Cre­ate a fu­ture with­out can­cer. The time to act is now.

To­day, we know more about can­cer than ever be­fore. Through in­vest­ing in re­search and in­no­va­tion, we have wit­nessed ex­tra­or­di­nary break­throughs in can­cer care, di­ag­nos­tics, and sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge.

Yet, 10 mil­lion peo­ple die each year from can­cer.

Ac­cord­ing to World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO), “That is more than HIV/AIDS, malar­ia and tu­ber­cu­lo­sis com­bined. By 2030, ex­perts project can­cer deaths to rise to 13 mil­lion. If we do not act. The time to act is NOW.”

Ori­gin of World Can­cer Day

World Can­cer Day held every 4 Feb­ru­ary is the glob­al unit­ing ini­tia­tive led by the Union for In­ter­na­tion­al Can­cer Con­trol (UICC) con­vened in 2000, at the World Sum­mit Against Can­cer for the New Mil­len­ni­um in Paris. World Can­cer Day has grown in­to a pos­i­tive move­ment for every­one, com­mem­o­rat­ing all the ef­forts done by the WHO, Unit­ed Na­tions, gov­ern­men­tal and non-gov­ern­men­tal health or­gan­i­sa­tions to­wards the fight against can­cer, as well as dis­trib­ut­ing the re­al mes­sage about this epi­dem­ic dis­ease and its treat­ments in­clud­ing its pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures by unit­ing un­der one voice.

So this year's World Can­cer Day's theme, “Close the Care Gap”, is all about rais­ing aware­ness of this eq­ui­ty gap that af­fects al­most every­one, in high as well as low- and mid­dle-in­come coun­tries, and is cost­ing lives.

A three-year cam­paign for im­pact

World Can­cer Day is more than a day on the cal­en­dar. That’s why the cam­paign is built to in­spire change and mo­bilise ac­tion long af­ter the day it­self. A mul­ti-year cam­paign means more ex­po­sure and en­gage­ment, more op­por­tu­ni­ties to build glob­al aware­ness and ul­ti­mate­ly more im­pact.

2022: Re­al­is­ing the prob­lem - Alarm­ing In­equities Glob­al­ly

WHO warns that, if cur­rent trends con­tin­ue, the world will see a 60% in­crease in can­cer cas­es over the next two decades. The great­est in­crease (an es­ti­mat­ed 81%) in new cas­es will oc­cur in low- and mid­dle-in­come coun­tries, where sur­vival rates are cur­rent­ly low­est.

The first year of the ‘Close the Care Gap’ cam­paign is all about un­der­stand­ing and recog­nis­ing the in­equities in can­cer care around the globe. It’s about hav­ing an open mind, chal­leng­ing as­sump­tions and look­ing at the hard facts:

- In­equity in can­cer care costs lives.

- In­come, ed­u­ca­tion, lo­ca­tion and dis­crim­i­na­tion based on eth­nic­i­ty, gen­der, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, age, dis­abil­i­ty and lifestyle are just a few of the fac­tors that can neg­a­tive­ly af­fect care.

- The gap af­fects every­one, in­clud­ing you and your loved ones.

- These bar­ri­ers are not set in stone. THEY CAN BE CHANGED.

- This is the year to ques­tion the sta­tus quo and help re­duce stig­ma; to lis­ten to the per­spec­tives of the peo­ple liv­ing with can­cer and their com­mu­ni­ties and let those lived ex­pe­ri­ences guide our thoughts and ac­tions.

CAU­TION your way to pre­vent Can­cer

Har­vard Health states, “About one of every three per­sons will de­vel­op some form of ma­lig­nan­cy dur­ing his or her life­time.” CDC states, “Can­cer is the sec­ond lead­ing cause of death in the Caribbean.” De­spite these grim sta­tis­tics, doc­tors have made great progress in un­der­stand­ing the bi­ol­o­gy of can­cer cells, and they have al­ready been able to im­prove the di­ag­no­sis and treat­ment of can­cer.

But in­stead of just wait­ing for new break­throughs, you can do a lot to pro­tect your­self right now. Screen­ing tests can help de­tect ma­lig­nan­cies in their ear­li­est stages, but you should al­ways be alert for symp­toms of the dis­ease. The Amer­i­can Can­cer So­ci­ety de­vel­oped this sim­ple re­minder years ago, symp­toms you should note:

C: Change in bow­el or blad­der habits

A: A sore that does not heal

U: Un­usu­al bleed­ing or dis­charge

T: Thick­en­ing or lump in the breast or else­where

I: In­di­ges­tion or dif­fi­cul­ty in swal­low­ing

O: Ob­vi­ous change in a wart or mole

N: Nag­ging cough or hoarse­ness

It is a rough guide at best. The vast ma­jor­i­ty of such symp­toms are caused by non­ma­lig­nant dis­or­ders, and can­cers can pro­duce symp­toms that do not show up on the list, such as un­ex­plained weight loss or fa­tigue. But it is a use­ful re­minder to lis­ten to your body and re­port sounds of dis­tress to your doc­tor.

To­geth­er, all our ac­tions mat­ter

That’s how we can be­gin to imag­ine a bet­ter way of do­ing things and to build a fair­er vi­sion of the fu­ture—a fu­ture where peo­ple live health­i­er lives and have bet­ter ac­cess to health and can­cer ser­vices, no mat­ter where they are born, grow, age, work or live.

This year is a re­minder of the en­dur­ing pow­er of co­op­er­a­tion and col­lec­tive ac­tion. When we choose to come to­geth­er, we can achieve what we all wish for: a health­i­er, brighter world with­out can­cer.

Join HEALTH PLUS on 4 Feb­ru­ary and help close the can­cer care gap for a can­cer-free world.

OUR TIME TO ACT IS NOW!