The American Cancer Society or the ACS is the “The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the ACS has state divisions and more than 3,400 local offices.”
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has “chartered divisions” all over the nation with over three thousand four hundred local offices and is “committed to fighting cancer through balanced programs of research, education, patient service, advocacy, and rehabilitation”.
Goals of the ACS
The goal of the American Cancer Society (ACS) is the impediment of cancer thereby saving the lives of people and reducing the torment caused due to cancer.
The Society is the major resource for private, non-profitable cancer research funds in the United States, subsequent just to the federal government.
Scholarships and Research
In the year 2005, the ACS used up almost one hundred and thirty-one million dollars for research in cancer, and ever since 1946, the ACS has made an investment of approximately 3.1 billion dollars for augmenting research in cancer. There were three components in the research plan including:
- “Extramural grants”,
- “Intramural epidemiology”,
- “Surveillance research”.
The ACS also comprises the “intramural behavioral research center”.
The high rate of achievement of the Society’s research program is represented by the information that at the beginning of their careers, forty Nobel Prize winners received scholarships from the ACS.
The Society was formally established in the year 1913 by fifteen physicians and businessmen in New York City under the banner of ‘American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC). The present name was approved in 1945.
In the year 1928, the symbol of the sword was chosen by the American Cancer Society which was fashioned by George E. Durant of Brooklyn, New York. Durant stated that the two serpents which figured on the handle symbolize the “scientific and medical focus” of the mission of the Society and the blade conveys the “crusading spirit of the cancer control movement”.
The ACS undertakes numerous activities apart from providing grants to researchers such as organizing public health advertisement campaigns, and ventures including the ‘Relay For Life’, ‘Great American Smokeout’, ‘Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, and ‘Daffodil Days’. The ACS has initiated public fundraising programs such as the ‘Hopkins 4K for Cancer’, a ‘4000-mile bike ride from Baltimore to San Francisco’ for cancer patients.
Epidemiology and Surveillance Intramural
‘Intramural epidemiologic research’ at the ACS, issues explanatory information about “trends in cancer incidence, cancer mortality, cancer risk factors, and cancer patient care, and studies the causes and prevention of cancer in large prospective studies”.
The ACS has joined forces with the ‘National Cancer Institute’ and the ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ along with the ‘National Center for Health Statistics’ to generate the ‘Report to the Nation’ regarding the progress related to cancer prevention and control in America.
The ACS investigates the prototypes of cancer causation in large potential researches three of which have been undertaken in the previous fifty years, including the ‘Hammond-Horn’, ‘Cancer Prevention Study I’ and the ‘Cancer Prevention Study II’.
Fund allocation
The Society allocates seventy percent of its funds (fiscal year ending August 31, 2005) for Program Services which include fourteen percent for Research, twenty percent for Prevention, twenty percent for Patient Support, and sixteen percent for Detection and Treatment. The residual thirty percent are assigned for supporting services encompassing twenty-two percent for Fundraising and Management and eight percent for General administration thereby maintaining the ‘Better Business Bureau’s Standards for Charity Accountability’ which necessitates “At least 65% to program services and no more than 35% to overhead and fundraising expenses”( ACS Fact Sheet. Retrieved on 5th March 2008).
“Access to Care” is the basic premise of the new advertisement campaign of the American Cancer Society. Although the ACS does not promote any precise solution, the American Cancer Society aims to institute a discussion and augment the “political will” of the concerned people which is a prerequisite to tackle the issue.
Dr. Seffrin, CEO of the ACS affirms that “if a woman gets diagnosed with breast cancer, but doesn’t have health insurance, she is 40% more likely to die” (John Seffrin, Ph.D., CEO of the ACS, on ‘Your Cancer Today’).
Behavioral Research Center
The Behavioral Research Center was initiated in 1995 to perform pioneering research involving behavioral and psychosocial cancer, and provides consultation to other sections of the Society, and assists the transfer of behavioral and psychosocial research and theory thereby enhancing cancer control policies.
The website additionally includes vital information which can prove to be very helpful to cancer patients and their families where they can find medical information, treatment decision tools, news updates, and support resources. One can also read about survivors’ experiences thereby find hope, and also inspire others. It provides comprehensive details about any type of cancer under specific headings, where one can find specific information about that cancer type.
The subheadings include ‘Learning About Cancer’, Preparing for the treatment’, ‘Coping with the treatment’ and even ‘After treatment’ care for cancer patients. The website has the ‘ACS News Center’ where one can find all the latest news related to health and the new launches in the field of medicine. One can “Join the fight against Cancer” by donating, participating in events, volunteering time, or even advocating for change by means of the website.
References
American Cancer Society website. Web.
John Seffrin, PhD, CEO of the ACS, on ‘Your Cancer Today’ The American Cancer Society: The World’s Wealthiest “Nonprofit” Institution.