Playing the Numbers

Battling Cancer isn’t just about the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It’s also about education and prevention for everyone.

Why?

Because according to statistics provided by the American Cancer Society:

1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her life.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and women in the United States.

1 man in 6 will get prostate cancer in his life.

Need more evidence?

The Cancer Facts and Figures 2008 report was released February 28, 2008, by the American Cancer Society.

Per the report “prostate, lung and colorectal cancers account for about half of all cancers diagnoses among men; in women, breast, lung and colorectal cancer make up 50%. Cancer incident rates have more or less steadied since the late 1990’s, but certain cancers do appear to be on the decline. Lung cancer incident rates are down in men and appear to be leveling off in women. There were fewer cases of colorectal cancer in both men and women from 1998 to 2004; female breast cancer incidence rates decreased 3.5% per year from 2001 to 2004.”

See the entire report in pdf format on the ACS webpage.

What’s your cancer risk?

Check out the following assessment tools.

The Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, Disease Risk Assessment for the following cancers: bladder, breast, cervical, colon, kidney, lung, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, stomach and uterine.

The National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. The tool has recently been updated for African American women based on the results of the CARE study.

 Sloan Kettering Lung Cancer Risk Assessment.

The Women’ Cancer Network provides a confidential risk assessment of the following cancers: breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer, vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer.

It’s easy to become immune to the numbers. But do yourself a favor this week. Look them over and then take a risk assessment, which by the way, also provides not only your personal results, but tips based on those results for reducing your risk factor.

Because Battling Cancer isn’t just about preaching to the choir.