Myth: Indoor tanning is safer because it protects you from sunburn by giving you a base tan.  
Fact: There is no such thing as a “safe” or “healthy” tan. A tan is damaged skin and can put the body at risk for skin cancer. Studies show that melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer, is the fastest-growing cancer and is being diagnosed in more and more young people, largely attributable to the use of tanning beds.

Myth: You can’t get sun damage on a cloudy day.
Fact: Your skin is at risk even when the sun’s not shinning. The sun’s ultra violet rays can actually break through the clouds. Even on cloudy days you should use sunscreen and lip balm with UVB and UVA protection with SPF 30 or more.

Myth: You need sunlight to get enough Vitamin D.
Fact: The safest way to get Vitamin D is through a healthy diet and supplements, not long hours in the sunlight. Foods such as milk, yogurt, salmon and tuna are all rich with this nutrient. Fifteen minutes a day of sun exposure for three days a week is all you need for adequate levels of Vitamin D.

Myth: People with darker skin can’t get skin cancer.
Fact: Skin cancer doesn’t discriminate – men and women of all ethnicities are at risk. Although darker-skinned people are less likely to get skin cancer than white people, they are typically more likely to die from the disease.

Myth: Eighty percent of sun damage occurs before the age of 18.
Fact: The majority of a person’s sun damage actually occurs later on in life. While many parents are vigilant with keeping their kids safe with sunscreen and protective clothing, they often don’t practice what they preach. It’s important to protect both your children and yourself from sun exposure whenever you are outdoors.

Remembering these sun safety facts can help you and your loved ones prevent sunburn and early signs of aging and most importantly reduce your risk of skin cancer. You can still have fun in the bright summer sun by following these simple steps:

1. Apply one ounce of sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher before going outside
2. Wear protective clothing – sun glasses, hats and clothing made of tightly woven material with long sleeves
3. Avoid tanning beds and sun exposure when it’s the brightest
4. Routinely check your skin by following the ABCDE rule

Visit Save Your Skin to learn more about keeping your skin healthy year round.

Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, is a former fellow of the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Dr. Braithwaite and her colleagues compared yearly breast cancer screening with screening every two years to see if there were differences in the stage of diagnosis. The results showed that, for women ages 66-74, the risk of having breast cancer detected at a later stage is no greater for women screened every two years than it is for women screened annually.

The study also looked at how screening intervals affected the number of false-positive test results. For women ages 66 – 89, Dr. Braithwaite found that women screened yearly were more likely to have false-positive results than were women screened every two years.

The results of this study may not resolve the ongoing debate about breast cancer screening intervals, but these new findings provide valuable information for older women discussing the impact of screening yearly versus every two years.

Recently, we caught up with Dr. Braithwaite to ask her a few questions about the impact of the Foundation’s fellowship on her career and the importance of funding cancer prevention and early detection research. Here is what she had to say:

How did receiving an earlier Prevent Cancer Foundation/American Society of Preventive Oncology fellowship impact your career in breast cancer research?

Receiving a Prevent Cancer Foundation/American Society of Preventive Oncology fellowship enabled me to develop further expertise in cancer prevention research and epidemiology. I am incredibly grateful to the Prevent Cancer Foundation for helping to launch my career in breast cancer research.

Why is it important to fund research in prevention and early detection?

Cancer, especially breast cancer, is a common disease and one of the leading causes of death around the globe. Through prevention and early detection, our goal is to reduce the disease burden and improve life expectancy.

Learn more about the innovative research being funded by the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Knowing your family health history can help you determine your family’s health risk and make preventive choices.

According to a health survey, only 1 in 3 adults say they have attempted to collect and record their family medical history. It’s important to your overall health, including cancer prevention, to know about your family’s health history. Knowing where to begin, understanding the importance of it and feeling comfortable with starting that conversation with your family are some of the challenges and questions we may face. To help guide us through this process the Prevent Cancer Foundation, in partnership with the National Broadcaster’s Association (NAB) and the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, will hold the organization’s first webcast: “Family Medical History: Why and What You Should Know.”

The panel will be moderated by Dave Dubin, a three time cancer survivor and advocate for cancer screening and genetic testing. Panel members will consist of a diverse group of leading experts and advocates:

Anna Maria Izquierdo, Primary Care Physician and Executive Director of Care for Your Health

Beth N. Peshkin, MS, GCG, Associate Professor of Oncology and Senior Genetic Counselor at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Allyn Rose, Miss D.C., family medical history and cancer prevention advocate

The panel will cover a range of topics including:

• The importance of knowing one’s medical history
• How your family medical history can help reduce your risk of cancer and other chronic diseases
• Strategies for learning about your medical history from family members
• Genetic testing and genetic counseling

Before and during the panel discussion, audience members are encouraged to tweet (@preventcancer) questions for the panelists to answer.

The free webcast will be streamed live online from the NAB’s offices and we hope you will be able to join us on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 2 pm Eastern. We hope you will “tune in” for this lively, informative and life-saving discussion!

Read the full CBS News article

Read the full Reuters article

Read the full MedPageToday article

The Foundation is proud to help Alloro fulfill their mission of helping breast cancer survivors “recapture the joy” both emotionally and financially. Twenty-five percent of the profits will go toward breast cancer prevention research and educational programs that target underserved women.

Alloro co-founders Christine Irvin & Laurel Kamen. (photo coutesy of allorocollection.com)

The idea for this collection was born when founder and breast cancer survivor Laurel Kamen was about to undergo a double mastectomy. On the evening before her surgery, Kamen discovered that sophisticated clothing was not available to women recovering from breast cancer treatment. Kamen then recruited her friend Christine Irvin, an artist and Wall Street veteran, and her cousin Roedean Landeaux, a New York City couturier, to help her create a fashion line that would help women with breast cancer feel good about themselves, despite the physical toll of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

Inspired by Kamen’s own breast cancer experience, co-founders Kamen and Irvin were determined to use Alloro as a way to help other women. Alloro chose to partner with the Prevent Cancer Foundation in order to support efforts in breast cancer prevention and research for underserved women. Alloro was impressed with the outreach programs developed and supported by the Foundation, including the GW Mammovan, a mobile mammogram unit that provides free breast cancer screening to underserved Hispanic and African-American women.

“The Prevent Cancer Foundation is proud to partner with Alloro,” said President and Founder Carolyn Aldigé. “Breast cancer is a cruel disease; it affects millions of women worldwide who must face physical, psychological and financial challenges related to breast cancer and its treatments. We are pleased to team up with Alloro in this effort.”

The Alloro Collection is available online at www.allorocollection.com and at the upcoming Alloro Collection Trunk Show in Manhattan on April 17 & 18 from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m at the Jim Villa Designers Agent Showroom, 263 11th Avenue, 4th floor, NYC.

Watch Alloro Collection Founders Laurel Kamen and Christine Irvin’s interview with WUSA-9 Morning Anchor and Prevent Cancer Foundation Sustaining Board Member Andrea Roane.

What led you to the field of health communication and behavioral research?

My PhD is in social psychology, and I was doing a great deal of research on self-judgment, social comparison and optimism in the early part of my career which led me to think about how people judge risk and, by extension, how we can effectively communicate risk in ways that influence their health behavior in an adaptive way.

Tell us about your research on whether loss-framed messages will encourage more colorectal cancer screening, particularly in people who reflect on their future feelings. Did this effect occur because of their perceptions of vulnerability?

There was much work in previous research showing that loss-framed messages (e.g. if you don’t get screened you could have cancer and not know it) were more effective than gain-framed messages (e.g. if you get screened, you can reassure yourself that you don’t have cancer) in promoting screening. The reason is that people view screening as risky (because they could get bad news), and research in decision-making and behavioral economics shows that people are more likely to take risks when faced with a possible loss than with a possible gain. However, little work has been done on whether the emotions that people are experiencing at the time they get a message influence whether the message frame (loss vs. gain) makes a difference. So we decided to put people in an emotional state and then test how loss-framed or gain-framed messages affected them. We were pleased to find out that the gain-framed message was as effective as the loss-framed message at encouraging screening when people are in a positive emotional state, as caused by asking them to imagine the relief they would experience upon being told their test was negative. Without this “emotional booster,” however, the loss-framed message was more effective as has been shown in previous research.

How did receiving a Prevent Cancer Foundation grant impact your research?

I benefited a great deal from the opportunity to complete this project because it jump-started several other projects on how emotional experiences might have an impact on the effect of health communications on people’s risk perceptions and behavior. This study and others also showed me the value of supporting more-nuanced work in health communication, which I am now doing in my current position as Associate Director of the Behavioral Research Program at the National Cancer Institute.

Why is it important to fund research like this in cancer prevention and early detection?

It is important because many assumptions we make about communicating health risks are misguided. People’s goals, motivations and emotions are important factors in how they respond to health communications, so failing to recognize their influence may lead to failures to change behavior and may sometimes promote even riskier behavior. Funded research on effective strategies is essential.

Read the full Huffington Post article

Read the full NBCNews article