The American Cancer Society's mission statement can best describe the heart behind the organization. The statement reads “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.”
ACS was formed in 1913 as the American Society of the Control of Cancer (ASCC) by 15 prominent doctors in New York City. It was a landmark moment in public health, during a society when cancer was not mentioned publicly. The organization grew so quickly that is was difficult to control.
In 1936, Marjorie G. Illig, a chair of the General Federation of Women's Clubs Committee on Public Health, came up with a plan. She suggested that a group of volunteer be formed to fight the war on cancer. It came to be called The Women's Field Army, complete with uniforms and badges of rank. By 1938 there were close to 150,000 volunteers nationwide.
In 1945 the ASCC was reorganized into the now known American Cancer Society. With WWII over and the organization operating with new fervor, an astounding $4 million dollars was raised by Mary Lasker and her colleagues. One million of this was used to start their research program, which quickly started showing results.
In 1947 ACS began their public education campaign about the sign and symptoms of cancer, creating and publishing what they called the “Cancer Danger Signals”, later changed to the acronym CAUTION. Which read as: Change in bowel or bladder habits
A sore that does not heal
Unusual bleeding or discharge
Thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere
Indigestion or difficulty in swallowing
Obvious change in wart or mole
Nagging cough or hoarseness
This remained the public education mainstay until the 1980's when the warning signals were discontinued. Meanwhile, at the same time amazing things were happening in ACS' research program.
Dr. Sidney Farber (pictured), one of ACS' first research grantees, achieved the first temporary cancer remission by using the drug aminopterin, thus the beginning of what we now call chemotherapy.
Since then ACS grantees have introduced such advancements as the mammography, other cancer treatment drugs, such as Tamoxifen and helped to create the new HPV vaccine, catapulting us into a new age of hope.
In the 94 years that the American Cancer Society has been fighting the war on cancer, they have pioneered many medical break-through, created many programs for cancer patients and their families and inundated the public with a wealth of knowledge concerning cancer.
To learn more information about the American Cancer Society and its many achievements, please visit the websites sited with this article and continue to support this organization that has grown to become an American institution.
