United by Unique: A call for people-centred cancer care on World Cancer Day 2025

Abstract

Cancer is more than just a medical diagnosis. Each person's journey with cancer is unique, shaped by their socioeconomic background, their cultural context, their values and preferences, their age, gender, and health.

Health systems need to take these differences and individuals' unique situations into account to deliver care that not only meets medical needs but also addresses the emotional, social, and practical challenges that come with a cancer diagnosis. It helps ensure that people receive the care that they need when they need it.

This year and for the next 2 years, UICC's new theme for World Cancer Day on 4 February, ‘United by Unique’,1 will focus on highlighting the connection between these unique experiences and life situations of individuals, and the health systems required to deliver tailored care to address them.

With the United by Unique campaign, UICC calls for a fundamental shift in the delivery of cancer services toward a people-centred approach, where health systems place individuals and communities at the heart of healthcare decisions. This approach should lead to improved patient well-being, higher quality care, greater quality of life, and increased trust and satisfaction in healthcare providers.2 People living with cancer feel seen, heard, and empowered.

People-centred care includes initiatives such as community health programmes tailored to local contexts, cultural competence training for healthcare providers, health literacy initiatives, telemedicine services, patient navigation programmes, and the engagement of people who have experienced cancer in the planning and delivery of cancer programmes and policies.

Adopting people-centred care integrated into universal health benefits schemes and national cancer control plans should also help improve health equity by addressing some of the barriers that many people face in accessing care, both in low- countries and high-income countries: health literacy, late diagnosis, lack of treatment options, financial hardship, living far from cancer centres, and stigma and discrimination due to ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.3

To address these disparities effectively, it is important to understand the unique challenges faced by different communities and understanding the specific cultural, economic, and systemic barriers that they face. Initiatives that actively involve community members in planning and implementing solutions, such as lung cancer screening services in New Zealand co-designed with Māori communities,4 are part of a people-centred approach to healthcare can help overcome these barriers.

The ‘United by Unique’ campaign aims to highlight barriers and gaps in health systems as well as existing best practices in delivering people-centred care. Witness accounts can be found on the World Cancer Day website, such as the story of Kristin from Norway, who felt overwhelmed and vulnerable after being diagnosed with central nervous system lymphoma, and encountering different doctors at each visit. Or that of Sukanti from India, who noticed a lack of structured support systems for caregivers when his wife Soma was diagnosed with cancer at age 41 and was given 6 months to live.

As we mark World Cancer Day, I urge policymakers, healthcare professionals, and advocates to embrace the principles of people-centred care and encourage people living with cancer, their families, and caregivers to speak out and share their experiences.

Everyone is invited to share their story on the World Cancer Day website, participate in the Upside-Down Challenge on social media by posting a picture or video upside down and saying how cancer has turned their world upside down, or create an event to raise awareness about cancer risks, prevention, screening, early detection, and treatment.

Every cancer patient's story is unique, but we can unite in a shared ambition to see governments implement policies to improve cancer prevention and deliver health systems that provide more compassionate and effective cancer care, resulting in more people surviving their cancer and leading longer and healthier lives.