The World Health Organization (WHO) has joined forces with the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO), the world’s leading association of physicians and oncology professionals, to develop and promote cancer care innovations that are specifically designed to enhance health outcomes, and take account of the contexts in which patients live.

The aim is to overcome some of the current inequities that exist in access to cancer care. The new partnership will enable ASCO and WHO to develop a coordinated approach to support WHO Member States and cancer centres with improved access to quality care by linking facility-level quality improvement activities with national strategies. This will accelerate implementation of WHO cancer initiatives in breast, cervix and childhood cancers.

Programmes planned under the WHO–ASCO partnership include developing evidence-based quality indicators that can be used to assess the quality of a facility’s care – with a focus on breast cancer and palliative care – and, scaling global best practices with an aim to advance innovation in improving quality of care. WHO and ASCO will draw on and synthesize key insights from stakeholders in their respective networks, including care providers, researchers, patients, and governmental authorities. By leveraging one another’s resources and establishing networks and quality tools, WHO and ASCO can amplify efforts towards providing high-quality care to more patients with cancer around the globe.