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American Cancer Society Guidelines for the Early Detection of Cancer

American Cancer Society Guidelines for the Early Detection of Cancer

The American Cancer Society recommends these cancer screening guidelines for most adults. Screening tests are used to find cancer before a person has any symptoms.
Diet and Physical Activity: What’s the Cancer Connection?

Diet and Physical Activity: What’s the Cancer Connection?

How much do daily habits like diet and exercise affect your risk for cancer? Much more than you might think. Research has shown that poor diet and not being active are 2 key factors that can increase a person’s cancer risk. The good news is that you do something about this.

TREATMENT

Cancer treatment is improving, saving lives and extending survival for many people. Depending on various factors, treatment options may include surgery, radiation, immunotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or targeted, local therapy, among others. These treatments might be used alone or in combination. Clinical trials evaluate the benefits of new therapies and broaden the options available to patients.

This section includes treatment trends for cancer sites for which there are available data trends and definitive treatment guidelines based on rigorous evidence of benefit to patients, including bladder, breast, colorectal, kidney, lung, ovarian, and prostate cancers.
Know about your health

You’re smart. You’re responsible. You’re highly motivated to keep your family healthy – and having adequate health insurance coverage is part of that. But learning what you need to know about insurance in order to make good decisions can be overwhelming. That’s where we can help.

CANCER

Cancer is a disease that begins as a renegade human cell over which the body has lost control. In order for the body and its organs to function properly, cell growth needs to be strictly regulated. Cancer cells, however, continue to divide and multiply at their own speed, forming abnormal lumps, or tumors. An estimated 6.7 million people currently die from cancer every year. Not all cancers are natural-born killers. Some tumors are referred to as benign because they don't spread elsewhere in the body. But cells of malignant tumors do invade other tissues and will continue to spread if left untreated, often leading to secondary cancers. Cancers can start in almost any body cell, due to damage or defects in genes involved in cell division. Mutations build up over time, which is why people tend to develop cancer later in life.

Volunteer Opportunities

Category: Voice of Budding Medical Students (Cancer)

As an American Cancer Society volunteer you can honor a survivor or a loved one lost to cancer, help people in your local community, and join the fight to cure cancer. Your unique talents will make a real difference, and you can choose from volunteer positions that match your interests, offer flexible scheduling, and allow you to learn new skills. Join us and discover how rewarding it is to be an American Cancer Society volunteer.

Epidemiology Research and the Cancer Prevention Studies

Category: Doctor's Column (Cancer)

The American Cancer Society first began conducting long-term prospective studies in the 1950s. The participants provide initial lifestyle, medical, or behavioral information, and then are followed over time to assess their health outcomes to determine how those outcomes are related to the previously collected data. Previous long-term Society studies have played a major role in cancer prevention, including demonstrating the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, the impact of being overweight or obese on risk of cancer occurrence and death, and much more.

How does fat leave the body when you lose weight?

Category: General - Editor's Choice

Where does all that fat go when you lose weight? According to a new UNSW Australia study, published today in the British Medical Journal, a startling number of health professionals don't know the answer to that question. The most common misconception, expressed by more than half of the 150 doctors, dieticians and personal trainers surveyed, is that your body burns it all up into energy.