With almost 6 million people dying annually from smoking-related diseases, you can see how the tobacco industry has been able to earn incredible profits from addicting people to their products using manipulating, misleading practices. In fact, in 2010, the six leading tobacco companies in the world made a collective profit of $35.1 billion, the equivalent of the profits of Coca Cola, McDonalds and Microsoft combined.

Sometimes we understand things intellectually but not always emotionally. Sometimes reality needs to touch us in a more visceral way to be effective. The CDCŠ—'s new ad campaign, Tips from Former Smokers, features real-life stories of people who have suffered from the harmful effects of smoking. It helps us to understand more fully the real impacts of smoking.

March is National Nutrition Month, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some of ACS CANŠ—'s efforts to reduce overweight and obesity, which are proven to cause cancer.

The report includes the latest information about the trends of youth tobacco use and its devastating impact on health. The report also details the tobacco industryŠ—'s continued efforts to addict kids to its deadly products through insidious marketing and promotion directed at youth.

This week, I was invited to speak about the realities of MassachusettsŠ—'s health care reform at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action NetworkŠ—'s National Forum on the Future of Health Care in Washington, DC. Because our reform serves as the model for the Affordable Care Act, and because our experience is so often misrepresented in the public discourse, I welcomed the opportunity.

Yesterday was an incredible day at ACS CAN Š—– we held our first-ever National Forum on the Future of Health Care and it was a huge success! The conference focused on how to ensure that people living with cancer and other chronic diseases have access to quality health care.

I had the privilege of participating in an ACS CAN event in Seattle yesterday that really illustrated the importance of federal funding for cancer research. We partnered with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to emphasize that research funding doesnŠ—'t just fight cancer, it pours money back into local economies and creates jobs.

As the second anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) approaches, we decided it was a good time to check in with the call center specialists at the American Cancer SocietyŠ—'s National Cancer Information Center (NCIC) to ask them how one aspect of the law Š—– the new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Programs (PCIPs) Š—– is impacting people with cancer.

Big Tobacco is about to meet a challenge in the state of California. Yesterday, ACS CAN CEO Dr. John Seffrin announced a pledge to support CaliforniaŠ—'s Proposition 29, the California Cancer Research Act, an historic ballot initiative that would make California the second largest funder of cancer research Š—– after the U.S. federal government.

The President released his Fiscal Year 2013 budget yesterday, and I was deeply disappointed to see that his proposal cut funding for cancer research. This comes just weeks after the President specifically highlighted the importance of cancer research in his State of the Union address.