World Cancer Day is marked on February 4 to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. It is led by the Union for International Cancer Control, a global consortium of more than 470 cancer-fighting organisations in over 120 countries. World Cancer Day targets the public through global communications, and encourages policy makers and UICC member organisations to make cancer a political priority.
WCD is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), a leading international non-governmental organisation dedicated to the prevention and control of cancer worldwide. Founded in 1933 and based in Geneva, UICC’s growing membership of over 460 organisations across 120 countries, features the world’s major cancer societies, ministries of health, research institutes, treatment centres and patient groups. Additionally, the organisation is a founding member of the NCD Alliance, a global civil society network that now represents almost 2,000 organisations in 170 countries.
UICC also has responsibility for: • The World Cancer Declaration - a tool to help bring the growing cancer crisis to the attention of government leaders and health policymakers in order to significantly reduce the global cancer burden by 2020 • World Cancer Congress - a biannual event at which the international cancer control community gather to meet, discuss, share, learn and connect in order to find solutions to reduce the impact of cancer on communities around the world. Next meeting is in Montréal, Canada from 27-30 August 2012 • World Cancer Leaders’ Summit - the most important annual high level policy meeting dedicated exclusively to furthering global cancer control