Mission

At the American Cancer Society, we're on a mission to free the world from cancer. Until we do, we'll be funding and conducting research, sharing expert information, supporting patients, and spreading the world about prevention. All so we can all live longer -and better. 

From breakthrough research, to free lodging near treatment, a 24/7/365 live helpline, free rides to treatment, and convening powerful activists to create awareness and impact, the Society is the only organization attaching cancer from every angle. 

We envision a future where no one lives with the threat of cancer. Unfortunately, that future is at risk. If current trends continue, the impact of COVID-19 will reduce our ability to fund cancer research by 50% in 2020 -our lowest investment this century.

Cancer treatments can compromise immune systems, making cancer patients even more vulnerable to COVID-19.

That is why we need your help to join us again this year to keep critical support and resources available during this crisis, and to make sure we don't lose any more ground to cancer.

Research Dollars at Work Near You

Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has supported researchers at pivotal points in their career -to give them the support they need to keep great research going to take their ideas from dream to reality. We are proud to have helped more than 24,000 investigators make important advances in prevention, early detection, treatment, and care for those with cancer.

Here are just 10 of the countless cancer advances we have supported:

1. Discovering that tumors need blood vessels to grow and spread, which subsequently led to the development of drugs that prevent the formation of new blood vessels
2. Pioneering work in bone marrow transplants that led to successful bone marrow transplants in humans
3. Furthering knowledge of genes linked to breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2
4. Laying the ground work for a new multiple myeloma treatment, Darzalex (daratumumab)
5. Finding a key driver of the blood cancer chronic myeloid leukemia
6. Gaining insights that inspired researchers to investigate and confirm that tamoxifen can both treat and sometimes prevent breast cancer
7. Investigating new approaches that would make possible the first targeted cancer therapy to receive FDA approval, Rituxan (rituximab)
8. Performing studies that paved the way for the development of the breast cancer drug Herceptin
9. Providing some of the strongest evidence linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer and higher overall death rates, leading to the landmark 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health
10. Providing the first epidemiological evidence that obesity increases risk of premature death, and helping establish the link between obesity and death from breast, colorectal, and other cancers

The success of the American Cancer Society grant program is exemplified by the fact that 49 American Cancer Society-funded researchers have received a Nobel Prize for their work.

​American Cancer Society Research in Florida

The American Cancer Society is currently funding 18 grants in Florida totaling more than $12.1 million.

In Tampa Bay, the American Cancer Society is currently funding 9 grants to Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, totaling $6,351,750

Supporting Cancer Survivors

We are in our communities providing free information and services when and where people need it. If you need someone to talk with at 3 a.m., we're here. If your friend is losing her hair because of chemo, your mother needs a ride to treatment, or a loved one needs a place to stay while in treatment away from home, we are the ones who can help.

Road to Recovery 

Cancer is hard, getting a ride to treatment shouldn’t be.

Road to Recovery gets patients to treatment. For many cancer patients, a ride is what stands between them and potentially lifesaving treatment. Cancer care often means frequent outpatients, sometimes for days and weeks on end. That is why ACS provides free rides to and from treatment. We are available by phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help people find a ride when they need it most.

More than 131,000 Floridians will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and many will need our help to access the care they need. In 2018, we provided more than 50,000 rides to Florida patients. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fulfill about 25,00 requests for rides. With additional funding resources we could serve even more patients and fulfill the ever-growing demand for rides.

Hope Lodge Tampa

The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Hope Lodge it’s a place to stay when treatment is far from home. To cancer patients, it’s so much more.

Our Hope Lodge offers 40 guest rooms located near cancer treatment centers. In 2018 it served 833 guests, providing 11,656 nights of free lodging to patients and their caregivers and saving families an estimated $1,865,000 in hotel expenses. Hope Lodge provides patients a place to stay, free of charge, while receiving treatment away from home. This supportive, healing facility offers a shared kitchen, living room, reading areas, laundry facilities and reflective spaces. This program reduces financial strain, making treatment more accessible, and improving the quality of life for thousands of families every year.

Hope Lodge communities across the US make a meaningful impact. In a typical year, our program:

• Serves more than 27,000 patients and caregivers
• Provides more than 470,000 free nights of lodging to patients and their caregivers
• Saves families an estimated $49 million in hotel expenses.

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Offering Information and Education 

We help people understand what screening tests they need and the steps to take to protect themselves from cancer by developing prevention and early detection guidelines that are the industry standard.

Our website, cancer.org provides the latest, most accurate information on virtually all topics related to cancer. Our number of visitors has increased considerable since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Our 24/7/365 helpline has gone virtual to increase the personal connection with cancer patients, who may be experiencing the negative impact of isolation. Many cancer patients are concerned about how their vulnerable immune system makes them more vulnerable to the virus and our helpline offers them unique information from trained Cancer Information Specialist delivered in a very personal and direct way.

Fighting Cancer Through Public Policy

Our nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate -the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) -works with legislators and policymakers to support laws and policies to defeat cancer and rally communities to join the fight. ACS CAN works tirelessly to keep the fight against cancer a top priority for our nation's lawmakers. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with training and tools they need to make their voices heard.