The Fight Against NCDs: The 66th Session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) will take place May 20-28 in Geneva, Switzerland. The assembly will hopefully serve as the culmination of targeted advocacy efforts and campaigns to put in place a strong Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and the beginning of efforts to implement the plan around the world. The global action plan and the comprehensive global monitoring framework for the prevention and control of NCDs provide a significant opportunity to help fight NCDs at global and national levels.

The American Cancer Society is joining forces with its partners at the UICC, the NCD Alliance, the Preventive Health Partnership, and its network of global advocates around the world to urge government leaders attending the WHA to adopt a robust global action plan to fulfill commitments made in the UN Political Declaration on NCDs. Click here to read the NCD Alliance briefing on the NCD resolution for adoption at WHA. Follow @ACSGlobal on Twitter for updates from #WHA66.

Cancer Control in Latin America: Latin America faces a cancer epidemic unless governments act quickly to improve health care systems and treat the poor. 1.7 million cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030, with more than one million deaths from cancer predicted to occur annually, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology.

The report was launched at the Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group (LACOG) 2013 conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The American Cancer Society was a contributing author for this edition and spoke about patient advocacy at the conference. Read our blog on the subject here. Other topics at the conference included the role of primary prevention, treatment challenges and cost of cancer care.

Reach to Recovery International Conference: American Cancer Society staff participated actively in the 17th Reach to Recovery International Breast Cancer Support Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, from March 20-22. Long-time American Cancer Society volunteer Cathy Hirsch was appointed president of Reach to Recovery international at the conference. 

Hirsch, a Baltimore, Maryland-based attorney and former journalist, began with the American Cancer Society as a Reach To Recovery volunteer in 2007, after recovering from stage II breast cancer. Read her blog from the conference here.

International Women's Day: On March 8, International Women's Day, the American Cancer Society joined the world in raising our voices about the health challenges that affect women and girls. Specifically, the Society amplified the message that no woman should die from cervical cancer.

World Cancer Day: As a strategic partner and member of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the American Cancer Society was proud to support this year's World Cancer Day campaign on February 4 to educate the general public and dispel misconceptions about cancer. That evening, we lit the Empire State Building blue and orange for the third year in a row in support of World Cancer Day. Visit our Facebook page to see the photos sent by supporters from New York.

More than 2.9 million people die each year in moderate or severe pain without access to adequate pain treatment. However this pain could be controlled — the World Health Organization considers morphine an essential medicine for the treatment of pain. Morphine is safe, effective, inexpensive, and easy to administer in resource-constrained settings, but a web of barriers prevent millions of individuals from accessing this pain relief. The barriers include legal and regulatory restrictions, weak health systems, inadequate training of health care workers, and misconceptions about pain and its treatment.

Through the American Cancer Society Treat the Pain program we are advocating to make essential pain medicines universally available for all patients by 2020. Treat the Pain works with national governments and civil society organizations to improve access to these medicines and reduce the number of patients dying in pain each year.

Since 2010, Treat the Pain has been working with the Ministry of Health in Uganda and Hospice Africa Uganda to improve the availability of morphine in Uganda. This April, we team up with Mathias Kiwanuka, an NFL linebacker for the New York Giants and grandson of Uganda’s first Prime Minister, Benedicto Kiwanuka, and Casey Neistat, an award-winning filmmaker, to raise awareness about untreated pain in Uganda and the disparities that exist globally. Throughout the trip, they will meet with patients and their families, health care workers, and palliative care stakeholders to create a short advocacy film. This film is planned for release in fall 2013.

Follow the activities and key learnings of their trip on Twitter through the hash tag #TreatPain and through the Society’s Global Twitter account @ACSGlobal and on our Facebook page.

April 7 is observed as World Health Day to recognize the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. The American Cancer Society is grateful to WHO for its important work over the years, and most recently, its success in getting cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) on the global health agenda.

NCDs such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and lung disease account for 65 percent of global deaths, with an economic burden just as staggering: they could cost $47 trillion in lost productivity by 2030.

Watch this video of Dr. John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, as he shares his perspective on the inequity in global health resources and funding specifically allocated to fight global NCDs.

Cervical cancer killed 275,000 women in 2008. More than 85% of those deaths were in developing countries where women often lack access to cervical cancer screening and treatment services. However, cervical cancer is highly preventable through screening tests and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, and if detected at an early stage, cervical cancer is one of the most successfully treatable cancers. The Society is committed to fighting cervical cancer and is working with partners around the globe to change these statistics by accelerating a comprehensive approach to preventing, detecting, and treating cervical cancer. Read more about out our efforts for global cervical cancer control here.

The Society partnered with the GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations) Alliance to organize a session on vaccines and cancer control at the GAVI Alliance Partners Forum in Tanzania in December 2012. The American Cancer Society applauds GAVI's new lifesaving commitment to help immunize more than 30 million girls from developing countries against the human papillomavirus (HPV) by 2020. Read more here.

The Society is a founding member, current co-chair, and secretariat of Cervical Cancer Action, a coalition of eight global organizations whose shared goal is to focus on advocacy for improved cervical cancer prevention worldwide. Read the Cervical Cancer Action Report Card to find out more about global cervical cancer.

Follow us on Twitter @ACSGlobal and "Like" us on Facebook for updates on the Society's global work in cancer control.

Cancer causes 1 in 8 deaths worldwide and is rapidly becoming a global pandemic. As a leader in cancer control since 1913, the American Cancer Society is committed to saving lives from cancer and reducing the global threat of the disease. Read more about our global fight against cancer here.

Cancer is a leading cause of death for women worldwide. The Society is working with partners around the globe to change these statistics by accelerating a comprehensive approach to  preventing, detecting, and treating women’s cancers. Read how the Society is helping women fight cancer globally here.

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the world. If current trends continue, tobacco use will kill 8 million people annually by 2030, 83 percent of whom reside in low- and middle-income countries. Read more about the Society's global fight for tobacco control here.

More than 3.3 million people die each year in moderate or severe pain without access to adequate pain treatment. The American Cancer Society plays a unique role in access to pain treatment by bringing technical expertise to the field and through its partnership in the Global Access to Pain Relief Initiative (GAPRI). Read more about our global fight for pain control here.

The American Cancer Society hosted a panel discussion on The Role of mHealth in Cancer Control at the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC on December 5, 2012. The panel explored strategies to leverage the 6 billion mobile subscribers globally and a growing mHealth movement to create tools that help prevent and control cancer in developing countries and underserved U.S. populations.

Expert panelists included Joe Trippi, Founder and President, Trippi & Associates; Josh Nesbitt, CEO, Medic Mobile; Erik M. Augustson, Behavioral Scientist and Project Officer, Tobacco Control Research Branch, National Cancer Institute; Claudia Pagliari Director, Interdisciplinary Research Network in eHealth and Health Informatics, University of Edinburgh and David Balcom, Managing Director Digital Platforms, American Cancer Society.

Four thousand representatives from 50 countries attended the fourth annual mHealth Summit which, for the first time, included a dedicated global health component focused on major developments for improving health systems in low- and middle-income countries through the best use of mobile technologies.

How much is a life worth? In 2010, the tobacco industry’s profit was equivalent to $6,000 for each death caused by tobacco. Watch the video How Much is a Life Worth? The Truth About Tobacco. to learn more about the global tobacco burden and devious tactics employed by the tobacco industry to addict new users. Tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death in the world. Left unchecked, it is predicted to kill more than 8 million people globally each year by 2030.

The video, developed by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, highlights data from The Tobacco Atlas, 4th Edition a joint publication by both organizations. The Tobacco Atlas is the world’s leading resource on the burden of tobacco. The 4th edition of the Atlas was released at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Singapore on March 21. A French version was released in Dakar, Senegal on October 1, 2012.

The Atlas is now also available in a new mobile application, which automatically launches when you visit TobaccoAtlas.org on your mobile web browser.

The video and mobile application were unveiled at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, during a global tobacco panel discussion co-hosted by the American Cancer Society, World Lung Foundation, and the World Bank.

Help us spread the truth about tobacco by sharing the video via social media using the hashtag #TobaccoAtlas.

World leaders, policymakers, civil society, and other stakeholders gathered in Rio de Janeiro from June 20-22 for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, called Rio+20 "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to gear the world on sustainable development path".

With more than 100 heads of state indicating their intention to attend the upcoming conference, the outcomes of Rio+20 were expected to greatly influence the global development agenda for the coming years.

Sustainable development ultimately depends upon the good health of all citizens worldwide. Cancer and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory conditions, are now the greatest causes of death across the world accounting for 63% of global deaths. Developing countries are hit the hardest — over 90% of these preventable deaths are in low- and middle- income countries.

Beyond the human toll, NCDs impact a country’s economic development. According to a study released by the World Economic Forum on September 18, 2011, the global economic impact of NCDs could total US$ 47 trillion over the next 20 years. This constitutes a huge strain on the development process.

In addition to their impact on economic development, NCDs share more direct links with sustainable development. For example, poor diet and obesity have been fostered in part by environmentally unsound rural development practices that diminish the availability of fruits and vegetables and undermine food security. Read more here.

The American Cancer Society was at Rio+20 with its global partners to ensure that health and NCDs remained a core element of discussions about sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The result was that, while the overall outcomes of Rio+20 have fallen short of expectations, health and NCDs were recognised as integral issues for sustainable development.  This inclusion in the Rio+20 outcomes builds the momentum achieved at the 2011 UN Summit and keeps us on course to bring NCDs into the centre of the post-2015 development framework.

Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke.

The World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day is an opportunity to educate policy-makers and the general public about the harmful effects of tobacco.

The American Cancer Society is proud to support this year’s theme of “Stop Industry Interference,” which focuses on the tobacco industry’s influence and harmful tactics. Read our blog by Michael Eriksen, ScD, lead author of the Tobacco Atlas, exposing the industry’s increasingly aggressive actions that pose serious danger to public health. For more information visit TobaccoAtlas.org.

Follow @ACS Global on Twitter and #notobacco for World No Tobacco Day conversation.

More than 10,000 women worldwide lose their lives to cancer each day. And yet this disease still does not receive adequate attention and resources. The American Cancer Society is committed to putting women’s health on the global health agenda.

Taskforce on Women's Health: As a part of this commitment, the Society announced the official launch of a new civil society taskforce on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and women’s health at the U.N. High-level Meeting in September 2011. Comprised of leading civil society organizations dealing with women’s health, the task force will advocate for a gender-based, lifecycle approach to NCD prevention and treatment.

Million Moms Challenge: In December 2011, the Society joined ABC News and the United Nations Foundation in the Million Moms Challenge. This initiative is aimed at connecting millions of American women with millions of moms in developing countries and raising awareness of maternal issues such as pregnancy, childbirth, children's health and moms' health, including cervical cancer, worldwide.

GAVI Announcement on HPV Vaccines: Cervical cancer kills 275,000 women and 500,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. About 88% of those deaths occur in developing countries. The GAVI Alliance's decision to support HPV vaccines in the world’s poorest countries means up to 2 million women and girls in nine developing countries could be protected from cervical cancer by 2015. The GAVI announcement is the result of long standing global efforts calling for HPV vaccination and improved cervical cancer prevention. The Society, as a founding member and co-chair of Cervical Cancer Action, the hub of global society activity and advocacy on cervical cancer, played a strong role and looks forward to collaborating with GAVI in its significant effort to invest in women and girls and save lives.

Watch our Chief Medical Officer Dr Otis. Brawley speak about the need to raise awareness of cervical cancer in developing countries.

International Women's Day: On March 8, International Women’s Day, the Society hosted a panel discussion in Washington D.C. on women’s health. Thought leaders on global health discussed opportunities and challenges for keeping the momentum on women’s cancers and other NCDs in the forefront this year as global leaders move forward with next steps from last year’s U.N. Political Declaration on NCDs. This was followed with a live twitter Q&A with the moderator of the panel discussion, the Society's deputy chief medical officer Dr. J. Leonard  Lichtenfeld.
On Wednesday, March 7, 2012 the Latin American Union against Women’s Cancers (ULACCAM), a consortium of cancer non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the region supported by the Society, released the results of a “Breast Cancer Control Scorecard.” The scorecard comprises quantitative and qualitative research related to the status of breast cancer control in five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela). The report, launched simultaneously in all five countries, shows some successes, yet continued government challenges in reaching the poor and in quality of services.

Share a story: Take a moment to read one of our touching stories of women cancer survivors, caregivers and advocates from around the world. Their courage will inspire you. We hope that you will show your support for the fight against women's cancers by sharing these compelling stories on Facebook or Twitter.

Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and lung disease kill more than 36 million people globally every year.  The American Cancer Society is committed to making the fight against cancer a global priority. Join us in creating a new global movement to bring NCDs under control in this century, saving millions from premature death and disability. With your help, we can persuade government leaders to increase resources in a coordinated global response against cancer and other NCDs and strengthen health systems, helping to secure a world where the right to a long and healthy life is not bound by nationality or economic status.

A new study conducted by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the American Cancer Society predicts that if current trends continue, the global burden of new cancer cases will surge from 12.7 million in 2008 to 22.2 million by 2030.

Beyond the human toll, NCDs impact a country’s economic development.  According to a study released by the World Economic Forum on September 18, 2011, the global economic impact of NCDs could total US$ 47 trillion over the next 20 years. As daunting as this is, a portion of NCD diagnoses are attributable to modifiable risk factors – things we can do something about – such as tobacco use, diet and exercise, and compliance with proven early detection recommendations.

We are Moving Forward

In September 2011, the United Nations held its first ever High-level Meeting on NCDs in New York. On the first day, world leaders unanimously adopted the Political Declaration on NCDs, acknowledging the global burden and threat of NCDs and their impact on the social and economic development in all countries.

In 2012, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) approved a resolution calling for a 25 percent reduction in premature deaths from NCDs by 2025 (also known as 25 by 25). These diseases, which have the greatest impact in developing countries, are grouped together in this resolution because they share common risk factors, such as tobacco use, poor diet, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol consumption. That means they also share common causes and prevention strategies.  

The newly approved 25 by 25 goal sets the stage for the adoption of additional goals by countries aimed at controlling NCD risk factors, as well as goals aimed at strengthening health systems and providing access to essential medicines.

However, our fight is far from over. These targets and indicators must be adopted and governments must take steps to achieve them, including the allocation of sufficient human and financial resources to achieve measurable progress. Creating broad and holistic public health and healthcare systems that meet the diverse health needs of populations is key to both NCD control and the improvement of overall health. And finally, the inclusion of NCDs in future health and development agendas will ensure that we continue to make progress against these deadly diseases for many years to come.

Read more about our latest events on the Global Priority Tab, and stay connected by following the American Cancer Society’s global work and events on Twitter and Facebook.