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Overview of Prevention
Prevention
Purposes of this summary
Prevention
Doctors cannot always explain why one person gets cancer and another does not.
However, scientists have studied general patterns of cancer in the population
to learn what things around us and what things we do in our lives may increase
our chance of developing cancer.
Anything that increases a person’s chance of developing a disease is called a risk factor; anything that decreases a person’s chance of developing a disease
is called a protective factor. Some of the risk factors for cancer can be
avoided, but many cannot. For example, although you can choose to quit
smoking, you cannot choose which genes you have inherited from your parents.
Both smoking and inheriting specific genes could be considered risk factors for
certain kinds of cancer, but only smoking can be avoided. Prevention means
avoiding the risk factors and increasing the protective factors that can be
controlled so that the chance of developing cancer decreases.
Although many risk factors can be avoided, it is important to keep in mind that
avoiding risk factors does not guarantee that you will not get cancer. Also,
most people with a particular risk factor for cancer do not actually get the
disease. Some people are more sensitive than others are to factors that can cause
cancer. Talk to your doctor about methods of preventing cancer that might be
effective for you.
Purposes of this summary
The purposes of this summary on prevention and cessation (stopping) of cigarette smoking
are to:
- Give information on counseling methods used by health professionals to
improve quit rates of smokers.
- Describe various drug treatments used to improve quit rates of smokers.
You can talk to your doctor or health care professional about prevention and
cessation methods and whether they would be likely to help you.
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