‘I Can, We Can’ Is The Theme Of This Year's World Cancer Day

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‘I Can, We Can’ Is The Theme Of This Year’s World Cancer Day

This year’s World Cancer Day theme ‘I can, we can’ focuses on individual’s efforts to fight the disease, and encourages to work together in reducing its risk factors. By Tanvi Jain

Organised by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and celebrated each year on February 4, World Cancer Day marks the opportunity to rally the international community to end the injustice of preventable suffering from cancer.

This year’s theme– ‘I can, we can’- endorses the fact that everyone has the capacity to address the cancer burden. It encourages people to work together in reducing the risk factors of cancer, focusing mainly on an individual’s attempts to fight the disease.

In order to help understand as to how can one overcome barriers to early diagnosis, treatment, and palliative car, The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also released a Guide to Cancer Early Diagnosis, thereby, aiming to improve cancer control and achieve global targets to reduce premature mortality from cancer and NCDs.

World Cancer Day, which was first created in 2000, has with time grown into a positive movement, which brings together people from across the planet to raise their voice in fight against one of the biggest challenges in history. According to WHO, across the globe, at least 17 people die of cancer every minute.

In India alone the numbers are pretty scary. As per The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research every eight minutes at least one woman dies of cervical cancer in the country, breast cancer among newly diagnosed women kills at least one in two, and tobacco use in the country.

Moreover, the numbers also suggest, that at least 2.25 million people in the country are living with the disease, more than 11,57,294 lakh new patients are registered every year, and as in 2018 at least 7,84,821 deaths took place due to cancer. Majority of cases in India include that of oral cavity, lung and breast cancers.