evidence: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been in the healthcare spotlight since 2019, but the reality is that heart disease and cancer killed more people than COVID-19 in 20201 (see Figure 1) and were our nation’s leading causes of death for decades before that. Among Americans younger than 85 years of age, cancer remains the leading cause of death.2 [...] Globally, in 2018, 17 million new cancer cases and 9.5 million cancer deaths were reported. It is estimated that these numbers will nearly double by 2040 to 27.5 million new cases and 16.3 million deaths. Large populations over a wide geographic area are affected.5 This fits the definition of a pandemic (see glossary, this page). Even though the Commission on Cancer since 1922 (when it was still the Committee on Cancer) has promoted and continues to promote advances in cancer care to improve prevention, promote early detection, enhance treatments, and decrease mortality, we have not kept pace with cancer’s faster rise. We have a crisis in cancer care because of limited access, coordination, and practice of evidence-based care.6 [...] COVID-19: Global and deadly, it has already killed more than 5.1 million people worldwide, and in the U.S. we had lost nearly 790,000 lives as of November 16, 2021.9,10 The current U.S. death rate is nearly 237/100,000 population. It was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020 (see Figure 1, page 31). As previously noted, the leading two causes of death were heart disease and cancer.