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Today, we once again observe World Cancer Day and take a minute to remember cancer’s tremendous impact on our communities and the people we love. Just to summarize:

• 10 million people die from cancer every year.
• Cancer is the second-leading cause of death worldwide.
• The total annual economic cost of cancer is estimated at $1.16 trillion.

But it’s also a day to resolve to do what we can to fight cancer. Remember:

• At least one third of common cancers are preventable.
• As many as 3.7 million lives could be saved each year with appropriate strategies for prevention, early detection and treatment.

This year dealt a setback to our efforts to fight cancer, as many people skipped routine screenings and cancer. While the ultimate impact of these delays is not knowns, the early indications are that too many people were diagnosed with cancer at later, less treatable stages.

But this past year also brought hopeful news that, moving forward, we may have ways to detect many kinds of cancer at earlier stages. Currently, we’re only able to identify five cancers through routine screenings. Most cancers have no such tests.

New multi-cancer early detection tests have the ability to detect many cancers with a simple blood sample, before patients show symptoms. If this technology is approved by the FDA and is made widely available, it could be a game-changer — and a life-saver.

As we say every year, we long for the day when people can live without fear of cancer – where cancer can be prevented, or at least can be easily detected and cured.

Do your part. Take care of yourself. Don’t drink too much. Don’t smoke. Get the HPV vaccine. Get recommended screenings. We can’t say this often enough, but colonoscopies are a lot more fun than colon cancer. If you experience symptoms that indicate cancer, see your doctor. Fear is too often the enemy of early detection – and survival.

Be informed. Support policies that promote new therapies to fight cancer. Support policies that ensure people have adequate access to those therapies. Support candidates who know the importance of research and affordable care.

Today is World Cancer Day. But every day is “cancer day” for those who are battling this disease. Let’s join them and continue this fight today — and every day — until we defeat cancer once and for all.

#WorldCancerDay

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day, which gives us a special opportunity to celebrate those who have battled this disease and lived to tell about it.

Hats off to all of us!

According to the official National Cancer Survivors Day website, there are more than 32 million cancer survivors worldwide — and nearly 17 million in the U.S. This includes everyone who has any history of cancer, from the moment of diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.

We can all take a moment today (and every day) to cheer new treatments that offer us more hope than ever. There is still much more work to do, and some cancers remain heartbreakingly resistant to treatment. But in many cases, the odds are increasingly in our favor.

Celebrating these victories, however, is only part of the goal today. The other piece of National Cancer Survivors Day is raising awareness about the challenges that cancer survivors continue to face even after treatment ends.

“Cancer survivors face ongoing, often long-lasting, hardships because of their disease. On National Cancer Survivors Day®, we want to raise awareness of the many challenges of cancer survivorship and advocate for further research, more resources, and increased public awareness to improve the lives of cancer survivors.” Laura Shipp, spokeswoman for the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation, said in a press release.  

Without getting all political, we can’t let this day pass without a reminder that we must remain vigilant and alert to proposals in Washington, D.C., that would undermine hard-fought gains we have made as cancer survivors.

The Affordable Care Act wasn’t perfect. But it provided very real relief to people who’d had cancer and lived in fear of losing their health insurance, being unable to obtain a policy, or exhausting a lifetime cap on benefits. We must ensure that we don’t return to the days when pre-existing conditions could block cancer survivors from health insurance — either because we can’t get coverage at all or because we can’t afford the cost.

So, yes.

Today, we celebrate survival and the progress we’ve made, thanks to  effective treatments and access to care. Tomorrow, we must continue to fight — or risk losing very valuable ground.

As much as we loved the report published this month about a record drop in cancer deaths, we cannot forget the horrible toll this disease continues to take.

Tonight, we learned of yet another casualty of this cruel disease. Wyatt Spann, a 4-year-old from Winfield, Ala., died today after fighting medulloblastoma for the past year.

We never met Wyatt or his family. But we were touched by his story, which we followed on social media and shared on this site during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Wyatt’s story resonated with so many, and particularly with those of us who have had cancer or who have loved someone with the disease. We watched as his parents journeyed back and forth between hope and despair, and we prayed daily for hope to win.

We are so sad that Wyatt’s fight has come to a heartbreaking end.

His story serves as a reminder that we still have a long way to go in our fight against cancer.

The decrease in cancer deaths reported by the American Cancer Society was attributed largely to fewer deaths from lung cancer, which is good news indeed. There’s other good news as well. The survival rate for many cancers has improved, and some new therapies offer hope to patients who at one time would have been considered hopeless. Many people are living longer and better despite their disease.

But we can’t let up, not when we are still losing too many beloved children, parents, spouses, siblings and friends to this disease. Every one of these deaths is one too many.

May Wyatt rest in peace; may the rest of us rise up to carry on his fight.

Nobody is more interested than those of us with serious diseases in finding ways to make medical treatments more affordable. And nobody is more interested than we are in making sure that those treatments are accessible. We need both, and we don’t think these two goals should be mutually exclusive.

We were happy to join several other Alabama-based organizations in asking our state’s congressional delegation to think carefully about drug price proposals that might limit our options in treatments, including the medical breakthroughs we all want and need.

We hope this at least starts a conversation.

Here’s the letter:

As advocates who work on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who have serious diseases and disabilities, we share your concerns about rising out-of-pocket costs for those covered by Medicare. But like you, we want to make sure we find solutions that lower patient costs without creating different and potentially worse barriers to care.
Patients need access to a full range of options for their treatments and to be able to determine, in partnership with their doctors, what option will work best for them. The government should not be able to dictate whether treatments are available, nor should patient choices be limited based on prices derived from foreign countries that offer far fewer alternatives for care.
We encourage you to support solutions that reduce patients’ costs without undermining their access to existing treatments and breakthrough advances in care. Examples of positive ideas include the proposal to cap patients’ out-of-pocket costs in Part D, as well as the proposal to require health plans to share savings from Medicare Part D drug rebates with patients. These would directly address cost barriers for patients and ensure better access to care.
As taxpayers, we understand the government’s broader interest in controlling its costs in the Medicare program. We believe putting patients first also achieves that goal. By lowering out-of-pocket costs and ensuring access to an array of treatments, we can prevent poor outcomes that lead to hospitalizations, costly complications and other adverse consequences. We urge you to support policies that will help you control costs by ensuring the well-being of seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Sincerely,

Alabama Cancer Association
Alabama Council of Behavioral Health Alabama Lifespan Respite Resource Network Alabama Rare
NEAL Together
Operation Save Rural Alabama
6:52 Project Foundation
Stop All M.S.
Survivors Cancer Action Network

Social media can be a place where we showcase our worst, shallow selves. But it can also be a great place of connection and humanity and warmth and love. Look no further than the story of Wyatt Spann, a 3-year-old Alabama boy diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor in December 2018. Wyatt’s parents have spent almost every day of the past year sharing Facebook posts that document their son’s traumatic journey. There have been surgeries, and setbacks, and scares, and struggles. But there has also been an incredible outpouring of support from the Spanns’ hometown of Winfield and beyond. People who have never met the Spanns follow their story on Facebook. They organize fund-raisers to meet the family’s financial needs. They respond to Wyatt’s parents’ regular appeals and lift him up daily in prayer. That includes us, too. We’ve never met the Spanns, but we pray every day for Wyatt.

September is the month we’ve set aside for Childhood Cancer Awareness. It’s a time to remember Wyatt and so many others who are affected by this terrible disease. About 300,000 children across the world are diagnosed with cancer every year. That’s about 300,000 too many. So in this season of football and fall, stop for one minute. Say a prayer for all the families affected by childhood cancer. But don’t stop there. Pray for the healthcare providers who are taking care of these children. Pray for the researchers who are looking for cures. And pray for Wyatt, too.

May is National Cancer Research Month, which gives those of us here at Survivors Cancer Action Network a chance to talk about a key piece of our mission. If you’ll notice, our goal is to champion those who have battled cancer in many realms — in their own bodies, in homes with their loved ones, in hospitals and oncology offices, in advocacy work in the halls of government, and in laboratories.

If you’ve been treated for cancer, chances are that there came a moment — maybe a moment of triumph when success was in sight or maybe a moment of utter fatigue when the journey seemed to be taking too long — that you thought about “them.” That is, you thought about those people who had developed this treatment giving you a chance at remission, or a cure, or even just a little more quality time. You thought about the patients who came before you who took a chance on clinical trials that brought your treatment to the market. You thought about the people who tried the “other” treatments — those that didn’t pan out. You thought about your debt to these people you’d never meet or see. And you whispered “thank you” into the air, hoping your gratitude would somehow reach them.

How cool is it that we have a special month set aside to thank them again?

We know there continue to be too many casualties, and as we all know, there is still more work to do.

And so, as we write this, researchers somewhere are hard at work behind the scenes, looking for that next weapon we can put in our arsenal to use against this terrible disease. They’re our allies, our secret weapons, our hope. They’re the reasons more and more of us are alive to tell our stories.

On behalf of cancer survivors everywhere, thank you.

We didn’t want to let March get away from us without mentioning the elephant in the room: Chances are, you have a colon. It’s involved in a dirty business that isn’t often discussed in polite company. But it’s there, nonetheless, and if ever there is a time to talk about it, it’s now.

March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month. We hope you received at least one nagging message this month about having a colonoscopy if you’re due for one, having a conversation with your doctor if you are having troubling symptoms, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that is good for your colon.

If not, allow us to do the honors.

By all means, maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s not just good for your colon; it’s good for the rest of you, too. By all means, speak up if you have symptoms that could indicate colon cancer, which we’re listing here.

• A change in bowel habits
• Blood in the bowel movements
• Thin, ribbon-like bowel movements
• Inexplicable weight loss
• Feeling tired all the time
• Loss of appetite
• Stomach pain
• Unexplained bloating, gas and fullness
• Nausea or vomiting

So you may have to talk to your doctor about pooping. So what? Your doctor knows that you poop. And if he or she doesn’t, please get a different doctor.

If you don’t have colon cancer symptoms but you are at that magic age where they start looking anyway, don’t procrastinate. If we’ve heard the excuses once, we’ve heard them a million times: I don’t want to go through the prep. I don’t want something looking up my rear end. I don’t want to take time off work.

Get over it!

Trust us on this one. The prep isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world, but it’s definitely a lot more fun than colon cancer.

And having a colonoscopy doesn’t just detect colon cancer. It detects things that BECOME colon cancer. So having colonoscopies is one of the very few things you can do that prevents you from getting cancer.

In just a few days, we’ll mark the birthday of a dear friend. She would have been 58 if colon cancer had not claimed her life four years ago. If she were here, she’d tell you to get the colonoscopy.

Colon cancer can strike anyone, no matter how educated you are, how much money you have, or what you look like. While it most often occurs in the over-50 crowd, it’s on the rise in younger people. Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States, and the second-leading killer among cancers. Every year, more than 50,000 people die from colon cancer.

We don’t always have control over the things that go wrong in our lives. While there are exceptions, colon cancer is often one of the few bad things that we can actually do something to avoid.

If it’s time, please schedule a colonoscopy. It’s not nearly as bad as you imagine. And the alternative is far, far worse.

Today is World Cancer Day, and the goal is to bring the whole globe together in the fight against cancer. This day aims to save lives by educating the public about cancer and by pushing for individual and collective action to kick cancer’s butt.

And it can’t happen fast enough. According to the official World Cancer Day website, 8.8 million people around the world die from cancer every year. The official count lists 4 million of those deaths as “premature,” meaning the victims died between the ages of 30 and 69.

But as we all know, age doesn’t matter a whole lot when you lose someone you love to cancer. It still hurts, and there is no such thing as a good time to lose someone you love. However, it is cruel and crushing when cancer strikes the young; we know children at this very minute who are undergoing treatment and fighting for their lives.

What we long for is the day when people at every age can live without fear of cancer – where cancer can be prevented, or at least can be easily detected and cured.

We hope. We hope. We hope.

You can do your part to make this dream a reality. First, do what you can to protect yourself and your family. Take care of yourself. Don’t drink too much. Please don’t smoke. And for heaven’s sake, make sure your sons and daughters receive the HPV vaccine.

Get recommended screenings. As we’ve said before, colonoscopies are a lot more fun than colon cancer. If you experience symptoms that indicate cancer, see your doctor. Fear is too often the enemy of early detection – and survival.

Be informed. Support policies that promote the development of new therapies and tools in the fight against cancer. Support policies that ensure people have adequate access to healthcare. Support candidates who know the importance of research and affordable care.

Today is World Cancer Day. But every day is “cancer day” for those who are battling this disease. Let’s join them and continue this fight today — and every day — until we defeat cancer once and for all.

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day, which gives us a special opportunity to celebrate those who have battled this disease and lived to tell about it.

Hats off to all of us!

According to the official National Cancer Survivors Day website, there are more than 32 million cancer survivors worldwide — and close to 16 million in the U.S. This includes everyone who has any history of cancer, from the moment of diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.

We can all take a moment today (and every day) to cheer new treatments that offer us more hope than ever. There is still much more work to do, and some cancers remain heartbreakingly resistant to treatment. But in many cases, the odds are increasingly in our favor.

Celebrating these victories, however, is only part of the goal today. The other piece of National Cancer Survivors Day is raising awareness about the challenges that cancer survivors continue to face even after treatment ends.

“Cancer survivors face ongoing, often long-lasting, hardships because of their disease,” Laura Shipp, spokeswoman for the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation, said in a press release.  “We want to raise awareness of the many challenges of cancer survivorship and advocate for further research, more resources, and increased public awareness to improve the lives of cancer survivors.”

This day’s 30th annual observance is especially poignant in light of the debates taking place right now in our nation’s capital. No matter what your political leanings, you should be concerned about proposed cuts to research dollars and about possible loss of insurance protections for those who have fought diseases like cancer.

The Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect. But it provided very real relief to people who’d had cancer and lived in fear of losing their health insurance, being unable to obtain a policy, or exhausting a lifetime cap on benefits. We must ensure that those working to change federal healthcare law don’t return us to the days when pre-existing conditions could block cancer survivors from health insurance — either because we can’t get coverage at all or because we can’t afford the cost.

Read what the Cancer Leadership Council has said about the most recent version of the American Health Care Act. If you are a cancer survivor, this bill is a scary step back.

So, yes.

Today, we celebrate survival and the progress we’ve made, thanks to  effective treatments and access to care. Tomorrow, we must continue to fight — or risk losing very valuable ground.