Cancer prevention, awareness and early detection

Early detection means cancer is more likely to be treated successfully.

Seeing your doctor could save your life!

Watch your lifestyle

There are no proven ways to prevent cancer, but you can reduce your risk of getting it by making positive lifestyle choices such as:

Be sun smart
Be active and keep a healthy weight
Be smoke free and drink less alcohol
Eat fruit and veg/high fibre diet
Eat less processed and red meat
Practice safe sex

Know your body

We can all do our bit to help spot cancer early by being aware of what’s normal to us, noticing any changes in our bodies (i.e. through self-checking) and reporting them promptly to the GP.

If it lasts for 3 weeks or longer get it checked out.

If you are worried about any lasting changes see your GP.

Find it early

Finding a cancer at an early stage, before it has chance to grow and spread, means it is more likely to be treated successfully.

If the cancer is diagnosed at a later stage, or if it has already spread, treatment may be more difficult and the chance of survival may be much lower.

Act on symptoms

Sign and symptoms to look out for:
Persistent bloating	Breathlessness	Heavy night sweats
Difficulty swallowing	Unexplained bleeding	Unusual breast changes
Sore that won’t heal	Persistent heartburn or indigestion	Blood in your poo
Mouth or tongue ulcer that won’t heal	Croaky voice or hoarseness	Blood in your pee (don’t wait three weeks, get this checked out straight away)
New mole or changes to a mole	Looser poo or pooing more often	Unexplained weight loss
Coughing up blood	Problems peeing	Unusual lump or pain anywhere
Persistent cough	Unexplained pain or ache

The list above does not include every symptom to look for, however spotting anything unusual to you could be a key to detecting a problem early.

These symptoms are more likely to be caused by something other than cancer but they can be a sign of that disease and so need to be checked out by a health care professional.

Remember - if it’s different to you and lasts for 3 weeks get it checked out.

Find out more about other signs and symptoms (external link)

Take up screening

If you are offered screening take up the offer when you receive it and encourage others to do so to - screening saves lives!

Types of screening offered
Bowel screening	If you are registered with a GP and aged 60-74 years old. Screening kits will be sent to your house every two years. If you are aged 75+ you can opt in by ringing freephone 0800 707 6060.
Breast screening	If you are a female registered with a GP and between the ages of 50-70 years old you can be screened every 3 years. In some pilot schemes this is extended to 47-73 years old. If you are a female over the age of 70 you can arrange a screening by contacting your GP.
Cervical screening	If you are a female registered with a GP and between the ages of 25-49 screening is available every three years and for those aged 50-64, every five years. The test can be done in your GP practice or GUM/sexual health clinic (usually by a female GP or practice nurse) and looks for pre-cancerous cells so is a preventative screening programme.