Cancer Prevention

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More than half of all cancer deaths can be prevented by fully leveraging the knowledge, tools and medical breakthroughs we have today.

Providing everyone with the opportunity to have a healthy lifestyle and true access to cancer screenings - like mammograms and colonoscopies - could save thousands of lives every year.

We are working to pass laws at every level of government that are proven to help prevent and detect cancer.

Half of all cancer deaths can be prevented.

Check out our infographic to learn more about Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) tests.

Take Action

Woman with headscarf with her mother

Urge Congress to vote YES to save more lives from breast and cervical cancer

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote soon to reauthorize a program that provides free and low cost breast and cervical cancer screenings to those who need them most. 

Latest Updates

August 9, 2024
Arizona

Advocates with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) commend Governor Katie Hobbs for supporting the newly unveiled five-year Arizona Cancer Control Plan. The plan includes policy provisions that pursue additional resources for cancer patient navigation and cancer screenings as well as reinstating the historical leadership for the state in tobacco control policies.

August 2, 2024
National

This week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations considered and approved its draft FY25 appropriations bill that includes significant increases for the NIH, increases for NCI and an increase for CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

July 25, 2024
National

The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) of 2024, which provides a comprehensive set of strategic policy solutions designed to enhance the health and well-being of underserved and marginalized communities.

June 27, 2024
National

Today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services considered and approved its draft FY25 appropriations bill that includes increases for federal cancer research funding at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Cancer Prevention Resources

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.