Accra 4 February 2012 – World Cancer Day takes place every year on 4 February and is the singular initiative under which the entire world can unite together in the fight against the global cancer epidemic. World Cancer Day is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control, through which we aim to help save millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness and education about cancer, and pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action against the disease. African Cancer Organization celebrates it every year in Ghana with series of cancer control programs and events.

The global cancer burden is growing and shifting rapidly. The most rapid rise in incidence is observed in low-income countries like Ghana, where really cancer risk historically has been considerably lower. The increasing cancer incidence is widely considered as a result of the westernization of lifestyles unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, environmental pollution, infectious agents, population growth and ageing. Cancer has no boundaries, affecting people across genders, ages, ethnicities and geography.

In 2008, cancer accounted for 7.6 million deaths globally, more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. More than 70% of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries where resources for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer are limited or nonexistent, where governments are least prepared to address the growing cancer burden and where survival rates are often low. The low survival rates for cancer in developing countries and improved survival in the developed world have led to the biggest concentration of cancer deaths falling on the poorest nations.

We have reached the point at which cancer is the leading cause of death in the world. Majority of these cancer cases present at the hospitals with late stages where cure is often impossible but pain control is the only treatment option. Those who die from cancers normally leave behind orphans. In addition, the combined effects of cancer, poverty, deprivation and infectious diseases hinder the development of a sustainable population and consequently a sustainable future. These deaths from cancer are expected to double by 2020.

Cancer control and care have remained a low priority in developing countries and on global health agendas until September 2011 when the first United Nations High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), and the signing of the Political Declaration to reshape the fight against cancer and also move cancer up the global health agenda by supporting prevention and control of these devastating conditions, including cancer.

Thanks to a concerted effort by WHO and partners, the huge burden of chronic diseases in developing countries is starting to get the attention it deserves on the global health stage. This visibility was marked by the recent passing of a UN resolution to tackle Non-Communicable Diseases. The WHO believes that avoidable deaths from NCDs can be reduced by 25% by 2025. But much remains to be done.

Acting on it will, of course, prove more difficult. Most low-income and middle-income countries have health systems that are poorly prepared to grapple with the double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases such as cancer. Poor economies cannot currently access curative therapies, state-of-the-art surgery, or expensive cancer drugs that are the mainstay of cancer care in developed nations. Therefore, scaling up prevention and early diagnosis will be the most cost-effective ways of dealing with cancer in Ghana.

It is in light of these that African Cancer Organization is this year celebrating the World Cancer Day with a launch of a National Campaign Against Cancer. The goal of the campaign is to ensure that everyone living in Ghana who is eligible has access to cancer information and screening.

Although much remains to be learned about cancer, enough is now known about the causes of cancer and means of control for suitable intervention to have a significant impact. ACO Cancer Programs, tailored to the socio-economic and cultural context, is to ensure that cancer information is available to everyone and also every Ghanaian has access to cancer screening. This we believe will help prevent people from getting exposed to avoidable cancer risk factors and also downstage cancers by early-detecting the disease at stages where cure is often possible, which will ultimately help avert the currently prevailing high incidence of cancers in Ghana.

It is estimated that by making changes to the food we eat, the level of exercise we undertake and maintaining a normal body weight, about a third of cancers can be prevented. Another third of cancers can be cured if detected early.

The knowledge, the tools and the technologies required to fight and defeat cancer are all available. What is needed now is the system to effectively and efficiently translate the present knowledge into action -and that is what ACO is doing.

But we cannot do it alone. The infrastructure to address the cancer burden of disease requires teamwork across the health and social institutions, regional and community clinics, cooperation with directed public policy by the ministry of health, and partnering with institutions and industries, to longitudinally delineate the burden of the disease, to conceive, evaluate, and implement effective cancer prevention strategies that is priority driven, cost-effective and resource appropriate for Ghanaians.

We are therefore encouraging everyone to be a stakeholder to ensure that we all take responsibility for reducing the burden of this disease because the cancer epidemic is huge and is set to rise. It is a disease that knows no boundaries and has, or will, affect us all either directly or indirectly during our lifetime as a patient, relative or a friend.

Therefore, aligning ACO Cancer Control Campaign under the World Cancer Day 2012 theme ‘Together it is possible, if we do something’ ACO would like every person, organization and government, individually doing their part that Ghana and the rest of the world will be able to reduce premature deaths from cancer and other NCDs by 25% by 2025. Together it is possible; alone, lives will continue to be lost.