Cancer Knowledge Network

by Deborah Cornwall, Cancer Advocate

Part 4:  Cancer’s Global Reach and Efforts to Fight Back

Cancer isn’t just a North American problem, but a global one. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), worldwide cancer incidence is rising from 14.1 million new diagnoses in 2012 to a projected 21.7 million in 2030 as a result of population aging. In addition, incidence and death rates could rise even faster in low- and middle-income countries that are adopting Western lifestyle habits (with their associated smoking, high-fat diets, reduced exercise, and infection problems); impacts are severe since many of those countries lack the medical resources and healthcare infrastructure to properly diagnose and treat the flood of diagnosed patients.  The complexities of addressing such a cancer epidemic require multiple strategies, and many of them require research, collaboration, and information. They’re interconnected.

Continue reading →

by Deborah Cornwall, Cancer Advocate

Part 3:  Cancer’s Global Reach and Efforts to Fight Back

Cancer isn’t just a North American problem, but a global one. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), worldwide cancer incidence is rising from 14.1 million new diagnoses in 2012 to a projected 21.7 million in 2030 as a result of population aging. In addition, incidence and death rates could rise even faster in low- and middle-income countries that are adopting Western lifestyle habits (with their associated smoking, high-fat diets, reduced exercise, and infection problems); impacts are severe since many of those countries lack the medical resources and healthcare infrastructure to properly diagnose and treat the flood of diagnosed patients.  The complexities of addressing such a cancer epidemic require multiple strategies, and many of them require research, collaboration, and information. They’re interconnected.

Continue reading →

by Deborah Cornwall, Cancer Advocate

Part 2:  Cancer’s Global Reach and Efforts to Fight Back

Cancer isn’t just a North American problem, but a global one. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), worldwide cancer incidence is rising from 14.1 million new diagnoses in 2012 to a projected 21.7 million in 2030 as a result of population aging. In addition, incidence and death rates could rise even faster in low- and middle-income countries that are adopting Western lifestyle habits (with their associated smoking, high-fat diets, reduced exercise, and infection problems); impacts are severe since many of those countries lack the medical resources and healthcare infrastructure to properly diagnose and treat the flood of diagnosed patients.  The complexities of addressing such a cancer epidemic require multiple strategies, and many of them require research, collaboration, and information. They’re interconnected.

Continue reading →

by Deborah Cornwall, Cancer Advocate

Part 1:  Cancer’s Global Reach and Efforts to Fight Back

Cancer isn’t just a North American problem, but a global one. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), worldwide cancer incidence is rising from 14.1 million new diagnoses in 2012 to a projected 21.7 million in 2030 as a result of population aging. In addition, incidence and death rates could rise even faster in low- and middle-income countries that are adopting Western lifestyle habits (with their associated smoking, high-fat diets, reduced exercise, and infection problems); impacts are severe since many of those countries lack the medical resources and healthcare infrastructure to properly diagnose and treat the flood of diagnosed patients.  The complexities of addressing such a cancer epidemic require multiple strategies, and many of them require research, collaboration, and information. They’re interconnected.

Continue reading →

by Terri Coutee, Cancer Survivor, Advocate

World Cancer Day 2017 is a global movement in the fight against cancer.  How, might you ask, does that fit into my wheelhouse of educating about breast reconstruction options after mastectomy?  Yes, mastectomy!  And there is your answer.  Every person I engage with on social media, each patient I talk to about planning a course of action to reconstruct their breasts, the research and education I seek to understand and share revolves around those who have had or will be having a mastectomy because of breast cancer or a high likelihood of getting it due to a BRCA gene mutation.  My engagement through my Foundation work involves those individuals who have chosen the profession of plastic surgery, oncology, radiology, and breast surgery to serve those individuals affected by breast cancer.  It is a community that spans the globe.

Continue reading →

by Jonathan Agin, Childhood Cancer Advocate

Someone once said that hope springs eternal.  In the context of cancer around the world, as 2016 came to a close and 2017 dawned, a palpable sense of hope continued to take root despite the backdrop of a cautious and uncertain landscape.  Peeling back the layers of hope, there are a number of dynamic factors that have fueled this optimism.  A greater understanding of the underlying genetic and molecular targets and drivers of cancer continues to expand almost daily.  Global efforts to unlock new targets and treatments, precision guided therapies, precision medicine, investigation into the use of drugs widely proliferated in other diseases, cheaper access to genetic testing, and on and on, all form the foundation of hope.  Hope is not created through alternative facts; rather it is nourished by steadfast effort.  For those of us in the cancer advocacy community, effort is never lacking.

Continue reading →