World Cancer Day 2026: Your Story Will Change Minds

Cancer care moves from milestone to milestone, with data gathered at diagnosis, treatment, response, and progression. But patients don’t live in data points. They live in the space between them. They carry the weight of waiting, the fog of uncertainty, and experiences that don’t fit neatly into clinical checklists. Paying attention to what happens in this space is where care has the greatest opportunity to improve.  

This is the challenge behind this year’s World Cancer Day theme: United By Unique—Your Story Will Change Minds. It is a call not only to listen, but to ask where patient stories can meaningfully influence a range of decisions. 

From stories to insight: filling the data gap 

“Patient stories bring to light aspects of disease and care that are often invisible in clinical endpoints or administrative data,” explains Alex Filicevas, Executive Director of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition. “They reveal gaps in diagnosis, treatment decision-making, side-effect management, access to specialist care, and psychosocial support.” 

They can help to inform advocacy priorities, reshape clinical pathways, and refine policy recommendations. In drug development, patient perspectives challenge a purely product- or process-centered view of healthcare, focusing attention on what it actually means to live with disease. 

“Patient stories don’t replace evidence,” Alex emphasizes. “They help interpret it.” 

Why listening alone isn’t enough 

Patients are the only ones who experience the entire care pathway—across disciplines, settings, and time. That makes their perspective not just a moral necessity, but a scientific one. 

Lived experience surfaces the “hidden” metrics of care: the burden of treatment and logistics, the gap between being told and being understood, and the trade-offs patients are (or are not) willing to make for a given outcome. 

When these insights are integrated early and continuously, they strengthen shared decision-making and improve the relevance of care. Yet despite broad agreement on their importance, people-centered care often falls short of its potential. 

From politeness to partnership 

The reason is not a lack of goodwill or empathy. 

Patient input may be listened to politely, but too often can arrive late, without clear ownership or plans to act on that input. Stories are acknowledged, but systems are not designed to respond. As a result, changing minds does not automatically lead to changed decisions. 

From Alex’s experience, progress often begins at the individual level, when a clinician, policymaker, or industry professional connects human experience to data and becomes a champion for improvement. In some cases, pooled patient experience has even helped influence access or reimbursement discussions. 

But progress is uneven. Cultural norms and hierarchical healthcare structures mean patient voices are valued very differently across regions. As Alex puts it plainly, “It’s not that patient stories don’t matter. It’s that change isn’t happening fast enough.” 

 What partnership looks like in practice 

When patient input is taken seriously, the signals are clear. Feedback loops close. Priorities shift. Trade-offs are discussed openly. Patient insight influences decisions rather than simply validating them. “Sometimes patients are invited into the room, but their value isn’t fully recognized,” Alex reflects. “You can feel it.” 

True partnership requires environments where patients are present not as a formality, but as contributors whose expertise is vital and is equally acknowledged. Alex points to professional forums and medical conferences as a simple test: Are patient voices genuinely represented on stage, alongside clinical and scientific experts? 

Partnership, he suggests, begins with a shared understanding of why patients are there, and with treating lived experience as knowledge, not illustration. 

Beyond awareness moments 

Awareness days like World Cancer Day play an essential role in amplifying patient voices. But meaningful change cannot depend on moments alone. 

Sustained progress requires embedding patient perspectives into research governance, clinical trial design, health technology assessment, and policy development. It also means investing in patient-advocacy capacity, so diverse voices are equipped to engage where decisions are made. 

Collaboration is key. Patient organizations, clinicians, academia, policymakers, and industry— such as companies like EMD Serono—each bring influence that, when aligned, can turn insight into action. “We cannot do this alone,” Alex emphasizes. “Every stakeholder [including patients], has a role to play.” 

Across the healthcare ecosystem, EMD Serono contributes by ensuring we are continually looking for ways to create space for patient insight to inform research, development, and care, not by speaking for patients, but by helping ensure their perspectives meaningfully shape decisions. We have moved to a patient-directed approach, working  with  patients  and  family  carers  to  systematically  incorporate  their  perspectives  throughout  EMD Serono’s  processes  to  shape  the  way we design  and  deliver  healthcare. 

United by being unique 

Healthcare systems differ widely. But across countries and cultures, patients consistently express the same needs: to be taken seriously, treated with dignity, given clear information, and meaningfully involved and engaged in decisions that affect their lives. 

“No two cancer experiences are the same,” Alex notes. “But when we recognize that individuality—and work together as a community—we can drive meaningful change.” 

“United by being unique” emphasizes that this unity is not simply about collecting stories for their own sake. It’s about designing systems that can respond to difference: to varying needs, values, and trade-offs, rather than assuming one average patient experience. 

The promise of Your Story Will Change Minds is real. Delivering on it requires more than listening. It requires structures, accountability, and partnerships that allow patient insight to change not just minds, but decisions. 

On this World Cancer Day, the challenge is clear: patient stories already change how we think. The work now is to build the systems that allow these stories to guide action.   

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Read more: 

World Cancer Day 2025: United by Unique

We are Patient-Directed

Patient-Directedness in Practice

Our Initiatives

The World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition was compensated for the participation of Alex Filicevas, as its Executive Director, in this article.