Eliminating Cancer as a Cause of Death and Suffering Cancer has a devastating impact on our country. It kills well over half a million Americans each year; in fact, it is this country's second-leading cause of death. This year, about 1.5 million of us will be told we have cancer. More than half a million of us will die of it.

Rob Egge Project Director

This toll will be felt among the young and old alike. More Americans ages 20 to 40 will be killed by cancer than by any other type of disease.

And yet we see reason for hope. Our research is paying off; the nation's "war on cancer" - fitfully waged over the past 35 years - is finally yielding clear signs of success. Cancer death rates fell by 10 percent from 1991 to 2002, saving as many as 321,000 lives. In fact, this past year was the second year in a row that the absolute number of Americans who died of cancer declined.

Motivated by cancer’s terrible toll but recognizing that the medical, policy, and large-employer communities are identifying solutions that are yielding encouraging results, the cancer project will focus on three central initiatives over the coming year: highlighting state cancer program transformational solutions, highlighting corporate cancer program transformational solutions, and federal advocacy to encourage the discovery & development of more effective diagnostics and treatments.

• Report on the most promising, innovative programs states are currently using to improve cancer prevention, detection, and care
• Convene expert panel to identify 5-10 states with breakthrough programs that deserve particular consideration from state policy leaders
• Issue report containing overall analysis and case studies of each of the selected state programs
• Host one-day conference held in conjunction with report’s release

• Highlight corporate cancer program transformational solutions
• Potentially release report highlighting innovative HR cancer programs
• Potentially include a panel/session on transformational solutions during the one-day State Cancer
• Program conference

• CHT continues to advocate steady and robust support for NCI (as well as for the NIH more generally)
• CHT will also push for other policy priorities, such as enhanced federal protection against genetic discrimination, as issues arise and as identified by the Eliminating Cancer as a Cause of Death and Suffering Project working group

If you would like to find out more about participating in the Eliminating Cancer as a Cause of Death and Suffering Project working group, please contact Robert Egge at (202) 375-2001 or info@healthtransformation.net.