I guess the concept is happy -- the public urging for our world's policy makers to make cancer a top priority -- but the fact that becomes all too apparent on this World Cancer Day is quite sobering. More than seven million people die from cancer and close to 11 million new cases are diagnosed worldwide each year. In 2006, cancer killed more people than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.So today is both happy and sad. But for now, let's focus on the happy.
The Geneva-based International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and member organizations in 86 countries are launching a five-year campaign to impart life lessons to children so they can prevent cancer later in life. Parents are critical in this campaign and must take an active role in teaching their children techniques for saving their lives.
Forty-three percent of cancer cases can be prevented through healthy lifestyles that begin in childhood. The World Cancer Campaign slogan -- Today's Children, Tomorrow's World -- underscores the possibility that a concerted effort among world leaders, parents, and their children can make a real difference through four key actions -- providing a smoke-free environment for children; ensuring children keep physically active, eat a healthy diet, and avoid obesity; educating children about vaccines for virus-related liver and cervical cancers; and limiting children's exposure to the sun.
Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Her Royal Highness Lalla Slama of Morocco, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and tennis star Steffi Graf are some of the powerful voices powering this campaign that UICC president Dr. Franco Cavalli says can save so many lives if embraced by those at the highest decision-making levels.
"Complacency and inaction on the part of world community will effectively contribute to more than 10 million deaths every year by 2020," he said.
From July 8th to 12th, more than 5,000 international cancer and tobacco control leaders representing more than 130 countries are coming together for the International Union Against Cancer World Cancer Congress 2006 conferences in Washington DC to address the global cancer and tobacco burden in the worldwide epidemic of cancer. Today, cancer is responsible for an estimated seven million deaths each year worldwide. Experts predict in another 15 years, the number of deaths annually could reach 10 million, with 65 percent of deaths occurring in emerging nations. 
