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WorldCancerDay2021.book 1612271651 Quality information on cancer is key to informed decision-making – for care providers and patients February 4 has marked World Cancer Day since the Paris Charter was signed on 4 February 2000. A difficult past year Much attention has been given to the current Covid pandemic that we are struggling to beat – and will for the foreseeable future. A scourge of this magnitude, as it mobilizes most of the human and financial public (health) resources, almost inevitably pushes other public health issues to the back burner, and among those are long-term debilitating and devastating diseases like cancer. Covid has indeed often in the past year shifted attention away from the much-needed focus on NCDs, and cancer in particular, sometimes with dire and lasting consequences for patients. Cancer prevention rests on quality information There is no –and nor should there be, competition between diseases, and #WHO has been very active in the past few months in ensuring that NCDs still held a prominent urgency level on the global health agenda. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, and it is generally admitted that about 40% of cancers could be prevented if we implemented currently available knowledge. Most of the public efforts therefore need to be focused on prevention. Effective cancer prevention rests on good quality disease information, for both professionals and the public. And cancer information, while it is indeed ubiquitous on the web, is not always clear, validated, up-to-date, complete and actionable. A lot of it is too institutional, piecemeal, partial, sometimes conflicted, often outdated –or sometimes downright scientifically unreliable. A pledge for concerted action Let us take this #WorldCancerDay opportunity to support concerted action to ensure that proper cancer information, for all users, is concentrated in reliable and easily identifiable hubs. Besides helping scientists, practitioners and patients and relatives alike, this might also go a long way toward strengthening public confidence in scientific and medical expertise. Nicolas Gaudin-Wagner Consultant in international public health policy and communication Le 04/02/2021