About Dutch Cancer Society

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Tackling tomorrow’s challenges today

KWF Kankerbestrijding/KWF Dutch Cancer Society was founded in 1949. Back then, the prognosis for cancer patients was bleak: 5 years post-diagnosis, only 49% of the cancer patients was still alive. Nowadays, this number has increased to 70% . We thank our donors, whose generous donations has enabled researchers to detect, understand and treat cancer better.

However, despite these promising numbers, our task is not finished. The increasing complexity of oncology is accompanied by new challenges and questions. Not only for patients and doctors, but for society as a whole. If more cancer patients can be cured, or survive longer, how can we optimize their quality of life? How can we stimulate better treatment for rare and hard-to-treat tumours? And how can we prevent cancer?

Against cancer. For life.

KWF stands against cancer. But above all, we stand for life. So everyone can live life as fully as possible. Whether you have cancer, are recovering from it, know someone affected by it, are no longer curable, or want to prevent it – we are here to help.

We enable groundbreaking research and improve care and support for everyone affected by this devastating disease. In doing so, we gratefully rely on the generous support of thousands of volunteers and donors.

Our goals are to:

  • deepen our understanding of cancer
  • prevent cancer wherever possible
  • detect cancer at earlier stages
  • make all forms of cancer more treatable
  • improve quality of life for people living with or beyond cancer, including in the final phase of life

KWF Dutch Cancer Society

KWF consists of:

  • A Supervisory Board who supervises the policies of the administration, and the general course of events of KWF.
  • A board who is responsible for the general management of KWF. The board members are Carla van Gils and Dorine Manson.

The Supervisory Board consists of the following members:

Ir. Wiebe Draijer (chair)
Dr. Bas Leerink
​Koos Timmermans
Drs. Mijke van Ballegooijen
Hilde Garssen
Michaëla Ulrici

 

KWF Board of Advisors

KWF Board of Advisors consists of about 100-120 experts who advise KWF on achieving its mission goals from multiple perspectives. The experts are scientists, (former) patients, volunteers, health care providers and other relevant stakeholders.