One year ago, we encountered an opportunity we knew we’d never get again. Lance Armstrong, our founder, after three years of retirement, decided to return to professional cycling. For us, going global had been a far off goal until then. We announced our goal of expanding the foundation’s mission to address the global cancer burden at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Summit in New York. A year later, we are back at CGI presenting on the success of the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit. Below were a few points our President and CEO, Doug Ulman, made at yesterday’s event:

• We knew that historically, cancer was widely thought to afflict only the elderly residing in affluent countries. However, cancer has moved beyond high income countries of the developed world to the middle and low income countries of the developing world. In fact, more than half of new cancer cases and nearly two-thirds of cancer deaths occur in the developing world – yet only 5% of the world’s resources go to fighting cancer in these countries.

• In Dublin, one month ago, the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit brought together world leaders, non-profits, survivors, global corporations, medical professionals and advocates from more than 65 countries, united by one purpose: making cancer a global priority. It was an amazing experience. Survivors shared their stories of stigma, lack of medical resources and also triumph. Policy makers spoke frankly about the challenges they face in elevating cancer as a priority. NGO’s gave a candid assessment of the landscape and obstacles they face.

• One month later, we feel that we have a much clearer idea of the scope and toll of this disease. Before the Summit, we partnered with The Economist Intelligence Unit on a first-of-its-kind research effort to quantify the global economic impact of cancer. And now for the first time we can actually put a dollar figure on what cancer costs us: more than $300 billion in 2009. And that’s just in new diagnoses.

The full report from the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, A World Without Cancer, can be found on our website.

More information about the Clinton Global Initiative can be found on their website www.clintonglobalinitiative.org