Prevention
Primary cancer prevention means taking the necessary precautions to prevent the occurrence of cancer in the first place. The Society's prevention programs focus primarily on tobacco control; the relationship between diet, physical activity and cancer; promoting coordinated school health; and reducing the risk of skin cancer. Programs are designed to help adults and children make health-enhancing decisions and act on them.

The Society has joined other health, education, and social service agencies to promote comprehensive school health education and National School Health Education Standards. Comprehensive school health education is a planned health education curriculum for pre-school to Grade 12. The Standards show schools, parents, and communities how to create an instructional program that will enable students to become healthy and capable of academic success.

The Society's school health education programs emphasize the importance of developing good health habits and can be an integral part of a comprehensive school health education curriculum.

Specific programs that the Society has developed to help schools teach cancer prevention include conducting a National School Health Coordinator Leadership Institute, creating a series of social marketing campaigns on the benefits of school health, and coordinating the development of a Healthy Kids Network of parents and community members in support of school health and cancer prevention.

The American Cancer Society works collaboratively with our national partners to implement comprehensive tobacco control programs. The Society advocates for social environmental change at the national, state, and community levels that prevents young people from starting to use tobacco and provides support for those who wish to stop smoking.

Tobacco control efforts include:

• Strong, meaningful FDA regulation of all tobacco products
• Reducing tobacco advertising and promotion directed at youth
• Increased funding to support comprehensive tobacco control programs
• Reducing environmental tobacco smoke exposure
• Support for coordinated school-based education programs
• Accessible cessation programs for those who wish to quit
• Tobacco tax increases to offset health care costs associated with tobacco use
• Support for a global partnership to reduce tobacco-related death and disease

The Society promotes its skin protection message through a variety of media and education activities, as well as through the 33-member organizations of the American Cancer Society Skin Protection Federation. This coalition includes non-profit organizations, government agencies, and corporations that have a combined constituency of over 100 million adults and children. The purpose of the coalition is to accelerate promotion of the American Cancer Society's guidelines for skin cancer prevention, and to provide a forum for member organizations to share information and strategies that increase awareness about skin protection and encourage more people to adopt skin protection behaviors.

Children and youth are an important audience for cancer prevention, since behaviors like smoking, sun exposure, and poor diet (all factors which affect cancer risk) are often formed early in life. Since nearly 60 percent of cancers could be prevented by healthier lifestyle choices, the Society, together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a host of other education, health, and social service agencies, has identified schools as a key system for impacting cancer prevention. By strengthening the 15,000 school districts in the United States and helping them deliver strong, coordinated school health programs and effective school health education, the American Cancer Society has the ability to impact over 45 million school children.

Detection and Treatment
The Society also seeks, through the dissemination of its early cancer detection guidelines and its cancer detection and advocacy programs, to ensure that cancer is diagnosed at the earliest possible stage when there is the greatest chance of successful treatment. American Cancer Society guidelines for early cancer detection are reviewed annually to ensure that recommendations to the public and health care providers are based on the most current scientific evidence. Currently, the Society has early detection recommendations for cancers of the breast, cervix, colon and rectum, prostate, and endometrium, and general recommendations for a cancer-related checkup (for more information, see Summary of American Cancer Society Recommendations for the Early Detection of Cancer in Asymptomatic People). The Society works in partnership with many public and private organizations in diverse settings to increase awareness about breast cancer and the importance of early detection, as well as overcoming the barriers to regular mammography use.

The Society, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is leading a national initiative to increase colorectal cancer screening, now greatly underused. (For more information, see Summary of American Cancer Society Recommendations for the Early Detection of Cancer in Asymptomatic People).

The availability of genetic testing for inherited risk for cancer has raised a complex set of questions about the medical, psychosocial, ethical, legal, policy, and quality-of-life implications of genetic information. The Society is working with other national organizations to address these issues through advocacy and educational initiatives. As the delivery of health care continues to change, the Society is working with partners in all sectors of the health care system to ensure that all individuals are offered a full range of preventive services to enable them to reduce their risk of getting cancer or to find their cancer at an early, treatable stage, and that persons with cancer receive the highest quality care.

Patient Services
Patient services of the American Cancer Society provide a wide range of emotional and practical support for patients, their families, their caregivers, and their communities from the time of diagnosis to the end of the cancer experience:

Reach to Recovery: Trained volunteers offer information and support to patients before, during, and after breast cancer treatment.

"tlc"^™ is a "magalog" (magazine/catalog) that combines helpful articles and information with products for women coping with cancer treatment. "tlc", or Tender Loving Care^® , offers wigs, mastectomy forms and products, and a large selection of hats and headcoverings. There are articles about living with cancer, common questions with answers, and profiles on real women fighting the disease. The "tlc" Web site, www.tlcdirect.org, was launched to give a more simple and interactive shopping experience for patients.

Look Good...Feel Better^®: The Look Good...Feel Better program is a free community-based national service that teaches female cancer patients beauty techniques to help restore their appearance and self-image during chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Man to Man^®: Man to Man helps men cope with prostate cancer by providing community-based education and support to patients and their family members. Participants learn about prostate cancer, treatment, side effects, and how to cope with the disease and its treatment.

Children's Camps: In many areas, the Society sponsors camps for children who have, or have had, cancer. These camps, staffed by pediatric oncologists and nurses, are also equipped to handle the special needs of children currently undergoing treatment. This summer camp experience provides a place for these young patients to become kids again.

Hope Lodge^®: Getting the right care sometimes means cancer patients must travel away from home, often to a cancer treatment facility in another city. The American Cancer Society is trying to make this difficult situation easier with the 27 currently available Hope Lodges. Hope Lodge provides housing free of charge for patients undergoing outpatient treatment in a supportive and caring environment. Accommodations and eligibility requirements may vary by location.

I Can Cope^®: I Can Cope is an educational program for people facing cancer, either personally or as a caregiver. The program offers reliable information, peer support, and practical coping skills.