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.

Description:
The American Cancer Society is one of the oldest and largest voluntary health agencies in the United States, with over two million Americans united to conquer cancer through balanced programs of research, education, patient service, advocacy, and rehabilitation.

Organization: The American Cancer Society, Inc. consists of a National Society, with chartered Divisions throughout the country and over 3,400 local Units.

Volunteers: The Society's mission of cancer control is carried out by over 2 million volunteers nationwide who donate their time and services.

How the American Cancer Society Fights Cancer: Research:
To date, the Society has invested more than $2.4 billion in cancer research and has provided grant support to 32 Nobel Prize winners early in their careers. The Society's overall annual expenditure in research has grown steadily from $1 million in 1946 to more than $130 million in fiscal year 2001. The research program focuses primarily on peer-reviewed projects initiated by beginning investigators working in leading medical and scientific institutions across the country. The research program consists of three components: extramural grants, intramural epidemiology and surveillance research, and the intramural behavioral research center.

Prevention: The Society's programs focus primarily on:

Tobacco Control: Relationship between diet and physical activity and cancer
Promoting comprehensive school health education
Reducing the risk of skin cancer

Detection and Treatment Information and Education: The Society also seeks to provide the public and health care professionals with information, through the dissemination of its early detection guidelines and its detection education and advocacy programs, in order to ensure that all cancers are found at the earliest possible stage, when there is the greatest chance for successful treatment. This is accomplished through national conferences and workshops, audiovisual and print publications, the American Cancer Society web site and the National Call Center, as well as clinical awards, professorships, and scholarships.

Patient Services: To ease the impact of cancer on patients and their families, the American Cancer Society provides service and rehabilitation programs, as well as patient and family education and support programs.

Advocacy and Public Policy: Cancer is a political, as well as medical, social, psychological, and economic issue. Policy makers at all levels of government make decisions every day which impact the lives of more than 8 million cancer survivors, their families, and all potential cancer patients. The Society's advocacy initiative strives to influence public policies at all levels, with special emphasis on laws or regulations relating to:

The use, sale, distribution, marketing, and advertising of tobacco products, particularly to youth.
Improved access for all Americans, particularly poor and underserved Americans, to a range of health care services for the prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and care of cancer patients.
Increased federal funding and incentives for private sponsorship of cancer research to prevent and cure cancer.
Advocacy for the rights of cancer survivors.
American Cancer Society advocacy efforts are successful because they rely on the combined voices of a community-based grassroots advocacy network of Society volunteers and other partners who have successfully influenced or supported laws and regulations enforcing the United States Food and Drug Administration's role in regulating tobacco products as "drug delivery devices," enacting health insurance market reforms to ensure portability and continuity of health insurance coverage for individuals with a history of cancer or other serious illness, improving third-party coverage for cancer prevention and treatment clinical trials, including payment for patient care costs, and increasing federal funding for our National Cancer Program.

History:
The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 as the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC) by fifteen prominent physicians and business leaders in New York City. Despite the enormity of their task, the founders and their colleagues set about writing articles for popular magazines and professional journals, publishing Campaign Notes, a monthly bulletin of cancer information, and recruiting physicians throughout the country to help educate the public.

In 1936 Marjorie G. Illig, an ASCC field representative and chair of the General Federation of Women's Clubs Committee on Public Health, made an extraordinary suggestion. She proposed creating a legion of new volunteers whose sole purpose was to wage war on cancer. The Women's Field Army, as this organization came to be called, was an enormous success.

In 1945 the ASCC was reorganized as the American Cancer Society. Many believed it was time for another bold move. In 1946 Mary Lasker and her colleagues met this challenge, helping to raise over $4 million dollars for the Society--$1 million of which was used to establish and fund the Society's research program. All told, the Society has committed nearly $2.2 billion to research, funding 32 Nobel Prize winners, often early in their careers before they had received recognition and monetary support for their work.

Another historical point of interest is the use of the sword as a symbol for the American Cancer Society. The sword had its origin in a nationwide poster contest in 1928 sponsored by the national society, then called American Society for the Control of Cancer, and the local division, the New York City Cancer Committee. George E. Durant of Brooklyn won the contest, receiving a first prize of $500. He explained that he selected the sword to express the crusading spirit of the cancer control movement. The twin-serpent caduceus, forming the hilt, emphasizes the medical and scientific nature of the Society's program. Classically, twined serpents represent healing of the sick and creativity of the healthy. Since 1928, the American Cancer Society has used the sword as its symbol as it continues to champion the causes of cancer prevention, eliminating suffering from cancer and saving lives.

Contact people:

Gerianne Puskas, Director of Special Events, Income Development, (phone), (email) Michelle Vercruysse, Coordinator, Income Development, (phone), (email)

Address:

1400 N. Winton Road Rochester, NY 14609 (See a map)

Directions:

Take 490 to Winton Road, then head North off the exit. Heading North, pass Main Street and cross over into Irondequoit. After passing the blue "Welcome to Irondequoit" sign, you will see us approximately .25 miles on the. . . (more)