As the World Cancer Congress 2008 has now ended, we would like to thank the 3014 people present from over 126 countries for these educational days together. We take this opportunity to thank again all the speakers and chairs, the members of the UICC and congress committees, our partners and sponsors as well as everybody involved in the preparation of this event.

  We believe that the congress has taken us a step forward in our fight against cancer. We hope that all benefited from this unique opportunity to learn, share and exchange experiences with colleagues from around the world.

  Throughout the congress, we heard the same figures over and over again:

• this year alone 8 million people will die from cancer
• 12 million will discover they have cancer

  If current trends continue, complacency and inaction will effectively contribute to more than 12 million cancer deaths by 2030.

  The hopeful news is that we have more knowledge than ever before to prevent and cure cancer. The opportunities to prevent suffering and death from cancer are laid out in the World Cancer Declaration.

  The World Cancer Summit 2008 brought together over 60 leaders who strongly endorsed the World Cancer Declaration. To turn the targets in the Declaration into reality, a number of steps were reviewed, including pushing for cancer to appear on global and national health agendas, understanding and engaging with the public, understanding and articulating economic choices, and more.

  The world's attention is understandably captured by major global "crises" including climate change, food shortage and security (national and international). In contrast to these other global issues, the cancer control agenda includes solutions endorsed by all experts. Far from adding to the world's "crisis fatigue", effective cancer control can help reduce it.

  We invite you to familiarize yourself with this World Cancer Declaration and identify how you can contribute to implementing some of the simple yet potentially powerful ideas. Positive change will come as we collectively focus our efforts in the same direction.

  Over the next two years, action is vital, and UICC will continue to work closely with its member organizations to achieve results on as many fronts as possible. We look forward to monitoring and reporting our progress at the next World Cancer Congress, 18-21 August 2010 in Beijing, China.

  See you there!

David Hill UICC President 2008-2010

Isabel Mortara UICC Executive Director