GETTING CANCER INFORMATION

Cancer Prevention

2008-12-24T10:10:00.001-08:00

Cancer Prevention

What you eat and drink, how you live, where you work . . . all these factors can affect your risk for cancer. Find out more about these risks and what you can do to minimize them.

	Tobacco and Cancer

Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society. Learn about the health issues, get quitting tips, and find out about recent legislation.

	Sun Safety

The sun's UV rays cause the vast majority of skin cancers including melanoma, which can be life-threatening. Learn who's at high risk and how to protect yourself.

	Food and Fitness

Your diet can affect your risk for cancer. Get recommendations, recipes, and more.

HPV and Cervical Cancer

	Thinking About Testing for HPV?

	Frequently Asked Questions About HPV Vaccines

	What Every Woman Should Know About Cervical Cancer and HPV

	ACS Recommendations for HPV Vaccine

	Environmental Carcinogens

Learn about the cancer risks posed by your surroundings and what you can do about them.

	Healthy Schools = Healthy Youth

Schools have a critical role to play in teaching young people about their personal health and the health of their community.

	ACS Prevention & Detection Programs

Find out about cancer prevention and detection programs sponsored by your American Cancer Society.



	Choose from the list below to get information and resources for a specific cancer topic whenever you see this heading.

Environmental Carcinogens

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Environmental factors can include smoking, diet, sun exposure, and infectious diseases, as well as chemicals and radiation in our homes and workplaces. Learn more about these risks and how you can reduce them.

	General Information About Carcinogens

A carcinogen is a substance known or believed to cause cancer in humans. Better understand a number of specific known and possible carcinogens and how they might affect your risk for cancer..

	Infectious Agents and Cancer

Learn how certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites are recognized risk factors for several types of cancer in humans.

	Air Pollution

Read about the connection between different kinds of air pollution and your risk for cancer.

	Medical Treatments

Understand more about the cancer risk associated with such medical treatments as hormone replacement therapy and others.

	Radiation

Find out how radiation from cellular phones, sunlight and UV radiation, and other sources affect your risk for cancer.

	Chemicals

Exposure to some chemicals can affect your risk of getting cancer. Learn more here.

	Consumer Products

Are the products you use everyday linked to cancer? Find out what current research says.

Food and Fitness

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Food and Fitness

Eating right, being active, and maintaining a healthy weight are important ways to reduce your risk of cancer—as well as heart disease and diabetes. Learn the American Cancer Society's guidelines for diet and activity and find tips for a healthy lifestyle and community.

	ACS Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention

Eat and exercise your way to better health. What you eat (or don't eat) and how active you are can influence your risk of developing cancer. Learn about the best ways to reduce your risk through simple lifestyle changes.
The Link Between Lifestyle and Cancer

	Cooking Smart

Aim for a healthful diet with these ideas for quick entrees, calorie-cutting substitutions, and loading your pantry and cooking with fruits and veggies.

	Take Control of Your Weight

Learn to control calories and portion sizes, make recipes leaner, and eat light in a restaurant. Also find snack and meal ideas and calculate your calorie needs.

	Add Fruits and Veggies to Your Diet

Learn how to fit at least 5 servings of cancer-fighting fruits and vegetables into your day.

	Great American Eat Right Challenge

This ACS event encourages people to check their weight and body mass index (BMI) to determine if extra weight has become a health risk. Find other tips and tools to help reach your goals.

	Staying Active

Find activities to fit your lifestyle and ideas for raising active kids, as well as staying motivated yourself.

Tools


	Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator

	Calorie Counter

	Exercise Counts

	Target Heart Rate Calculator

	Nutrition and Activity Quiz

	Recipes

Try Crispy Shrimp, Grilled Turkey Reuben, or Cheesecake from our list of party-food recipes. They've starred on DIY Network TV, but they won't blow your diet. For everyday meals, try the nutrient-rich, moderate-calorie dishes below:

Greek Chicken With Tomatoes, Olives, Feta

Rice With Orzo and Mint

Tuscan White Bean Salad

Crunchy Green Beans With Carmelized Onions

Chocolate Cheesecake

	Nutrition for the Person with Cancer

Cancer patients have special nutrition needs and issues related to eating. Get information to help maintain your health and cope with treatment.

Tobacco and Cancer

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Tobacco and Cancer

Smoking damages nearly every organ in the human body, is linked to at least 15 different cancers, and accounts for some 30% of all cancer deaths. And it costs billions of dollars each year. Yet one in five Americans still light up. If you or someone you love uses tobacco, here's what you need to know about how tobacco kills, and how to get the help you need to quit.

	What's So Bad About Tobacco?

Get the facts about what cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco do to your body, your wallet, and the health of those around you.

	Kick the Habit

Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your loved ones. To kick the habit for good, you need motivation, dependable support, and sound strategies. We've got you covered with all three!

	Health Professionals

Help your patients succeed at cessation. Find quitting resources and get expert tips for discussing quitting.

	Great American Smokeout

This nationwide event takes place the third Thursday of November each year to encourage smokers to quit for at least one day, in hopes they will quit forever. Get more information on events in your area.

Local Smokeout Resources

	Smoke-free Communities

What are your lawmakers doing to lessen the impact of tobacco in your community? Your employer? Learn about your state's tobacco laws and how you can join the fight for cleaner air at work and in public spaces across the U.S.

	ACS News Center

Get the latest tobacco news here.

WHY is cancer ??

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Cancer is a scary word. Almost everyone knows someone who got very sick or died from cancer. Most of the time, cancer affects older people. Not many kids get cancer, but when they do, very often it can be treated and cured.

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is actually a group of many related diseases that all have to do with cells. Cells are the very small units that make up all living things, including the human body. There are billions of cells in each person's body.

Cancer happens when cells that are not normal grow and spread very fast. Normal body cells grow and divide and know to stop growing. Over time, they also die. Unlike these normal cells, cancer cells just continue to grow and divide out of control and don't die.

Cancer cells usually group or clump together to form tumors (say: too-mers). A growing tumor becomes a lump of cancer cells that can destroy the normal cells around the tumor and damage the body's healthy tissues. This can make someone very sick.

Sometimes cancer cells break away from the original tumor and travel to other areas of the body, where they keep growing and can go on to form new tumors. This is how cancer spreads. The spread of a tumor to a new place in the body is called metastasis (say: meh-tas-tuh-sis).

Causes of Cancer

You probably know a kid who had chickenpox - maybe even you. But you probably don't know any kids who've had cancer. If you packed a large football stadium with kids, probably only one child in that stadium would have cancer.

Doctors aren't sure why some people get cancer and others don't. They do know that cancer is not contagious. You can't catch cancer from someone else who has it. Cancer isn't caused by germs, like colds or the flu are. So don't be afraid of other kids - or anyone else - with cancer. You can talk to, play with, and hug someone with cancer.

Kids can't get cancer from anything they do either. Some kids think that a bump on the head causes brain cancer or that bad people get cancer. This isn't true! Kids don't do anything wrong to get cancer. But some unhealthy habits, especially cigarette smoking or drinking too much alcohol every day, can make you a lot more likely to get cancer when you become an adult.

Finding Out About Cancer

It can take a while for a doctor to figure out a kid has cancer. That's because the symptoms cancer can cause - weight loss, fevers, swollen glands, or feeling overly tired or sick for a while - are usually not caused by cancer. When a kid has these problems, it's often cased by something less serious, like an infection. With medical testing, the doctor can figure out what's causing the trouble.

If the doctor suspects cancer, he or she can do tests to figure out if that's the problem. A doctor might order X-rays and blood tests and recommend the person go to see an oncologist (say: on-kah-luh-jist). An oncologist is a doctor who takes care of and treats cancer patients. The oncologist will likely run other tests to find out if someone really has cancer. If so, tests can determine what kind of cancer it is and if it has spread to other parts of the body. Based on the results, the doctor will decide the best way to treat it.

One test that an oncologist (or a surgeon) may perform is a biopsy (say: by-op-see). During a biopsy, a piece of tissue is removed from a tumor or a place in the body where cancer is suspected, like the bone marrow. Don't worry - someone getting this test will get special medicine to keep him or her comfortable during the biopsy. After the sample is collected, it will be examined under a microscope for cancer cells. The sooner cancer is found and treatment begins, the better someone's chances are for a full recovery and cure.

Treating Cancer Carefully

Cancer is treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation - or sometimes a combination of these treatments. The choice of treatment depends on:

the type of cancer someone has (the kind of abnormal cells causing the cancer)
the stage of the tumor (meaning how much the cancer has spread within the body, if at all)

Surgery is the oldest form of treatment for cancer. Three out of every five people with cancer will have an operation to remove the cancer. During surgery, the doctor tries to take out as many cancer cells as possible. Some healthy cells or tissue may also be removed to make sure that all the cancer is gone.

Chemotherapy (say: kee-mo-ther-uh-pee) is the use of anti-cancer medicines (drugs) to treat cancer. These medicines are sometimes taken as a pill, but are usually given through a special intravenous (say: in-truh-vee-nus) line, also called an IV. An IV is a tiny catheter (straw-like tube) that is put into a vein through someone's skin, usually on the arm. The catheter is attached to a bag that holds the medicine. The medicine flows from the bag into a vein, which puts the medicine into the blood, where it can travel throughout the body and attack cancer cells.

Chemotherapy is usually given over a number of weeks to months. Often, a permanent catheter is placed under the skin into a larger blood vessel of the upper chest. This way, a person can easily get several courses of chemotherapy and other medicines through this catheter without having a new IV needle put in. The catheter remains under the skin until all the cancer treatment is completed.

Radiation (say: ray-dee-ay-shun) therapy uses high-energy waves, such as X-rays (invisible waves that can pass through most parts of the body), to damage and destroy cancer cells. It can cause tumors to shrink and even go away completely. Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer. Many people with cancer find it goes away after receiving radiation treatments.

With both chemotherapy and radiation, kids may experience side effects. A side effect is an extra problem that's caused by the treatment. Radiation and anti-cancer drugs are very good at destroying cancer cells, but unfortunately they also destroy healthy cells. This can cause problems such as loss of appetite, tiredness, vomiting, or hair loss. With radiation, a person might have red or irritated skin in the area that's being treated. But all these problems go away and hair grows back after the treatment is over. During the treatment, there are medicines that can help a kid feel better.

While treatment is still going on, a kid might not be able to attend school or be around crowds of people - the kid needs to rest and can't risk getting infections, such as the flu, when he or she already isn't feeling well.

Getting Better

Remission (say: ree-mih-shun) is a great word for anyone who has cancer. It means all signs of cancer are gone from the body. After surgery or treatment with radiation or chemotherapy, a doctor will then do tests to see if the cancer is still there. If there are no signs of cancer, then the kid is in remission.

Remission is the goal when any kid with cancer goes to the hospital for treatment. Sometimes, this means additional chemotherapy might be needed for a while to keep cancer cells from coming back. And luckily, for many kids, continued remission is the very happy end of their cancer experience.

Reviewed by: Donna Patton, MD