Although cancer kills more people globally in low or middle income countries than malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS combined, getting global funding for cancer control initiatives is still extraordinarily difficult because cancer, like other Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), is excluded from the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

On May 13th 2010, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a Resolution to convene a high-level summit in September 2011 on the prevention and control of NCDs. In the weeks before the UN Resolution was successfully passed, INCTR was instrumental through its Branches and Offices in asking national leaders of several key countries for their support at UN level for the calls for change in the MDGs.

The week after the Resolution was passed, INCTR Director for Program Development Mark Lodge attended the 63rd World Health Assembly in Geneva, thanks to the support of the American Cancer Society. He met with the leadership of the NGO campaign group NCD Alliance and with representatives of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to discuss the preparations of the UN High level Meeting on NCDs. It is hoped that participants to this Summit will press for the inclusion of at least one MDG Indicator relating to NCDs.