News Release

Cancer summit leads to first global network unifying research in fight against cancer

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Porter Novelli

PARIS, Feb. 4, 2000 -- The Charter of Paris Against Cancer will be signed today by more than 100 international leaders in government, patient advocacy, cancer research and global corporations at the first World Summit Against Cancer.

The Charter of Paris Against Cancer is the first global call to action against cancer in the new millennium. Arguably the most important section of The Charter of Paris is article 10, which maps out the sustaining activities and explains how signatories of the Charter will go forward as global partners and allies against cancer.

To help achieve that goal, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) spearheaded the formation of the Alliance of World Cancer Research Organizations by bringing together a group of scientists and thoughtleaders from 35 cancer organizations worldwide. The initial meeting of the Alliance, chaired by AACR past president, Webster K. Cavenee, M.D., Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Professor at the University of California at San Diego, was held in December '99 in Bangkok. The focus of the meeting was to develop the mission of the Alliance and the priorities to be met in building an effective global anticancer network.

"The first thing we realized when we gathered together was that this was an historic event," said Dr. Cavenee. "So many international cancer leaders had never before gathered together at the same time to discuss a global alliance to stem the tide of this disease."

The assembled group quickly formed a platform of six priorities that were necessary to accelerate progress against cancer around the world. "The group was incredibly diverse, but we agreed upon the bedrock priorities very quickly," Dr. Cavenee said.

The six highest priorities for the Alliance are:
. Creation of national and international cancer registries, which will help track cancer incidences and mortality
. Basic and clinical research in cancer screening and prevention
. Increase in government and private funding for cancer research emphasizing return on investment
. A coordinated global communications protocol to speed information exchange among world cancer research organizations and their constituencies
. Increased training and funding opportunities for young investigators throughout the world
. International coordination of therapeutic and prevention clinical trials, to provide a broader base of subjects, thereby maximizing cure rates and prevention.

Dr. Cavenee and other members of the Alliance at the Summit will use the event as a springboard to further the group's mission of a global network.

Each year worldwide, nine million new cases of cancer occur and five million people die, reports the World Health Organization (WHO). Due to dramatic increases in life expectancy, changes in lifestyle and tobacco use the number of new cancer cases will rise to 20 million annually by 2020 and cancer deaths will exceed 10 million, despite advances in treatments, reports WHO.

"We must all stand together globally, sharing research advances, technologies and new treatments, if we are to change the course of cancer in the 21st century," said Dr. Cavenee.

The preamble of the 10 articles of The Charter of Paris Against Cancer requires that signatories commit to the principles and practices outlined in the historic document. Each article focuses on a particular element of cancer prevention, treatment or care including protecting patient rights, increasing the commitment to basic and clinical research, improving access to clinical trials, prevention and screening initiatives and addressing patients' quality of life issues.

Working groups for each of the Charter articles will be formed and, using this year as a benchmark, will report back to the international cancer community on progress made against each of the articles on an annual basis.

Interested individuals and organizations can get more information and sign their support for The Charter of the Paris Against Cancer by visiting the event website located at www.CharterAgainstCancer.org.

###


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.