Cancer is now the second leading cause of death globally, responsible for nearly ten million deaths in 2018 and has become a significant risk not only for the populations of high income countries but also in the less wealthy low and middle income countries where it is killing one person every five seconds. Building upon the success of last year’s meetings London Global Cancer Week 2020 will take place between Sunday 15 November and Friday 20 November with a co-ordinated series of over 20 different events providing a 360° picture of the impact of the rising incidence of cancer in these emerging countries.

Unlike last year the majority of the meetings will be conducted as free to attend online events. For the hosting institutions this represents a significant opportunity to increase the size and diversity of the audience that they are addressing. We will see how international partners are strengthening capacity in cancer control systems in many of the low and middle income countries and hear their assessment of the challenge that COVID-19 now poses to Cancer control and the implementation of global Universal Health Coverage.

Participating institutions include the Commonwealth Secretariat, African Cancer Registry Network, African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC), Alliance Mondiale Contre le Cancer (AMCC), International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR), The Lancet Oncology, Latin American and Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology (SLACOM), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House and the UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS).