Prevention & Control: improving your odds

Giving up smoking, eating better and exercising can improve overall health — these simple steps can also make it less likely someone will develop cancer. It is a message The MCG Cancer Center's Prevention and Control program wants all Georgians to hear.

Prevention and Control reaches out to community organizations, schools and other civic groups to promote the importance of detection and regular screening. It consults with community leaders to stay current with the populations they represent and to maintain open channels of communication.

Its mission also benefits from research conducted on the GHSU campus in the areas of cancer incidence and etiology, cancer intervention and control within Georgia.

GHSU celebrated its first year as a tobacco free campus in 2008, the same year its marked its fourth annual Great American Smoke-Out. Campus volunteers staffed booths in strategic locations to encourage anyone  — visitors, fellow employees and students — to quit. The community service event was an opportunity to tout the benefits of quitting, provide encouragement and explain to smokers how they could get help.

GHSU had a 79 percent success rate in treating more than 100 smokers during the first nine months of 2007, the latest year it has figures.

Another important focus for Prevention & Control is cancers of the prostate and breast, especially among the African-American population. These malignancies statistically have worse outcomes for minorities for a variety of reasons. As a National Cancer Institute-designated Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program, GHSU Cancer Center makes the newest cancer treatments available for patients in the Augusta region. It also recruits volunteers for prevention trials that look at the impact of immunity, lifestyle and environment on cancer prevention.

Learn more about the people involved in Cancer Prevention & Control.