Today, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the world’s pre-eminent cancer research organization which leads the National Cancer Program and the U.S. effort to reduce the burden of cancer, was accredited with the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ certification. NCI joins twenty six other organizations, including two NCI-designated Cancer Centers, that have achieved Gold Standard accreditation, recognizing their efforts to meet an exceptionally high standard of cancer prevention, screening and care guidelines for their employees and family members.
William C. Weldon, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson chairs the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, the nonprofit organization of cancer-fighting CEOs that created the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers and leading corporate health professionals.
“It is both appropriate and inspirational that the preventative health and wellness guidelines and unparalleled cancer care for which the National Cancer Institute and its director, Dr. John Niederhuber stand for are provided for NCI’s own employees and their family members who are on the frontlines of our nation’s battle against cancer each and every day,” said Weldon.
The CEO Cancer Gold Standard™, calls for companies to evaluate their benefits and culture and take extensive, concrete actions in five key areas of health and wellness to fight cancer in the workplace. To earn Gold Standard accreditation, a company must establish programs to reduce cancer risk by discouraging tobacco use and encouraging physical activity, healthy diet and nutrition; detect cancer at its earliest stages; and provide access to quality care, including the availability of clinical trials. The NCI’s accreditation is coincident with the implementation of a tobacco-free policy on the entire National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, MD, where the NCI is headquartered. NCI will increase availability to tobacco cessation programs for its employees and their families and support increased efforts through the HealthierFeds program, to encourage physical activity, nutritious diet, disease prevention, and overall healthy decision-making for federal government employees.
The most recent President’s Cancer Panel report, “Promoting Healthy Lifestyles: Policy, Program, and Personal Recommendations for Reducing Cancer Risk,” identified the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ as an initiative that is helping reverse negative, unhealthy lifestyle trends and creating hope in the fight against cancer for America’s workers and their families.
Joining NCI in this workplace-based effort to eliminate cancer as a public health threat are: American Cancer Society, American Legacy Foundation, AstraZeneca, C-Change, Duke Medicine, Edelman, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, GHI, GlaxoSmithKline, Jenner & Block, Johnson & Johnson, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, MD Anderson Cancer Center, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Novartis, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, PhRMA, PPD, Quintiles Transnational, SAS Institute, The University of North Dakota, US Oncology, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Virtua Health and The Wistar Institute.
About the National Cancer Institute
NCI leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH effort to dramatically reduce the burden of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI Web site at http://www.cancer.gov or call NCI’s Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
To read the President’s Cancer Panel report, please go to: http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp07rpt/pcp07rpt.pdf