National Breast Cancer Coalition Unveils Blueprint to End Breast Cancer

Washington, DC, August 13, 2012—The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) today unveiled its Blueprint for Breast Cancer Deadline 2020^®, which lays out the strategy behind NBCC’s campaign to end the disease by January 1, 2020. The Blueprint is being released a day after the breast cancer advocacy group released its second annual Progress Report, an update to the 2011 baseline report, which described the lack of adequate progress despite billions of dollars in public and private resources directed at the disease.

The Blueprint, available online at www.BreastCancerDeadline2020.org/Blueprint, details NBCC’s strategic plan of action to harness the energy, resources and leadership around the world to achieve its mission using three primary strategies:

• Research needed to end breast cancer;
• Global access to necessary information and lifesaving interventions; and
• The influence of leaders everywhere in the fight to end breast cancer.

“The goal is achievable—with the right amount of passion, leadership and funding. It will take all of us working together to change years of incremental progress and inspire a decade of unparalleled achievement. The Blueprint for Breast Cancer Deadline 2020^® will help us get there,” said NBCC President Fran Visco. “While there are signs the work we are doing to end breast cancer is beginning to take root, to accomplish our goal, we must accelerate our efforts.”

The key strategies outlined in the Blueprint are:

Research

• Facilitate collaboration in all areas and minimize unnecessary competition. All stakeholders involved in research, particularly the scientific community, must work together to create synergies and develop partnerships to advance the pace of research.
• Leverage financial resources to harness existing research and catalyze innovation. The Breast Cancer Deadline 2020^® campaign will capitalize on the investments made by our nation and others around the world that have resulted in the knowledge, tools and technologies needed to end breast cancer. The goal is to take what is known and build upon it for the sole purpose of ending the disease.

Access

• Develop a global strategy to ensure that individuals with, and at risk of, breast cancer have access to information, quality care and scientific advances. Finding the answers to prevention and saving lives will not end breast cancer until everyone, everywhere, has meaningful access to those answers. NBCC will bring together stakeholders from around the world at all levels, from policy makers to grassroots advocates, and engage them throughout the process to make certain that location, economic status, and societal factors are not barriers to access.

Influence

• Change the conversation. Despite years of campaigns to raise awareness, ever-expanding screening programs, increased fundraising efforts and research, breast cancer incidence and mortality have not changed significantly. Media, advocates, researchers, policy makers and others must be educated in order to shift the public dialogue about breast cancer from awareness and screening to prevention and saving lives. We must make certain that leaders in government, industry and all areas embrace the deadline with courage and conviction and make ending this disease a priority.
• Mobilize the breast cancer advocacy community. All those at risk—and all who care about them—must join a revolutionary activist movement with the goal of ending breast cancer.

The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) was formed in 1991 with one mission: to end breast cancer. NBCC has accomplished much over its 20 plus years: bringing about unprecedented research funding to the worldwide scientific community, forging new collaborations to design research and set priorities, expanding access to information and care to underserved women, and launching unparalleled training programs to prepare advocates around the globe to work side by side with scientists, policy makers and health care providers.

Yet breast cancer continues to take lives. In 2012, nearly half a million women worldwide will die of breast cancer. In the United States alone, 39,510 women and 410 men will die of breast cancer. To renew the sense of urgency to its mission and refocus global efforts on ending breast cancer and saving lives, the National Breast Cancer Coalition set a deadline and launched Breast Cancer Deadline 2020^® to end breast cancer by January 1, 2020. What does ending breast cancer mean? By January 1, 2020, we must understand how to prevent people from getting breast cancer in the first place and how to prevent them from dying from the disease.

If you have a specific media request, please contact Michelle Zelsman, Director, Marketing and Communications at mzelsman@BreastCancerDeadline2020.org.

About the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC)
The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) is dedicated to ending breast cancer by 2020 through the power of grassroots action and advocacy. NBCC increases  funding for breast cancer research; monitors how those funds are spent; expands access to quality health care for all; and ensures that trained advocates influence all decision making that impacts breast cancer. Join NBCC, learn more and take action – visit BreastCancerDeadline2020.org.

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