Article II of the Charter states:
The stigma associated with cancer is a significant barrier to progress in both developed and developing nations, often causing:
- Undue emotional trauma for patients and their families
- Bias and discrimination against employment of people with cancer and/or their meaningful participation in and contribution to society
- Related financial hardship and loss of productivity
- Poor communication and insufficient public education
- An undue sense of fatalism that can adversely impact the commitment of governments, health agencies and private institutions in the war against cancer.
The parties to this charter undertake to better understand and eradicate the stigmas associated with cancer, to assertively redefine the disease as a treatable biological pathology and not a social condition.
The positive realignment of popular opinion, perception and concern regarding cancer and the millions of lives it affects will enable the full realization of each of the following priorities.
How has the stigma against cancer changed over the last 24 years?
Overall, there has been progress towards combating the stigma against cancer. Many organizations such as Cancer Research UK, the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the WHO, and the IARC have been instrumental in educating people on cancers and their causes, dispelling myths, and advocating for further research and collaboration on how to detect cancers earlier and create more effective treatments. The understanding of how cancers work and how they are caused has led people away from the belief that cancers occur because of a person’s actions.
Patient advocacy has also increased through organizations and foundations such as the UICC, ACS, and Cancer Research UK. This has also given a platform to survivor stories which have helped ease the stigma around cancer as people are shown that this disease can affect anyone at any point. This is particularly influential when prominent figures such as celebrities or politicians speak up for cancer awareness or share their own cancer stories. All of this has gone towards normalizing the albeit morbid existence and impact of cancer in society.
The stigma is not entirely gone. It still exists at varying levels around various parts of the world. A 2021 study from Zimbabwe showed that much of the stigma there is centered around the fear of death – that cancer itself and the treatments associated with it (especially radiotherapy) are essentially a death sentence, a financial burden, and that there is a self-stigma associated with it, in which people hide their diagnoses and treatments from others out of shame or fear of the social response towards the diagnosis, and lack of knowledge of the disease. The study emphasizes that much of the issues surrounding the stigma around cancer in Zimbabwe stems from a lack of knowledge surrounding the disease and the treatments available. This would indicate that if a greater effort were to be made, on a local and international level, to increase cancer awareness and educate people on the disease, the treatments, and just overall grant more support to the nation and its patients, much of the issues with stigma could be alleviated.