Korea. Thomas Glynn, PhD, director, Cancer Science and Trends and director, International Cancer Control, American Cancer Society, headed the UICC delegation and participated in the negotiations as part of a nongovernmental organization expert group. The American Cancer Society has been a key supporter of the FCTC process since it began in 1999.There are more than 1.3 billion tobacco users globally, and as many as 70 percent of them report that they would like to quit their tobacco use. The Article 14 Guideline will aid greatly in providing opportunities for these tobacco users to obtain science-based treatment for their addiction.The Article 14 working group that met in Seoul will have a second and final session in February in Auckland, New Zealand. After that session, the working group will then present the proposed treatment guideline for approval and adoption by all 166 member nations of the FCTC to the FCTC Conference of the Parties, which meets in November 2010 in Punte del Este, Uruguay. If the guideline is approved at the conference, it will go into force shortly thereafter, providing yet another option for more than one billion tobacco users to avoid the possible disease and death that follow from their addiction to tobacco use.

February 4, 2009, Is World Cancer Day

                                                                   

On World Cancer Day, the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) will launch “I love my healthy active childhood," the second full-year theme in the UICC's “Today’s children, tomorrow’s world” cancer prevention campaign. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising dramatically among adults and children around the world. According to the World Health Organization, 1 billion adults are overweight, and at least 300 million of these are clinically obese. The International Obesity Taskforce estimates that one out of every ten school-age children is overweight. Of these, around 30-45 million children, that is 2-3% of children aged 5-17, are obese. Being overweight or obese has been shown to increase the risk of cancer among adults. World Cancer Day 2009 marks the start of a year-long campaign, where UICC will work with parents, teachers, and decisionmakers around the world to encourage kids to eat a healthy diet, be physically active, and maintain a healthy body weight.

For more information about World Cancer Day and the World Cancer Campaign, contact the UICC at wcc@uicc.org.