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About Us
The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community- based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service.
Through education, advocacy, research and education, we will be able to meet our 2015 goals — reduce cancer deaths by 50%, reduce cancer incidence by 25% and improve the quality of life for cancer patients. This means that 4.4 million lives above and and beyond the current trend lines will be saved by the year 2015 as well as sparing 3.9 million people from the cancer experience.
Contributions made to the American Cancer Society are making a difference in the fight against cancer. When the American Cancer Society was founded in 1913, only one in five cancer patients survived five or more years. Today, the average five-year survival rate for cancer patients has risen to 62 percent. That means over half of the estimated 25,300 Wisconsin residents expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2002 will survive — compared to just 5,000 who would have survived 89 years ago. We are making progress.
Research
The groundbreaking research we’ve funded includes that of 32 Nobel Prize winners, which translates into progress through millions of lives saved each year. Drugs like tamoxifen mean women at high risk for breast cancer can better protect themselves. Because we continue to support new and innovative research, many more discoveries are on the horizon.
Education
Thousands of men, women and children learn how to protect themselves from cancer through a variety of American Cancer Society educational programs, including promoting the importance of mammography, encouraging tobacco users to quit, talking to youth about living a healthy lifestyle and reminding men of the importance of talking with their doctor about prostate cancer.
Advocacy
Across the country, American Cancer Society staff and volunteers work with legislators to affect public policy changes. Due in part to the efforts of the American Cancer Society’s advocacy volunteers and staff, on October 24, 2000, President Clinton signed the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, ensuring necessary cancer care for low-income and medically underserved women diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer. In the budget passed last August in Wisconsin, Governor Scott McCallum included funding for the program in Wisconsin.
Service
Anyone can call the American Cancer Society’s cancer information hotline, 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for comprehensive information about cancer and cancer resources available in your community.
The American Cancer Society’s mission in action — to improve the quality of life of all those touched by cancer — includes many patient-related service programs. Cancer patients, families and friends benefit by receiving free medical equipment, wigs and prosthesis; being transported to and from their cancer treatments; participating in a variety of cancer support groups; learning how to deal with appearance changes caused by cancer treatment; and visiting with cancer survivors to talk about a recent diagnosis or treatment.
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