What, Why and How
What is cancer
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide: it accounted for 7.9 million deaths (around 13% of all deaths) in 2007.
Lung, stomach, liver, colon and breast cancer cause the most cancer deaths each year.
About 30% of cancer deaths can be prevented.
Tobacco use is the single most important risk factor for cancer.
China counts number one in liver, esophageal, and stomach cancer incidence, and will soon take number one in lung cancer incidence.
Why we estabilished uscaca
At 2008 AACR Annual Meeting, ~ 4000 abstracts were authored or co-authored by Chinese scientists representing near 70% of the 5867 abstracts. With such a huge contribution, the establishment of a dedicated organization will greatly benefit both individuals and societies, and lead to increasing collaboration and communication in cancer research, prevention and treatment between US and China.
(1)
With the growing economy and cancer patient population, there is an urgent need to rapidly improve cancer research, patient treatment and cancer awareness in China;
With the largest population, China is critical for the global battle against cancer;
Significant progress has been made in the last decade to develop the infrastructure for cancer research in China;
Access to the newest cancer drugs is still a challenge;
Especially, cancer patients in China do not have early access to newest breakthroughs in cancer drug research & development because of challenges to conduct early clinical trials in China.
(2)
Most top pharmaceutical companies are based in
While western pharmaceutical companies competing for the limited number of cancer patients for clinical research, patients in China are denied of early access to these new medicines;
There is a golden opportunity for clinical researchers and cancer research institutes in China to tap into the vast clinical trial resources in China collaborating with US and EU clinical researchers and Western pharmaceutical companies to bring new cancer medicines to patients in China;
USCACA will take an active role to address these unmet needs by bridging promising projects in