C/Can 2025: City Cancer Challenge press conference at WEF in Davos

Launching of C/Can 2025: City Cancer Challenge, in Davos at the World Economic Forum

Watch the recorded webcast and discover the first key learning cities committed to the challenge. 

C/Can 2025 has formally been launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on 17 January 2017 and will then publicly within key cities on World Cancer Day 2017 (4 February). UICC will showcase both the magnitude of the challenge of improving cancer control in urbanised areas, and the unique role that C/Can 2025 will play in addressing this. The first cities involved in the project would be unveiled at this event. With 1 in 3 people directly affected by the disease, cancer is one of the world’s most pressing health concerns, killing more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB combined each year.

The disease is estimated to cost world economies as much as US$1.16 trillion annually - a figure that is projected to grow exponentially if action is not taken now to reduce the spiralling growth in the number of cases and the impact on both individuals and healthcare budgets.

The greatest financial and human impact of cancer is felt within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), those least equipped to respond to this growing burden, but also where rapid urbanisation is bringing significant public health and sustainable development challenges – as recognised by the 2011 UN Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases, and more recently, the SDGs. In little more than a decade, the global population living in medium-sized cities is expected to increase to over one billion. Therefore coordinated global efforts are needed to improve cancer care infrastructure and outcomes in these settings.

The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) has formed a partnership with the World Economic Forum to create ‘C/Can 2025: City Cancer Challenge’, to address the urgent need to move political commitments made at the global level into fully functional, comprehensive cancer solutions, which can reach the majority of the world’s population.

This ambitious first of its kind initiative brings together multisectoral stakeholders to support cities (one million+ populations) improve the health of their citizens and accelerate equitable access to quality cancer care. Between now and 2025, the initiative will target 520 cities to improve the health of up to one billion people worldwide.

Fostering international multisectoral collaboration, C/Can 2025 will provide cities with the technical and financial resources to create cancer solutions tailored to the needs of their own population, to deliver sustainable and robust cancer prevention, detection and treatment programmes.

For more information, please visit the C/Can 2025 page here.