Handbook of Cancer Risk Assessment and Prevention

9780763718831

0763718831

Over 50 percent of all cancers in the U.S. could be prevented. The Handbook of Cancer Risk-Assessment and Prevention is a practical guide for health care providers that can help make this a reality. Its pages are filled with information to help you reach your patients with up-to-date, engaging messages about how they can lower their cancer risk. Written for health care providers at all levels, this handbook covers in depth fourteen of the most common cancers in the U.S. -- providing for each a scientific summary of risk factors, a risk assessment tool for patients, and helpful hints to promote risk-reducing lifestyle changes. Additional chapters focus specifically on five key lifestyle behaviors that lower not only the risk of cancer but also the risk of other chronic diseases. Throughout its entirety, the handbook emphasizes the importance of communicating risk effectively to patients. A chapter is devoted solely to this topic, and risk information about each cancer is presented in a variety of formats. Finally, the risk assessment tools -- adaptations from the popular website Your Cancer Risk -- offer patients the option to estimate their cancer risk and receive practical, personal tips for lowering that risk. At a time when the public is surrounded by conflicting health messages, especially from the media and the Internet, the Handbook of Cancer Risk-Assessment and Prevention is an essential source for reliable, up-to-date information on cancer prevention. It delivers positive health messages and offers practical advice that health care providers can use to help patients implement strategies to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases.