Data from 2018 reveals increasing cancer trends of lung, breast, colon, prostate, stomach, esophagus and cervix and others. A total of 18,078,957 cases of cancer were documented in 2018.
Here are ways to prevent cancer or to detect cancer earlier for better outcomes. Early cancer is less challenging to tackle than advanced cancer, so prevention strategies and early identification are standard goals in preventive medicine.
|Type of cancer||Prevention strategy|
|Lung||Smoking cessation, low dose CT scan in high-risk patients|
|Breast||Early detection through mammogram starting age 40 years|
|Colon||Colonoscopy starting age 45 years in higher risk groups|
|Prostate||Prostate specific antigen blood test from age 45 years in higher risk groups|
|Stomach||Treating Helicobacter pylori and evaluating for eradication|
|Liver||Give Hepatitis B vaccine. Screen and treat for hepatitis B and C|
|Esophagus||Surveillance upper endoscopy in Barrett esophagus|
|Cervix||Give HPV vaccine. Screen with PAP or VIA starting age 21|
Written by Dr. Ngozi Onuoha, MD, MBA-HCM