World cancer Day 2026 – United By Unique
2026 marks the second year of the ‘United By Unique’ campaign. The campaign 2025-27 “United by Unique” places people at the centre of care and explores new ways of making a difference. It offers a three-year journey from raising awareness to taking action.
View the interactive Impact Report 2025 here.
World Cancer Day 2026 reminds us that every cancer story is personal but the burden to provide access to treatment and screening is collective and global.
In 2022, ~20M new cancer cases and 9.7M deaths were recorded. Without focused prevention, screening, and #accesstomedicines, annual cases are projected to exceed 35M by 2050. The most painful truth about cancer though is inequity. Even basic treatments such as radiotherapy remain geographically out of reach. Did you know that only ~17% of people in low-income countries have access within a 2-hour travel window?So, do international survival data reflect the real-world situation? Official data indicate outcomes improving across many cancers, including benefits in traditionally lethal cancers in some countries. Precision medicine is expanding, clinical research is doing its share. Early diagnosis and cancer screening shift patients from late-stage disease to curative pathways. Yet access remains deeply unequal. Access to care often lags behind science, especially when reimbursement for anticancer therapies and companion diagnostics is delayed or fragmented.
If we want cancer survival and quality of life to improve globally, the priorities are clear: earlier diagnosis, stronger screening pathways, and faster, fairer access to innovation. Approval is not the finish line. In many regions, even essential cancer services are out of reach. Innovative medicines may be approved within months, but reimbursement and real patient access can take years, creating a silent but deadly gap between innovation and impact. For vulnerable populations, that delay is often the difference between life and death.
At Evnia, we see this every day. As part of our corporate social responsibility program, we work to reduce these gaps and narrow global disparities by
- supporting access programs,
- strengthening regulatory pathways,
- helping innovation reach patients faster and more equitably, and
- helping develop strategies that improve early detection and broaden access to innovations (including reimbursement and distribution of treatments)
At Evnia, on this World Cancer Day, we reaffirm our belief that early diagnosis, faster access to innovation, and fair reimbursement systems are not luxuries but survival tools.
Because progress only matters if it reaches everyone.
Watch A message to my younger self and dicover stories of resilience.
