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Handbook of Cancer Risk Assessment and Prevention

Author(s): Graham A. Colditz, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Cynthia J. Stein, MD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Details:
  • ISBN-13: 9780763718831
  • ISBN-10:0763718831
  • Paperback    343 pages      © 2004
Price: International Sales $75.95 US List
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Overview

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.

ShowKey Features

Handbook format, with multiple sections and consistent presentation, makes book user-friendly and allows readers to fully comprehend cancer risk:

  • Opening chapter on risk and risk communication provides solid background.
  • Inclusion of several risk tables -- A risk table at the beginning of each cancer chapter helps providers put the risk of individual cancers in perspective. 
  • Inclusion of risk assessment tools -- Found at the end of the book, these tools help providers and patients estimate the risk of cancer and identify methods of reducing that risk. 

Fourteen chapters each focus on an individual cancer and associated risk factors.

Clear and practical recommendations to patients are provided at the beginning of each chapter.

A short background section on each cancer in the United States is followed by a concise risk factor summary, which provides a brief description of each risk factor and its association with cancer. 

Five chapters on specific behaviors that influence multiple cancers and other chronic diseases. 

Each chapter provides practical suggestions to providers to promote risk reduction and help patients make healthy lifestyle choices.

Your Cancer Risk (www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu) -- comprehensive Web resource developed at the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention -- offers an interactive tool for individuals who wish to learn more about cancer risk and strategies to reduce that risk.

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ShowTable of Contents

Introduction

Section I:
Risk and Risk Communication

Section II:
Bladder Cancer Prevention
Breast Cancer Prevention
Cervical Cancer Prevention
Colorectal Cancer Prevention
Esophageal Cancer Prevention
Kidney Cancer Prevention
Lung Cancer Prevention
Oral Cancer Prevention
Ovarian Cancer Prevention
Pancreatic Cancer Prevention
Prostate Cancer Prevention
Skin Cancer Prevention
Stomach Cancer Prevention
Uterine Cancer Prevention

Section III:
Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
Weight Control
Physical Activity
Diet and Alcohol
Cancer Screening

Section IV:
Bladder Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Breast Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Cervical Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Colorectal Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Esophageal Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Kidney Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Lung Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Oral Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Ovarian Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Pancreatic Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Prostate Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Skin Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Stomach Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment
Uterine Cancer Questionnaire and Risk Assessment


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ShowAbout the Author(s)

Graham A. Colditz, MD-Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH is a physician and epidemiologist whose work focuses on the causes of cancer and strategies to reduce the risk of cancer in individuals and in populations. Dr. Colditz received his MD from the University of Queensland, Australia, and his Doctorate in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he leads the ongoing Nurses Health Study evaluating lifestyle factors and risk of chronic disease among women. He is Director for Education in the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention and led the design of the center Web site, www.yourcancerrisk.harvard.edu.

Additional Titles by this Author

Cynthia J. Stein, MD-Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Cynthia J. Stein, MD, MPH is an instructor in medicine at the Harvard Medical School. She received her MD degree from UCLA and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention. In addition to teaching medical and public health students, Dr. Stein studies associations between lifestyle factors and disease risk. Her work focuses on risk communication and the development of strategies to reduce chronic disease risk in individuals and populations.

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ShowReviews

  • [Handbook of Cancer Risk Assessment and Prevention] is useful not only to healthcare providers but also to the general population. Teachers and graduate students will benefit from the well-organized gold mine of current information…Over 50% of all cancers in the United States could theoretically be prevented. This handbook…can help make this possible.

     

    Jong Park, Ph.D.
    Cancer Control: Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center
    July/August 2004, Vol. 11, No. 4

     

    “Colditz and Stein's (both Harvard School of Public Health) text is designed to provide health care providers at all levels with reliable, up-to-date information on 14 of the most common cancers and ways to prevent them.  In addition to detailed chapters on each of the 14 cancers, the text includes sections on risk and risk communication, behavioral factors that affect disease risk, and risk assessment tools for each of the 14 cancers, as well as a glossary of terms and an extensive list of references organized by the 14 cancers and general cancer- related topics (cancer statistics, tobacco prevention and cessation, healthy weight, physical activity, screening).”

     

    -Book News

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ShowAppropriate Courses

This book could be recommended reading for a core course in cancer prevention within any school of public health. It could also be a useful resource for oncology fellows, medical students, and allied health professionals such as registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.

 

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