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Cancer Prevention

Overview

For you or me, cancer prevention means what we can do to prevent cancer from occurring or recurring.

The scientific definition of prevention is defined as reducing cancer deaths by reducing the number of cancer cases diagnosed each year. Research provides some answers to actions one can take to prevent cancer. Our website will help you better understand the importance of research. Go to our section on research for more information.

Cancer prevention may be accomplished by:

Avoiding a carcinogen or altering its metabolism.
Maintaining a lifestyle or dietary practices that modify
cancer-causing factors or genetic predispositions.
Medical intervention ( The use of natural or laboratory-made substances such as drugs, vitamins, other agents, and approaches to try to reduce the risk of, or delay the development or recurrence of, cancer. Chemoprevention) to successfully reverse early cell changes or prophylactic surgery to prevent cancer.

The chance that an individual will develop cancer in response to an exposure to something that causes cancer (carcinogen) depends on how long and how often the person was exposed.

It also depends on the person's:

Genetic Makeup
Age
Gender

We have no control over our genetic makeup, age or gender, but we can control our exposures and lifestyle.

Background:

All cancers result from an acquired or inherited abnormality in DNA, or the genetic blueprint of each person. Approximately 10 percent of all cancers are associated with inherited genes passed from parent to child.

This means that the other 90 percent of all cancers are caused by other abnormalities triggered by your external environment.

This may sound overwhelming, but there is encouraging news. Some cancers may be preventable.

You might already have cancer, or love someone with cancer, and feel like, “Well, I already have cancer, and now I’m learning I might have prevented the disease!”

We understand this may be overwhelming. Further, there is no absolute way to prevent cancer, only to reduce the risk of getting it. The good news is that you can start today to take steps to improve your health and lessen your cancer risks.

With or without cancer, as you learn about cancer prevention, you will discover tools and lifestyle changes that might contribute to improving your health and longevity.

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