Originally published February 4, 2018
by Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO
Each year on World Cancer Day, an initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control, leading organizations from around the world and ASCO join together in a global campaign to raise awareness of cancer.
In a very simple sense, the problem of cancer is fundamental to the existence of humans.
This assertion is based on biology—the structure and function of genes and their interactions with our environment over the course of a lifetime. It is fair to say that for all eternity we will have to confront the possibility of malignancy and the need for effective treatment.
On the other hand, the advances in treatment and prevention we have made over the past century (a virtual blink of the eye in the history of humankind) suggest that the decades and centuries ahead will see unimaginable and dramatic changes in the meaning and implication of malignancies for individuals and for society. As science advances, no longer must a diagnosis of cancer be a life-changing event. Of course, there are already cancers that are rightly seen that way, but for too many this remains a dream.
Hence, on World Cancer Day 2018, the third year under the “We Can, I Can” theme, we are reminded that we can’t simply wait for the better future when there is so much to do right now.
Read more in ASCO Connection, which has also featured the following perspectives from ASCO leaders on World Cancer Day:
- 2021: Our Collective Actions Matter More Than Ever for Fighting the Pandemic and Inequities in Cancer Care
by Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO - 2020: Progress at a Price: The Global Cancer Burden
by Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO - Reflections on World Cancer Day 2019: The Challenge of “I Will”
by Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO - Reflections on World Cancer Day 2018: “We Can, I Can” Change One Life at a Time and Transform the World
by Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO - 2017: World Cancer Day: “ We Can, I Can” Overcome the Global Challenges of Cancer
by Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO - 2016: World Cancer Day: “We Can” and We Will Make a Difference
by Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO
