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World Cancer Day Shines Light on the Science of Cancer Care

By Pete Sandor, Vice President, Global Oncology

Today marks the 19th annual recognition of World Cancer Day.  This provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress in improving cancer treatment and underscore the need for continued focus globally. This year, Astellas joined the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), which spearheads World Cancer Day, in raising awareness and improving education about the disease, while also calling on governments and individuals across the world to take action. This all takes place under the theme of ‘I Am and I Will,’ which serves as a call for personal commitment and represents the power of collective action to reduce the growing impact of cancer on individuals and their loved ones.

Investment in scientific research and new understanding of targeted therapies has ushered in a new and much needed wave of patient-centricity in oncology. At Astellas, we embrace this wholeheartedly. Patients are at the center of everything we do, from delivering on meaningful advances in cancer treatments to innovative programs like our C3 Prize that explores solutions to support patients holistically throughout their treatment journey.

Despite significant advances in cancer care in recent years, it’s clear there’s still much to be done globally around early diagnosis and treatment. According to current estimates, last year saw more than 18 million new cases of cancer worldwide[1] and we are committed to doing our part to improve the outlook for people impacted by cancer.

We are proud of our work in prostate cancer, lung cancer and acute myeloid leukemia, to name a few, which provide important treatment options for patients. We’re not stopping there: we’re building on our foundation of treatments by combining collaboration, cutting-edge technology and innovative discovery platforms to discover new oncology treatments and novel pathways.  

We hope you’ll join us this World Cancer Day in doing the same by coming together to raise awareness and education about cancer. To see how our employees are embracing the ‘I Am and I Will’ mindset around revolutionizing cancer treatment visit our Facebook and Twitter pages. For more information about events, including free cancer screenings, fundraisers, awareness walks and runs and public seminars, please visit: www.worldcancerday.org/map.

 

[1] IARC (2018) All Cancers Fact Sheet. [Accessed: 01.14.19] http://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/cancers/39-All-cancers-fact-sheet.pdf

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