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!

Community Grantee the American Indian Cancer Foundation hosts a Powwow on cancer prevention & early detection.

In recognition of National Minority Cancer Week, the Prevent Cancer Foundation is spotlighting our 2012 Community Grant Recipients who have made an impact in reducing cancer disparities with their innovative community-level programs. The Foundation’s Community Grants program supports organizations across the U.S. that focus on helping to prevent cancer or detect it early. Over the past six years the program has provided the resources needed to fund several projects that help improve cancer screening access, awareness and prevention education to Hispanics, African Americans, Alaska Natives and American Indians. The Foundation has supported many culturally appropriate activities and education at barbershops, powwows, health fairs, churches, sporting venues and through peer-to-peer outreach in order to reach ethnically, racially and medically underserved populations.

Learn how our Community Grants help address the tremendous cancer inequalities by providing funds and resources that help underserved communities Stop Cancer Before it Starts!:

• Powwow for Hope: Dancing for Life, Love & Hope. With support from the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the American Indian Cancer Foundation hosted their annual Powwow for Hope that brought together several tribal nations across the Midwest to honor cancer survivors and increase awareness and education among American Indian families.
  

  Women’s Resource Center, a Community Grantee, provides free screenings to low-income women w/ a mammogram mobile unit.

• Women’s Resource Center (WRC). Leveraging the Foundation grant along with community volunteers, the WRC was able to eliminate barriers to quality health care for many women of the Fort Collins, CO community. The WRC was able to provide at-risk and low-income women with free mammograms, cancer patient navigators and wellness education.
• Play it Sun Safe, Utah! With this education outreach, the Utah Department of Health’s Cancer Control Program aimed to educate coaches, youth and parents participating in local recreation soccer leagues on the dangers of the sun and the need for sun safety in order to reduce skin cancer risk. This Foundation funded grant project continues to provide skin cancer awareness outreach to many ethnic and low-income families in Utah.

The 2013 Community Grants program is now open and the application deadline is Friday April 19th, 2013. Click here to learn more about the Community Grants and read about previous grantees from across the country and their valuable cancer prevention and early detection projects.

Keynote speaker John Polanowicz, Massachusetts HHS Secretary, talks with Michael McCalla, MSHA, at a break.

The Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Dialogue for Action on Cancer Screening: Hitting the Targets took place in Baltimore on March 20 – 22, 2013. Over 200 attendees from diverse health professions came from 35 states and the District of Columbia, six tribes and Urban Indian Health Organizations and Japan to be part of this lively and dynamic interactive conference on access, quality and cost of health care.

Since the conference, we’ve heard many positive comments from attendees by email and phone and in our online survey (with about a 50% response rate).

Here are some of the comments shared by attendees:

“This is always my favorite conference to attend all year and wish others emulated it in both style and substance. Even the small details of food choices matching the mantra of healthier choices and behaviors is emphasized.”

“It was well worth the investment of time and money!”

“The speakers were experts in their fields—thank you. All levels of the diverse audience benefited from the information. The conference certainly inspired innovative thought and debate. This is what generates great healthcare quality!”

From left: moderator Cliff Goodman, PhD, & Seiji Hayashi, MD, MPH, Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA, & Joe Lipscomb, PhD, discuss access, quality & cost of health care.

Here are the top three reasons for coming to the Dialogue:

1. Informative Presentations: “Information on current trends, innovations and updates on cancer screening” was key to over 80% of attendees.
2. Networking Opportunities: “Networking” was named by over 64%; some also noted that speakers were very accessible. One attendee wrote, “It was a wonderful networking opportunity. I am coming away with some good tools to implement in our prevention program.”
3. Expert Speakers: “Speakers on the agenda” was named as a draw by over 50%. One attendee commented that “the outstanding panels provided a wealth of information which proved useful in understanding the current changes which affect my job.”

Attendees plan to ‘keep the Dialogue going’ with actions on cancer screening that they plan to take after the Dialogue:

From left: Lillie Shockley, RN, MAS, & Jennifer Smith, PhD, MPH, share perspectives in a small-group discussion.

• Over half plan to implement change in their workplaces or communities
• Over 60% plan to contact colleagues they met at the Dialogue to discuss or collaborate on cancer screening activities

Check out the two-page overview of the 2013 Dialogue.

Since 1999, the focus of the Dialogue has been on colorectal cancer screening. This year, the Dialogue expanded to include mandated guidelines-driven screenings for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, as well as screenings for skin, prostate and lung cancers. Continuing education credit is available for physicians, nursing professionals and certified health education specialists.

If you’re a professional working in cancer screening, put this on your calendar: March 20 – 21, 2014 (with March 19 as pre-conference day), and join us at the Dialogue next year! Send your ideas and suggestions for 2014 session topics and speakers to me at Karen.Peterson@preventcancer.org.

Read the Full CBS News Article

1. Promote a healthy diet.
2. Find fun physical activities the family can do together.
3. Discourage smoking and drink alcohol in moderation. Support loved ones who are trying to quit smoking.
4. Talk about your family health history with each other.
5. Schedule routine cancer screenings for you, your family members and friends.

Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Graphic Design Communications Associate designed the infographic below as a reminder of the ways you can encourage and support your family and friends to adopt these healthy choices and Stop Cancer Before It Starts!

Surbhi Jain, PhD, is postdoctoral researcher at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. One of her major research goals is to develop a reliable non-invasive method for the early detection of liver cancer. Dr. Jain credits the Prevent Cancer Foundation with helping her work towards this goal by “motivating [her] to work hard with confidence…”

3. Why is it important to fund research in the field of cancer prevention and early detection?

Success in the treatment of individuals with cancer often depends upon early detection.  The earlier a tumor is detected, the better the prognosis.  The survival rates drop dramatically as the stage of cancer progresses. Not only does the treatment become increasingly complex and agonizing for the patient, but it is also a drain on personal financial and national economic resources. More research and work needs to be done for particularly aggressive cancers such as liver cancer and pancreatic cancer for which early detection is the only key to survival.

The screening tests that are developed also need to be patient-friendly. For example, in spite of having colonoscopy as a good screening test for colon cancer, the screening rate is lower than desired due to the inherent discomfort associated with the procedure.  There is an urgent need to develop “non-invasive” tests for early detection of cancer in order to have better screening rates.

Cancer treatment is moving towards personalized medicine. Thus knowing the genetic makeup of the tumor “non-invasively” and at an early stage is extremely crucial for effective treatment. To fully benefit from this new wave of personalized medicine, there is an imminent need for non-invasive research in early detection of tumor presence and its genetic makeup.

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

The Prevent Cancer Foundation fellowship has motivated me to work hard with confidence in this project’s great potential to detect cancer early with a non-invasive urine genetic test.

This study has resulted in key discovery of liver-specific methylation patterns and the identification of liver- cancer specific methylated CpG sites. This information is extremely vital for a successful assay design of a urine-based test. The study provides proof of concept that it is feasible to develop a urine test that can pick up tumor signatures from the liver (and, by extension, from any tumor in the body) with sufficient sensitivity and specificity to be used as a screening test for early detection of cancer. The information obtained from this study has provided preliminary data for multiple grants in the field of liver cancer research. The technology developed towards designing these assays can be used as a platform technology to detect essentially any cancer in the body, because all tumors dump their apoptotic DNA into circulating blood.

This funding has contributed tremendously towards my professional growth. I have co-authored 5 publications (two as first author and one as co-corresponding author), presented at the 2012 International Symposium on Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and completed a certificate course in Biostatistics as a direct result of this highly regarded fellowship.

Three years ago, I got introduced to the field of cancer prevention, and it is so promising that I can see myself working in this arena long term. I want to thank Prevent Cancer Foundation for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

From L to R: Panelist Dr. Carolyn Runowicz, Moderator WUSA 9 Anchor Andrea Roane, Panelists Dr. Ann Kulze and Athena Water Founder Trish May.

The panelists included physician, educator and breast cancer survivor Carolyn D. Runowicz, M.D., physician, health and wellness expert Ann Kulze, M.D. and entrepreneur, founder of Athena Water and breast cancer survivor Trish May. Held at the very beginning of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this discussion was especially timely as two of the panelists are breast cancer survivors themselves. Special guest singer Amy Grant also attended the reception and panel discussion.

Dr. Runowicz started the discussion with an oncologist’s perspective of prevention through chemopreventive drugs and essential screening. She provided a frank look at the importance of knowing your family history, risk factors for gynecological cancers and the need to educate yourself on the best prevention options. Touching on what has become something of a controversy as of late, the issue of mammography, Dr. Runowicz took a critical position on the media’s handling of the issue, saying that some members of the media promote the fear and anxiety associated with the procedure, flatly stating: “My patients can live with a little anxiety. They can’t live with a little cancer.”

Special guest singer Amy Grant participating in the Foundation’s new online “#PreventCancer4″ campaign at the reception.

Dr. Ann Kulze, affectionately known as “Dr. Ann” followed, leading the discussion on health and wellness. She began with the statistic that 70% of the cancer burden could be prevented through healthy eating, lifestyle changes and completing necessary and regular screenings. She went on to detail her eight steps for a healthy and cancer free life, which included tips like eating a plant based diet, limiting red meat, abstaining from tobacco and maintaining a healthy weight. She also brought up the dangers of prolonged sitting—encouraging the audience to get up often while at work.

Trish May then detailed her own battle with breast cancer—she was diagnosed right after her own mother had lost her battle with ovarian cancer. After finding a lump in her breast, she was told by not only one but two doctors that she was fine. After a persistent uneasy feeling, May insisted on advocating for her own health and got a biopsy. The lump had indeed turned out to be cancer. “I thought I was going to die like my mother,” said May. She resolved to take charge of her health and navigated her way through chemotherapy, recovery and eventually remission. She also founded her company, Athena Water, to celebrate the essence of life and other “warriors” who fight for breast cancer awareness.

The panel was extremely engaging and informative, with the panelists answering a variety of audience questions with a lively Q and A session. After the panel, attendees stayed and toured the “Women Who Rock” exhibit currently on display at the National Museum for Women in the Arts. The exhibit features clothing and other memorabilia from famous female musicians ranging from Tina Turner to Joni Mitchell to Lady Gaga.

Prevent Cancer staff from L to R: Will Mellor, DJ Abernathy, Elliot Turner and Liona Chan

Our booth was brightly decorated in our Prevent Cancer signature green and our volunteers all matched in green tanks and sunglasses. We had a great time meeting so many people while jammin’ out to the many talented DJs and bands playing on the Dance Forest stage.

Many people stopped to participate in the new #PreventCancer4 campaign, a quick and easy way to support cancer prevention and early detection! They each filled out who they are preventing cancer for and posed for a photo. The #PreventCancer4 messages were ones from the heart: some honored moms and grandparents while others were more all encompassing: “everyone” and “the world”. And beyond that, some were a little more “out there”: “cancer sucks” and “hot chicks”. But no matter the answer, it’s pretty clear that everyone is affected by cancer in some way, and there is always someone who you should be preventing cancer for!

We also distributed our Buddy Bracelets promoting colorectal cancer awareness, green Prevent Cancer sunglasses, stickers and other cool swag. We even featured a free sunscreen “bar” where we had sunscreen “shots,” the recommended amount of sunscreen to use to protect your skin from the sun. The sunny morning definitely required it, as many visitors had forgotten theirs!

Several cancer survivors also stopped by and we were truly touched by the many personal stories that we heard throughout the day. It seems that everyone has a personal connection to cancer, and we are extremely thankful to everyone who was kind enough to share their stories with us.

Alabama Shakes performs on the main pavillion stage.

Many thanks to everyone who generously donated to the Prevent Cancer Foundation during Freefest! Every dollar counts and each donated to the Foundation helps fund our lifesaving cancer prevention and early detection research, education, advocacy and community outreach programs.

To those who visited our booth at Freefest, check out your #PreventCancer4 photos on our Facebook page and be sure to tag yourselves! For those who didn’t make it out to the festival, show your support for cancer prevention and make your own #PreventCancer4 photo and post it on our Facebook wall. Don’t be afraid to get creative! See these and other snapshots of Freefest here!