Cancer is a disease that affects everyone in Maryland. Each year, more than 31,000 Marylanders are diagnosed with invasive cancer, and countless family members, friends, and co-workers support these patients through their journeys. While the death rate from cancer in the United States has steadily declined since its peak in 1991, cancer continues to be the second leading cause of death in the United States and in Maryland, behind heart disease.
The purpose of the Maryland Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan (Cancer Plan) serves as a guide for professionals who are involved in planning, directing, implementing, evaluating, or performing research on cancer control in Maryland. It is also a resource for all Marylanders (individuals and families, health care providers, communities, and organizations) on cancer control topics.
Comprehensive cancer control is a strategic approach to cancer control involving communities and partners working together, combining resources, and coordinating efforts to maximize impact in controlling cancer, including:
Reducing risk,
Detecting cancers early,
Improving treatment, and
Enhancing survivorship.
The 2021-2025 Cancer Plan continues to focus on goals, objectives, and strategies to promote implementation, and provides consolidated, cross-cutting content and topic areas.
Objectives in the Cancer Plan are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) and based on available data sources. Most objectives are relevant to multiple cancer sites. Strategies in the Cancer Plan are updated from the 2016-2020 Cancer Plan or based on recent evidence, and when possible, they focus on policy, systems, and environmental changes to impact populations versus individuals.
