Fact checked byMindy Valcarcel, MS

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February 03, 2025
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World Cancer Day: Person-centered approach ensures effective, compassionate care

Fact checked byMindy Valcarcel, MS

Key takeaways:

  • World Cancer Day, established in 2000, educates the public about how to reduce cancer risk and the importance of early detection.
  • This is the first year of a 3-year campaign focused on person-centered care.

World Cancer Day will be observed Feb. 4.

Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) created World Cancer Day in 2000 to educate the public about the importance of early detection and treatment, encourage elected representatives to commit ample resources to reduce cancer mortality, and increase awareness that lifestyle behaviors have a considerable effect on cancer risk.

Quote from Cary Adams, MBA, BSc

This year’s World Cancer Day is the first of a 3-year campaign with the theme “United by Unique.” The campaign is designed to promote the need for “a fundamental shift in cancer care and health systems” around the world toward a people-centered approach, according to a UICC press release.

An estimated 20 million new cancer cases occurred worldwide in 2022, and approximately 9.7 million people died of cancer, according to the release.

The impact of cancer and its treatments varies greatly based on factors such as geographic region, race or ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and individual preferences. This makes the use of people-centered care — tailoring the delivery of cancer treatment and other health care services to meet each person’s needs — of tremendous importance, according to Ulrika Årehed Kågström, president of UICC and secretary general of Swedish Cancer Society.

“By placing individuals and communities at the center of decisions, health systems become more effective and cancer care more compassionate, leading to higher survival rates and improved quality of life,” she said in the release. “Every person touched by cancer is unique in their experiences and requirements. The cancer community is united in its determination to see improvements in cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and care for everyone.”

Examples of people-centered care include telemedicine services, patient navigation assistance, cultural competence training for health care providers, health literacy initiatives and community health programs that focus on local health issues.

“By understanding and integrating the needs and preferences of individuals and communities into health care delivery, health systems will provide more equitable access to care in low- as well as high-income settings,” Cary Adams, MBA, BSc, CEO of UICC, said in the release. “It is important that people living with cancer feel seen, heard and empowered.”

In conjunction with World Cancer Day, Healio provides the following updates about ways patient-centered care can improve clinical outcomes, increase patient engagement and ensure better equity of care.

1. Use of person-centered language in oncology improves patient morale and refocuses clinicians on the mission of patient-centered care, according to the author of an opinion paper. This approach includes rethinking use of the term "cancer patient," which may inadvertently place a clinician's focus on the malignancy rather than the person under their care and cause the person with cancer to feel defined by their disease. Read more.

2. Digital patient-facing technologies have improved the coordination and delivery of oncology care, but they have the potential to overwhelm patients. Efforts must be made to ensure the growing number of digital tools are accessible and realistic for all patient populations to ensure that the desire to improve communication and convenience does not inadvertently create or worsen health disparities, according to the authors of a commentary published in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics. Read more.

3. Although patients undergoing active surveillance for low-risk cancers generally have a favorable prognosis, oncologists should take steps to explore patient concerns and manage the anxiety or helplessness they may be experiencing, according to the author of a viewpoint paper. Read more.

4. More than one-third of patients and one-fourth of patient caregivers favor focusing on symptom management of advanced cancers over life extension. The findings emphasize the need for interventions that reduce discordance in goals of care, allowing for realistic care expectations while avoiding costly and potentially futile treatments. Read more.

5. Clinicians in acute or post-acute care settings may delay or avoid serious illness conversations with patients whose cancer prognoses are worsening, out of deference to the patient’s oncologist. The findings yielded insights into how care silos, lack of clear clinical roles and other factors may affect communication between oncologists and other clinicians, potentially leading to aggressive treatments at end of life that are not aligned with patient preferences. Read more.

6. Advancing equitable access to palliative care will require interdisciplinary collaboration and effective communication. Participants in an expert panel discussion emphasized the need for high-quality interdisciplinary palliative care programs that provide patient-centered care throughout the cancer trajectory. Read more.

7. An ASCO task force issued a series of principles to guide responsible use of AI in oncology. The six recommendations included emphasis on transparency, the importance of human-centered application of AI, and the need to ensure AI does not exacerbate disparities or biases that could affect delivery of patient-centered care. Read more.

8. Contrary to what many physicians may think, individuals with cancer expressed a preference for early and frequent provider-initiated discussions about financial toxicity.

"People overwhelmingly wanted their providers to initiate the conversation about financial toxicity screening," Laila A. Gharzai, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told Healio. "They want these discussions very early and very often. They want this to happen before starting treatment, and they want these questions to be asked either at every single appointment or once a month. That is quite different than what we’ve been doing." Read more.

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