CEOs Against Cancer

Fighting Cancer as Only Business Leaders Can

CEOs Against Cancer is a powerful group of executives committed to saving lives and improving their company's bottom line. CEOs from the world's top companies are uniting to change the course of cancer to leverage the collective knowledge, power, and resources of the American Cancer Society. 

Fit2Be Cancer Free CEO Fitness Challenge

This April, the CEOs Against Cancer® program will host the Fit2BeCancerFree CEOs Challenge. Together, chapter members will step together during this workday step-tracking event to encourage their colleagues, friends, and community to get active.

CEOs Against Cancer Membership Benefits

There are more than 500 members of the American Cancer Society CEOs Against Cancer program who represent a powerful network that includes the most prominent names in business today. Members bring the passion, expertise and resources needed to prevent, treat and cure this disease, which costs U.S. employers $225.8 billion each year. 

Cancer is everyone's business; whether we want it to be or not.

From large corporations to small companies, business leaders understand that cancer is not only a health issue, but also a core business issue: 

• Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), like cancer, heart disease, and stroke, currently account for 63 percent of deaths (36 million deaths worldwide in 2008).¹
• Over the next 20 years, NCDs will cost the global economy more than $47 trillion, or 75 percent of the global GDP in 2010.²
• Health related productivity losses cost US employers $225.8 billion annually.³
• Cancer also has a negative impact on employment patterns with studies estimating 36 percent of employees do not return to work following treatment for cancer.^4,5
• An analysis of health care expenditures indicate that while cancer related disease accounted for 1 percent of a typical employers health care claims, it equated to 10 percent of health care cost.⁶
• Cancer is the disease employees fear most and will touch 1 in 4 Americans in their lifetime^.7

Making an Impact

The business sector is uniquely positioned to lead the fight against cancer — and to realize a return on their investment. Consider this:

• More than one-third of all cancers are related to modifiable lifestyle factors that include lack of physical activity, inappropriate dietary practices and tobacco use.⁸
• Prevention programs, such as tobacco cessation, as well as regular screenings, are proven methods of decreasing cancer risk among employees, increasing early diagnosis, and increasing overall direct and indirect cost savings.⁹
• Some of the biggest successes and most effective weapons in the war on cancer –early detection and prevention – are not being used as effectively as they could be.¹⁰

By becoming a member of CEOs Against Cancer, you become part an elite community poised to save the most lives from cancer. Your membership will help your employees, their families and communities save more lives from cancer.

Support from the American Cancer Society

The American Cancer Society provides you the information and resources you need to help your employees and organization:

• Encourage Prevention: We help you take steps to prevent cancer or find it at its earliest, most treatable stage.
• Provide Support: We’re here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to help people through every step of your cancer experience.
  
• Foster Innovation: We conduct groundbreaking research and fund pioneering scientists to help us better understand, prevent, and find cures for cancer.
• Fight For What’s Right: We work with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rally communities worldwide to join our mission.

_{1. World Health Organization.Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2010. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2011.}

_{2. Bloom, D.E., Cafiero, E.T., Jané-Llopis, E., Abrahams-Gessel, S., Bloom, L.R., Fathima, S., Feigl,A.B., Gaziano, T.,  Mowafi, M.,  Pandya, A.,  Prettner, K., Rosenberg, L., Seligman, B., Stein, A.Z., & Weinstein, C. (2011). The Global Economic Burden of Noncommunicable Diseases. Geneva: World Economic Forum.}

_{3. Stewart WF, Ricci JA, Chee E, Morganstein D. Lost productive work time costs from health conditions in the United States: results from the American productivity audit. J Occup Environ Med. 2003;45(12):1234-1246.}

_{4. Bradley CJ, Bednarek HL., Employment patterns of long-term cancer survivors, Psychooncology 2002 May-Jun; 11(3):188-98.}

_{5. Mehnert A., Employment and work-related issues in cancer survivors, Crit Rev OncolHematol. 2011 Feb; 77(2):109-30. Epub 2010 Feb 8.}

_{6. Peyenson, B.,  Cost of Cancer to Employers, Milliman, American Cancer Society, C-Change 2007}

_{7. Peyenson, B.,  Cost of Cancer to Employers, Milliman, American Cancer Society, C-Change 2007}

_{8. Peyenson, B.,  Cost of Cancer to Employers, Milliman, American Cancer Society, C-Change 2007}

_{9. Mehnert A., Employment and work-related issues in cancer survivors, Crit Rev OncolHematol. 2011 Feb; 77(2):109-30. Epub 2010 Feb 8.}

_{10. American Cancer Society.Cancer Facts & Figures 2011. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2011.}