Ulrika Årehed Kågström, President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and Secretary General of Cancerfonden, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Despite the unfortunate delays in adoption, it was encouraging to see the overwhelmingly strong support for the UN Political Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health this week.
With a shared understanding of the challenges, concrete commitments for the way forward, and clear targets, governments are standing up for people living with cancer and other NCDs more strongly than ever before.
I was particularly pleased to see the specific attention given to cancer, including diagnostics, cervical cancer, childhood cancer and liver cancer. Antimicrobial resistance, one of the most serious threats to cancer patients, was rightly recognised as a critical issue.
On prevention, several commitments should have been stronger and more ambitious if we are to truly reverse the growing burden of NCDs. That said, I would like to point out the ambition to reduce not only tobacco use but also nicotine use as positive, along with the clear recognition of how unhealthy food environments and marketing increasingly target children and young people.
Now, implementation at national level will be key. I look forward to working with Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and its member organisations to support the cancer community in holding policymakers accountable and ensuring that these commitments translate into real change.”
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