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Prevention and Early Detection

ACS CAN advocates for public policies that can prevent nearly half of all cancer deaths by ensuring access to recommended cancer screenings, protecting the public from skin cancer risk, reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke and supporting people in increasing physical activity, eating a healthy diet, and managing their weight.

Prevention and Early Detection Resources:

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) advocates for policies at the federal, state, and local level aimed at addressing food and nutrition insecurity and reducing health disparities. Having consistent access to affordable nutritious food has a direct impact on a person’s health and can help prevent, manage, and treat chronic diseases like cancer.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) supports policies and funding that increase access to “Food is Medicine” (or food as medicine) initiatives and interventions intended to prevent, treat, or manage chronic diseases and often address food and nutrition insecurity.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) supports giving participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) financial incentives to purchase fruits and vegetables.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) supports public policies at the local, state, and federal level that make it easier for children and adults to eat a healthy diet and to be physically active, thereby reducing their long-term cancer risk.

Approximately 1 in 8 women (13%) will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and 1 in 39 women (3%) will die from breast cancer. In 2023, an estimated 297,790 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and 43,170 will die from the disease. Despite the fact that U.S. breast cancer death rates have been declining for several decades, not all people have benefited equally from the advances in prevention, early detection, and treatments that have helped achieve these lower rates.

Critical steps are needed to increase lung cancer screening rates across the country and also increasing to access comprehensive cessation benefits, especially among individuals with limited incomes that are disproportionately burdened by lung cancer.

ACS CAN supports H.R. 4286 to eliminate barriers and increase access to lung cancer screening and expand coverage for tobacco cessation.

Breast cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer among women in the U.S. and the second leading cause of cancer death among women after lung cancer. Ensuring breast cancer screening services ― including diagnostic and follow-up testing ― are covered without no cost-sharing is essential to increasing access and expanding coverage of breast cancer screening.

ACS CAN supports H.R. 3086 to increase access to no cost breast cancer screening, diagnostic and follow-up testing.

ACS CAN supports the Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventive Services Act of 2023 by to accelerate progress in reducing mortality from lung cancer, including among women.

What children eat today affects their future cancer risks. Children with access to nutritious food are more likely to develop healthy eating habits they can continue to use into adulthood. Offering nutritious free school meals and snacks, before, during, and after school to all students is an effective policy intervention to address food insecurity and improve diet quality.

Screening Resources:

For 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program has decreased disparities in breast and cervical cancer deaths.

Early detection of breast and cervical cancer through screening can improve survival and reduce mortality by finding cancer at an early stage when treatment is more effective and less expensive. To save lives and reduce health care spending, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) is highly effective at detecting and treating breast and cervical cancer in people who may otherwise not be screened.

Early detection of cancer through screening can improve survival and reduce mortality by detecting cancer at an early stage when treatment is more effective. The most recent data show breast and lung cancer screening rates were lowest among American Indian and Alaska Native people compared to other race and ethnicities, and below all race and ethnicities combined for cervical, colorectal, and prostate cancer screening.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) is highly effective at detecting and treating breast and cervical cancer in low-income, uninsured, and underinsured women – who may otherwise not be screened. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) urges Congress to reauthorize this critical program by passing the Screening for Communities to Receive Early and Equitable Needed Services (SCREENS) for Cancer Act.

In 2024, an estimated 13,820 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, and 4,360 will die from the disease. Cervical cancer can affect any person with a cervix and most often is caused by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Persistent HPV infection causes almost all cervical cancers but fortunately there is a safe and effective vaccine against HPV.

The PSA Screening for HIM Act  (H.R. 1826/S. 2821) would remove out-of-pocket costs for prostate cancer screening for those at highest risk for the disease. 

Approximately 1 in 8 women (13%) will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and 1 in 39 women (3%) will die from breast cancer. In 2023, an estimated 297,790 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and 43,170 will die from the disease. Despite the fact that U.S. breast cancer death rates have been declining for several decades, not all people have benefited equally from the advances in prevention, early detection, and treatments that have helped achieve these lower rates.

Critical steps are needed to increase lung cancer screening rates across the country and also increasing to access comprehensive cessation benefits, especially among individuals with limited incomes that are disproportionately burdened by lung cancer.

ACS CAN supports H.R. 4286 to eliminate barriers and increase access to lung cancer screening and expand coverage for tobacco cessation.

Breast cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer among women in the U.S. and the second leading cause of cancer death among women after lung cancer. Ensuring breast cancer screening services ― including diagnostic and follow-up testing ― are covered without no cost-sharing is essential to increasing access and expanding coverage of breast cancer screening.

ACS CAN supports H.R. 3086 to increase access to no cost breast cancer screening, diagnostic and follow-up testing.

Healthy Eating and Active Living Resources:

ACS and ACS CAN submitted comments and recommendations regarding the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, planned to be held in September 2022.

ACS and ACS CAN submitted comments on Topics and Scientific Questions for the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

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