Introduction to the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)

- Profile -

Born in London, Cary ADAMS has a BSc Honors degree in Economics, Computing and Statistics, a Master’s degree (with Distinction) in Business Administration. He is a Harvard Business School Alumni and has received two honorary doctorates for International Relations and Health.

In 2009, Cary made a career change, moving from the management of international businesses in the banking sector to become CEO of UICC, based in Geneva – the largest international cancer NGO of its kind, with some 1,200 member organizations represented in over 170 countries.

Cary and his team focus on global advocacy, convening the cancer community (through World Cancer Day, the World Cancer Congress and the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit) and running significant global capacity building projects that address global cancer issues.

(1) Introduction to the lecture

Dr. Kawahara noted that the Surviving Cancer in Asia lecture series has taken cancer—one of the greatest challenges of our time—and examined it not just as a medical issue, but as a mirror that reflects our society. The course has to date looked at cancer from multiple perspectives, to explore what is truly important for achieving real well-being among people in Asia. 

  Dr. Kawahara noted that as the final lecture of the series, Dr. Cary ADAMS, CEO of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the world’s largest cancer organization, based in Geneva, would be providing the presentation. The lecture series at University of Tokyo is now in its 15th year, and since its inception it has received the support of UICC-Japan, particularly through the UICC Asia Regional Office (UICC-ARO).  UICC has thus supported the university in selecting lecturers and collaborating on academic papers. 

UICC-Japan has been a member since the founding of UICC in 1933, and has played a vital role in strengthening cancer collaboration throughout Asia. 

Dr. Kawahara noted that in the lecture students would learn from Dr. Adams about the role of UICC as a global organization, and reflect on what we must do for the next generation.

(2) Introduction to UICC and its activities

Dr. Cary Adams began by providing an overview of UICC. The organization was originally established in 1933 in Paris, France, and is the oldest and largest organization fighting cancer globally. The headquarters of the UICC moved to Geneva in the 1980s and today it comprises a team of 45 staff, located close to the WHO headquarters. 

UICC also acts as a consultancy group, with about seven people who are working on the Access to Oncology Medicines project which has been running for three years. UICC is a membership organization, with more than 1,050 members in over 170 countries and territories. Eighty partners include cancer organizations, companies and foundations, as well as governments and international organizations. UICC also has official relations with various UN agencies, including the WHO, IARC, IAEA and UNODC. UICC actually sits on the governing council of IARC. It is a respected organization across UN bodies, and it is this high regard for UICC which provides access to many meetings, including the World Health Assembly. UICC also has access to the many international missions in Geneva, and also participates in negotiations that take place at the WHO. 

 What makes UICC unique is that it is the only global cancer organization that generally represents all cancer types across the continuum of care, from prevention to early detection, treatment, and care through to palliative care, and also supportive care.

Cancer control is a large area to be involved with. Many organizations specialize in some specific cancers or some aspects of cancer control. UICC tries to maintain a broad brief to cover all aspects of cancer control, from prevention all the way to supportive care. UICC is also very influential, not just within the cancer community, but in the non-communicable disease (NCD) community. Working with NCDs has been an important part of UICC’s work in the last 15 years, and has helped to promote perceptions of UICC as an organization that can implement global health thinking. 

UICC’s mission is to unite and support the cancer community to reduce the global cancer burden by promoting greater equity, and to ensure that cancer control continues to be a priority in the world health and development agenda. 

UICC’s board comprises renowned health leaders, who are elected by the membership of the UICC. All geographical areas are represented on the board. There are some extremely well-known individuals who are specialists in their own area of interest in cancer control, and collectively, they have the knowledge and the understanding to make the right decisions about where UICC should be spending its time and effort over a period of time. 

UICC membership has grown significantly over the last 15 years, and this has given UICC the authority to actually press for change at a global level. There are a range of organizations in the membership, including academic institutions, cancer centers, cancer patient support groups, professional associations, networks and alliances, and cancer societies. This creates a community feel across the leadership of our members around the world.

  UICC-Japan and UICC-ARO do a tremendous job in the Asian region, and their support over the years is truly appreciated. 

UICC is very fortunate in that it has many companies and foundations who support our work. Two years ago the Gates Foundation, which has not traditionally been part of the NCD community, contributed to the work of UICC in cervical cancer. UICC is beginning to see that it can bring in organizations not traditionally in cancer control, to support the work of ourselves and our members around the world. 

As an organization, UICC has been recognized for excellence. UICC has won approximately 1,520 awards for the work that it does. Major accolades were received in 2023 when UICC was awarded the International Healthcare Leadership Award and the International Association of the Year Award, in what was UICC’s 90th anniversary year. These awards recognized how UICC has collectively made an impact on cancer control, country by country and on a global level.

Geneva is home to an ecosystem of health organizations who are advocating and supporting the work done by UN agencies. UICC is located very close to WHO headquarters, and also many of the international missions located in Geneva. The city is a real hub of international discussion and collaboration and in order to influence all of that is why UICC is based in Geneva. 

UICC continues to fight for “airtime” to influence the WHO and others to make sure that cancer control is a significant part of their thinking going forward. If you look at the forecast coming out of the International Agency Research on Cancer (IARC), cancer is growing rapidly in terms of the number of cases around the world and the number of deaths. This is partly due to the increase in the population of the world and also the aging of the population.

However, it is also due to the adoption of a lot of poor quality habits in low-to-mid income countries, where the majority of the growth of deaths from cancer are projected to occur over the next 20 to 30 years. 70% of deaths are in low-to-mid income countries and 70% of the growth in cases over the next 20 years is expected to be in those countries, many of which do not have the capability to treat cancer cases as they continue to grow.

UICC’s approach is based around two aspects. The first one is supporting the cancer community, and the second one is driving global impact. UICC doesn’t tend to get involved in national work, which is left to member organizations, who are in a better position to understand the culture, the politics, and the way in which you can influence at the local level. What UICC does do is provide advocacy training support to members so they can learn from best practices around the world.

Members benefit from learning development, networking, funding, grants, support, mentoring, virtual dialogues, and toolkits, etc. All these resources are readily available to members. UICC also produces the International Journal of Cancer and the TNM Manual, which is now in its ninth edition.

UICC realizes that for many members it is difficult to raise the funds to become a member of UICC, so the aim is to ensure that once an organization becomes a member, they can get real value and start using resources in their own sphere of influence. 

In terms of learning and development, UICC does a lot of in-person training, online training, advocacy skills, patient group mentoring, management, leadership skills, as well as providing scholarships to individuals who can then travel to congress events or go on to reach training. The YY Fellows are a part of this learning and development support and the YY Fellowship has been funded by the Japanese members of UICC for many years and continues to be very successful. Many of the individuals who benefit from a YY Fellowship have gone on to have high-flying careers. 

Sharing knowledge is also another important part of UICC’s work. UICC fosters a learning culture across the cancer community, encourages collaboration and provides a range of knowledge-sharing opportunities. UICC produces the International Journal of Cancer, the TNM Classification of Malignant Tumors and other publications. Another recent and influential report is one on antimicrobial resistance and how it impacts cancer patients. 

The World Cancer Congress is a major international cancer control event to network and share the latest successful interventions in prevention, early detection, diagnosis and care, as well as supportive and palliative care. More than 2,000 renowned cancer control experts, opinions leaders and policy makers from more than 140 countries attend the congress. Over 140 multidisciplinary sessions are handpicked for their innovative practice in cancer implementation science, ensuring high-quality interactions. The World Cancer Congress also provides learning and development initiatives such as Master courses, NCD and leadership programs, debates, and the Patient Group Pavilion. The next congress is scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in September 2026. 

The World Cancer Leader Summit takes place in the year between the World Cancer Congress. It is an invite-only biannual high-level policy meeting which is organized in partnership with key stakeholders, including WHO, IAEA, IARC and UICC members. Key objectives are to raise awareness among leading decision makers to ensure cancer is a global health priority; provide a forum to exchange information and innovation ideas on how to reverse the cancer epidemic and ensure a sustainable response; define compelling messages to support the global call to action against cancer; and create a force which galvanizes politicians and policy makers and increases cancer’s visibility on the international public health agenda. 

In terms of advocacy, UICC continues to drive the cancer agenda globally, and has worked with various partners to impact global thinking on cancer and the other NCDs (Fig. 1). The next major meeting is the High-level Meeting on NCDs in New York in September 2025. 

World Cancer Day has been running well over the last 12 to 14 years, since a decision was made to move to three-year campaigns. The previous campaign was “Close the care gap,” which proved to be very successful, and the latest campaign is “United by Unique,” which is all about people-centered cancer care. The plan is to raise awareness on this theme in 2025, work to change minds in 2026 and drive action in 2027. UICC membership around the world has embraced the aims and vision of World Cancer Day and it is an event that continues to grow each year. UICC members play a crucial role on World Cancer Day and adapt the global campaign to their national context. It is thanks to them that World Cancer Day reaches millions of people every year and contributes to save lives worldwide. 

The Cancer Planners Forum is a biannual, invite-only technical forum held in Geneva one week prior to the World Health Assembly, organized by UICC in partnership with WHO, IARC, IAEA and ICCP, and supported by UICC partners. The event brings together global leaders and technical experts in cancer control planning across all income settings. 

Key objectives are to strength the capacity of national, regional, and subnational cancer control planners; share best practices and practical tools to improve the development, costing, implementation and evaluation of National Ancer Control Plans; position cancer control planning as a strategic and cost-effective investment in a country’s future; and support the creation of actionable, self-resources cancer control strategies grounded in science and adapted to local contexts. 

As can be seen from the above, UICC strives to make an impact by securing targeted commitments from governments. Engaging UN agencies, UICC members, civil society and other stakeholders, UICC works to achieve the implementation of global cancer and NCD commitments. UICC works to ensure that all countries develop and implement a national cancer control plan, a population-based cancer registry, and that national health investments in cancer control and other NCDs increase overtime; and bring cancer to the attention of global leaders. Given that the current SDGs only run until 2030, it will be important to see what will replace those goals and to make sure that cancer and the other NCDs are included in any political statement coming out of the United Nations. 

In terms of new initiatives, UICC has created several new organizations and initiatives to address long-term public health challenges and unmet needs since 2009. These include the NCD Alliance, which became an NGO in 2017, and upon which UICC has a board member. The City Cancer Challenge is another initiative that launched in 2019, working in cities in low and middle-income countries. The International Cancer Control Partnership is a partnership with NCI in America and many other organizations. The McCabe Center for Law and Cancer in Melbourne was launched with Cancer Victoria in Australia. 

All of these organizations have been constructed because UICC identified that there was potential for a standalone organization to have impact in that particular area, more so than they could achieve as a project within UICC. UICC is very proud of those organizations that have grown and matured in the way that they operate.

Looking to the future, in the last six months UICC has been reflecting on its business plan through to the end of 2028. Now, like most organizations, UICC has  long-term strategic ambitions and it also has a regular review of its three year working plan. Strategic ambitions are reviewed every four years, and UICC is due to review its long-term strategic ambitions next year. That will involve reaching out to members, partners, and global health leaders to identify in the next 10 to 15 years what are the big issues that UICC should be trying to address.

Focus areas for a three-year period that will lead on to long-term ambitions are also set, and in terms of the focus areas for the period 2025 to 2028, after a process of discussion and consultation, they have been determined as follows: 1) improving member centricity, 2) accelerate equitable access to essential cancer medicines, technologies and diagnostics, 3) improving health systems for cancer, 4) advocating for greater people-centered care, 5) increasing attention on women’s cancers, and 6) increasing attention on lung cancer. 

  In terms of 1) improving member centricity, this objective is central to UICC’s mission, with a focus on deepening member engagement through active listening, amplification of member voices, and delivery of tailored support to strengthen impact at local and national levels. 

  In terms of 2) accelerate equitable access to essential cancer medicines, technologies and diagnostics, the aim is to achieve this particularly in low-and lower-middle-income countries, by addressing policy, procurement, and delivery barriers through global and national -level action. 

  In terms of 3) improvement health systems for cancer, the aim is to support countries in strengthening cancer control planning and implementation, ensuring costed, actionable National Cancer Control Plans (NCCPs) are in place and integrated into broader health systems and UHC frameworks. 

  In terms of 4) advocating for greater people-centered care, the aim is to advance a more inclusive and responsive cancer care and control model by embedding patient voices and lived experience into decision-making, service delivery, and advocacy through a comprehensive, whole-of-systems approach. 

  In terms of 5) increasing attention on women’s cancers, the aim is to strengthen the collective response to cervical, breast, and other women’s cancers under the Improving Women’s Health program, supporting global targets while driving locally adapted solutions. 

  In terms of 6) increasing attention on lung cancer, the aim is to unify efforts in tobacco control, lung cancer, and air pollution through the Improving Lung Health program, leveraging cross-sector partnerships to reduce risk, improve screening, and influence policy. 

In closing, Dr. Adams expressed appreciation for the YY Study Grants that are provided by UICC-Japan. Such study grants can be transformational for a young researcher’s career and set them on new and exciting paths. They also benefit the broader cancer community and help to nurture rising stars, who are investigating things that will be important to cancer control in the future. UICC reports on the individuals who have received YY Grants over the previous years, which makes it easier to understand how the grant has helped their careers.

(3) Assignment to students

Thanking Dr. Adams, Dr. Kawahara noted that the message shared in the lecture highlights how cancer care reveals broader social structures, and how equity must be placed at the center of health policy and action. The lecture offered a valuable global perspective on how international collaboration can help reduce disparities and advance well-being in the Asian region. The following assignment was given to students. 

Title: “Equity in Cancer Care”: Strategies to Address Disparities in the Asian Region

With reference to the remarks made by Dr. Cary Adams during the lecture, critically examine how disparities in cancer care—both between countries and within regions of the same country—can be addressed in the Asian context. Consider the role of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in promoting equity and propose actionable strategies for reducing these gaps.