Dear UICC family and members of our community,
For many of us, 2019 appears as a distant memory, eclipsed by the COVID-19 crisis which has overtaken our lives in recent months. There has been much learning during this time, and I trust that these lessons will place us in a stronger position to avoid or effectively navigate a second wave - should it happen - or another future pandemic.
At UICC, learning is a part of all that we do. Our work is driven by constant improvement, relentless innovation and the best intention to serve our members and partners every day. In this way we hope to achieve the ambition that no-one should die of a preventable cancer, and those with a cancer diagnosis have access to timely and quality treatment and care.
The ambition might sound simple. Yet, the fact is that our generation continues to struggle to address many critical components of cancer control. Tobacco use is still unacceptably high; access to basic screening is still unavailable where it's often needed most; more young girls should be receiving the HPV vaccine, yet are not; cancers continue to be presented late with better outcomes still escaping our patients; and many low- and middle-income countries remain hampered by a lack of adequate resources and treatment facilities.
The pandemic has revealed the cracks and fault lines in our health systems in a way we have not seen before. This realisation should be an even stronger impetus to increase investment in our national health systems, because what has become plainly obvious is that heath issues are economic ones.
Please read UICC’s 2019 Annual Report and see how the UICC community delivered a year of remarkable progress and impact.
I am proud of everything our entire community has done and achieved. To everyone who has helped make this community stronger, thank you.
Keep well,
Dr Cary Adams
CEO, UICC
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