The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Monday sent a letter (.pdf) signed by major U.S. medical societies representing about 300,000 health care professionals to the White House urging President Barack Obama to participate in the U.N. High Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases that is scheduled for September, Agence France-Presse reports. Leaders from world cancer organizations, speaking at a press conference at the 47th ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago, urged Obama and other world leaders to attend the meeting to create a “broad international effort … to halt the rapid spread of cancer in poor and middle-income countries,” the news service notes.

The oncologists also highlighted the “World Cancer Declaration,” which outlines 11 goals they hope can be reached by 2020. “The goals, aimed at reducing levels of cancer, include sharp reductions in smoking, drinking alcohol, rates of obesity, and improvements in access to health care and universal vaccination programs for hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV) aimed at preventing liver and uterine cancer,” the news service writes (6/6).