World Cancer Day's Spotlight on Prevention

(CBS/AP)  Cancer doesn't know any boundaries or borders; the disease affects all of us worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 12 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year. Cancer kills more people than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined, but the good news is that approximately two out of five cancers are potentially preventable.

In recognition of World Cancer Day, which takes place every year on Feb. 4, the WHO is supporting the International Union Against Cancer to promote ways to ease the global burden of cancer.

This year's theme is "Cancer Can Be Prevented Too," which focuses on simple measures to prevent cancer.

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Experts say about 40 percent of cancers could be prevented if people made some lifestyle changes.

Officials at the International Union Against Cancer recommend that people stop smoking, limit their alcohol consumption, avoid too much sun, and maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise.

They also suggest getting vaccines targeting cancer-causing infections, saying 21 percent of all cancers are due to infections.

Donna Eberwine-Villagran, media relations officer at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which focuses on improving the health of Latin America and the Caribbean, also emphasized the importance of cancer prevention.

For example, in the U.K., lung cancer can be prevented by making lifestyle changes and eliminating smoking habits.

In Latin America, where heart disease and diabetes are on the rise (diabetes is the leading cause of death in Mexico) changes in eating habits can be made to lessen the risk of cancer.

The PAHO has also tackled trans-fats and salts, by working with food companies as well as schools to emphasize an increase in fruits and vegetables from local food producers, as well as encouraging salt reduction.

Eberwine-Villagran also stressed that although individual behavior is difficult to change, behavioral policies can help make a difference.

The PAHO also translated the American Institute of Cancer Research's policy and the World Cancer Research Fund's cancer prevention policy into Spanish.

The World Health Organization says cancer is responsible for one out of every eight deaths worldwide. It warns that without major changes, global cancer deaths will jump from about 7.6 million this year to 17 million in 20 years.

[retina61]

yes magmundr you are right some cancers are genetic. example my pharmacist aunt has died because later my big aunt and his father and mother was died. because they were cancer too. but my mom different when i look at the her family treee i didn't anyone who effected cancer. Chernobil accident are so effected that geograpy my friends. maybe you doesn't belive me some babies has born wounded. im calling all peoples we need a world which have clean air and without radiasion.

[magnumdr]

I believe that some cancers are genetic. How does science explain a person getting a lung cancer who doesn't smoke, drink, or do any of the bad habbits and lives their lives as clean as possible, and another person that does all of the nasty habbits and more lives to a ripe old age with no medical problems in their life. Genetics has to play some kind of part with our immune system or genes that protect some of us. If it were everything in our lives that we breathe or do then we all would have a cancer of some type!

[retina61]

hello from Turkey dear USA friends of our people. my name is ahmet yurdadogan and im Turkish im living with my mom one of the Turkey's nice and little places. im living Trabzon province (in black sea coast of the Turkey).Dear friends 4 february was the world cancer day because im a ardent cancer supporter with my mom. because my mom is a breast cancer survivor now she is 64 years old and alive. also i lost two aunt(one of them was the first pharmacist woman here). they have died because they were breast cancer. finally dear USA womans you can see me as your sons too. my mother one of the CHERNOB?L NUCLEANT ACC?DENT'S you know april 1986 Ukrain Chernobil plant accicent since that days so many turkish people effected. Because we are living black sea coast and radiasion waves reached that geograpy easily. some babies has born wounded . like my mom so many turkish woman effected. that looks like after dropping the bomb Hiroshima and Nagazakhi.finally dear friends my mom was so lucky disase was in second stage but in my hometown have big medical center KARADEN?Z TECH?CAL UN?VERSTY MED?CAL FACULTY TRABZON PROV?NCE OF THE TURKEY especially some professional surgeons serving there include Turkey's famous breast surgery operator profesor mr. ETEM ALHAN. and he saved my mom's life we are apreciate to him. that was the our story(especially my mom's) dear USA readers yes. im living so far in your country and i think you feel same senses with me. thank you for read my mom's story and god bless all cancer survivors of our worlds.

[retina61]

hello from Turkey dear USA friends of our people. my name is ahmet yurdadogan and im Turkish im living with my mom one of the Turkey's nice and little places. im living Trabzon province (in black sea coast of the Turkey).Dear friends 4 february was the world cancer day because im a ardent cancer supporter with my mom. because my mom is a breast cancer survivor now she is 64 years old and alive. also i lost two aunt(one of them was the first pharmacist woman here). they have died because they were breast cancer. finally dear USA womans you can see me as your sons too. my mother one of the CHERNOB?L NUCLEANT ACC?DENT'S you know april 1986 Ukrain Chernobil plant accicent since that days so many turkish people effected. Because we are living black sea coast and radiasion waves reached that geograpy easily. some babies has born wounded . like my mom so many turkish woman effected. that looks like after dropping the bomb Hiroshima and Nagazakhi.finally dear friends my mom was so lucky disase was in second stage but in my hometown have big medical center KARADEN?Z TECH?CAL UN?VERSTY MED?CAL FACULTY TRABZON PROV?NCE OF THE TURKEY especially some professional surgeons serving there include Turkey's famous breast surgery operator profesor mr. ETEM ALHAN. and he saved my mom's life we are apreciate to him. that was the our story(especially my mom's) dear USA readers yes. im living so far in your country and i think you feel same senses with me. thank you for read my mom's story and god bless all cancer survivors of our worlds.