World Cancer Day
Next: February 4, 2027
Hope, care and a hand to hold.
The story
Where it comes from
World Cancer Day was born on 4 February 2000 at the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium in Paris. The summit's Paris Charter set out to promote research, prevent cancer, improve services for patients, raise awareness and bring the world together to make progress, and it adopted World Cancer Day as part of that pledge. The day is led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), founded in 1933 and based in Geneva.
How it's celebrated
Cancer societies, hospitals, schools and patient groups around the world hold talks, screenings, walks and fundraisers, and the story is shared in the press in well over a hundred countries. Many people use it to share prevention advice, book a check-up, or simply let someone going through treatment know they are thinking of them. A kind message can matter as much as any campaign.
Did you know
- UICC is the largest and oldest international cancer organisation, with more than 1,100 member organisations in over 170 countries and territories.
- The World Cancer Day logo shows a person embracing the world, to express the shared human experience of cancer.
- UICC believes that life-saving diagnosis, treatment and care should be open to everyone, whatever their income, ethnicity or gender, and wherever they live.
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