Communication is the Key

Prevention and detection of cancer are best achieved by establishing a mutually respectful relationship with a primary care physician who provides preventive care for long-term good health. Communicating with your physician will provide you with a foundation upon which to build a healthier lifestyle and future.

Cancer Prevention

According to the World Health Organization, one-third of all cancers are preventable. A healthier community can be created by providing education and resources to encourage improved lifestyle choices and to foster environmental influences that reduce alarming cancer statistics.

Often, your primary care physician will advise you of appropriate lifestyle changes that could reduce the possibility of cancer in your future. This approach, however, can only be successful if you decide to pro-actively improve your own health outlook by addressing your habits, diet, exercise or other behaviors.

Our Prevention Initiatives Include:

Our prevention efforts include:

• Speakers Bureau
• Classes & seminars
• Pamphlets
• Posters
• Exercise programs through Health Directions
• Community Outreach screenings
• Encouraging people to make positive changes for a longer, healthier life.

Detection/Screening

Medical History

Your medical history, as well as your family’s, is an important tool in the prevention and detection of cancer. Keep your records current with regular preventive medical/physical exams and discuss with your doctor any occurrences of fatigue, weight loss, anemia, fever of unknown origin or other signs that may indicate a health problem.

Health Screening

While regular screening and self-examination for certain cancers may not prevent cancer, they may increase your chances of discovering cancer early so that treatment is more likely to be successful. Screening should include your skin, mouth, colon and rectum.

Men should include prostate and testes screening; women, cervix and breast cancer screening. See your physician if you notice any changes or abnormalities in your body.

Routinely, a comprehensive report is provided to your doctor, who will share this information with you.

Community Outreach

We reach out into area schools, businesses, churches and civic organizations to provide free health screenings that potentially save lives and lower health care costs for everyone.

Mobile Mamography

The mobile mammography van is available to any organization for mammograms and bone density scans. We offer posters and brochures and provide a spokesperson, available on request.

Prostate Screenings

We also provide free Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) screenings throughout the year. In 2008, our Community Outreach team procured 3,831 PSAs and provided physician guidance to more than 174 patients with abnormal PSA values.

Tobacco Cessation

We seek to reduce lung cancer and related illnesses through mass distribution of Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Packets throughout the Columbia/Midlands area at businesses, churches, health fairs and local festivals.

Group Feedback

We also offer a new service to the community: one-on-one or group feedback sessions. These sessions assist individuals in understanding their health care results and aid in finding health care providers.

Diagnosis

Methods

The most common method of diagnosis is a pathologist’s examination of a tissue sample obtained through a biopsy, which is a procedure often performed on an outpatient basis and given the highest priority.

The state-of-the-art technology available often means there is little or no scarring from a biopsy procedure.

Diagnostic Methods:

• Biopsy
• Blood test
• Endoscopy (gastrointestinal exam)
• Nuclear Medicine (PET, scans)
• Radiologic techniques
  (X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound)