World Cancer Day
World Cancer Day is a global awareness day organized by the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC) every February 4th. This year marks the first year of the United by Unique® campaign to place people at the center of care and their stories at the heart of the conversation.
NCCN has long worked to advance people-centered cancer care. The organization publishes the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®)—evidence-based expert consensus-driven recommendations for prevention, treatment, and supportive care. The panels tasked with maintaining these recommendations are made up of multidisciplinary subject matter experts, including patient advocates who help make sure their perspectives inform treatment practices.
Ruth Fein Revell
Member of the NCCN Guidelines® Panel for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN)
“People feel invisible and misunderstood with chronic cancer. We don’t ever get to ring that proverbial bell that marks the end of our treatment. Having a rare disease, I often have to explain some of the things that I am experiencing, even to my doctors. Patients know their bodies best, and we’re all different. We face different symptoms and different risks.”
Laura Porter, MD
Member of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Colorectal Cancer Screening
“Anybody who's a cancer survivor will tell you, life changes completely. Your new normal is definitely not normal.”
She also had to contend with living in the United States at a time when she was unable to get married: “We had to make sure that all the special paperwork was filled out so if something happened to me, my partner at the time, who is now my wife would be the one that was notified. That was incredibly stressful on top of everything else.”