American Cancer Case Study

In the case a family friend or colleague has just been diagnosed with Cancer. How the American Cancer Society might provide education and support and what ACS services I would recommend. To be diagnosed with cancer can be a very distressing, devastating, demoralizing and depressing issue. Being diagnosed with any kind of cancer will not only affect the individual person mentally and morally, it will also affect family members and the first thing that will come into the mind of any lay person is that they probably will die very soon. The first approach the I think the American Cancer Society will do is become supportive by evaluating the person and the family and then ACS will provide information, education and also will identify other cancer

supportive groups locally and refer the person to that group for support, education and also to learn more about people living with cancer and how to deal with it on daily basis and to the family members, ACS will support them greatly by providing all information needed and also referral for spiritual support which will be very impo rtant to the individual and the family as a whole. American Cancer Society is involved in lots of activities and I believe that the newly diagnosed person will be provided with a lot of reading materials with reference to all available support groups and activities involved and also included will be the plan for treatment depending on the staging of the cancer itself so that if it is in the early stages, it can be treated aggressively and appropriately before further advancement.
It is Important for the American Cancer Society to take all the mentioned measures as they will help the person and family psychologically and becoming more aware that death may not be so imminent as this will help coping with life when care and support and further diagnostic investigations are ongoing.

2.According to statistics Published by the American Cancer Society, there will be 1.5 million new cancer cases diagnosed each year over the next decade. The factors that contribute to the yearly incidences and mortality rates of various cancers in Americans and what changes in policy and practice are most likely to affect these figures over time. According to the American cancer Society, some of the factors that contribute to the yearly incidences and mortality rates of various cancers are, lack of awareness, style of living, the diet that people consume, not enough information or awareness, not involved in active physical activities, smoking which sometimes is hard to abandon, alcohol consumption, low numbers of vaccinations especially the adolescents against Human Papilloma virus (HPV) according to Centers for Communicable Disease Control, early screening for some of the cancers, lack of enough sleep (rest), sometimes due to lack of health insurance for many people and also families from low income groups may not have close health facilities to have the screening done. The Policies and practice that may likely affect these figures over a time will be availability and affordable health care to all Americans, aggressive education and information about cancer awareness with voluntary groups, support groups, churches can be good avenues for spreading the information on Sunday services, community based leaders, community health sectors also needs to continue with its support and education and information. Availability of HPV vaccines for adolescents and in school education this can be a good avenues to educate the young people. Advertisements via media especially through television during prime time needs to be continued, finances and support from the government for continued early screening of various cancers and information and also in the health institutions there should be bulletin boards on education about the various types of Cancer, information, and styles of life.

3.

A research program from among those funded by the American Cancer Society. One of the programs funded by ACS is the Colon Cancer ( Color ectal Cancer Program). American Cancer Society in collaboration with the National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have extensively identified areas of collaboration in dealing with colon and rectal cancer. The areas identified are: Epidemiology , surveillance, environmental approaches of health care systems characteristics and community progress link to clinical services. All these areas work in joint with public health, Federal agencies , community agencies and church organizations in providing material support in form education and information, support groups, referrals and Spiritual support. Since 1999 the screen for life National Colorectal Cancer action organization was formed to raise awareness and increase men/ women 50 years and older who are at risk. For more than 70 years, Colon and Rectal Cancer research has been helping find answers to critical questions about colon and rectal cancer, causes, prevention and detection and questions on how to improve the patients' quality of life. American Cancer Society has been providing grants for the research on colon cancer to individual researchers, universities and hospitals that are actively involved in this research. Some of the work on progress are the Toolkit which is available for screening, colonoscopy procedures to check for polyps every 10 years, barium enema and cat scan every 5 years, creating a centralized scheduling systems for people over 50 years for screening and also providing diversified yellowish alertness (ACS) that lets the providers aware of the details for the screening. Other measures being taken are research and training, exploring why obesity increases the risk, awareness related to changes the way the body metabolizes iron which in turn leads to

inflammation of the colon and rectum, developing a vaccine that could help a person's immune system prevent further formation of colon cancer and also developing a computer mode that will explain why colonoscopy in the right side of the colon is not as effective against cancer that develops in the right side of the colon, studies that will give re commendation on diets that do not predispose to colon cancer. The other studies being carried out is to investigate a newly discovered protein linked to colon cancer which serves as a development stages of this cancer which in later stages helps the cancer to metastasize. All these measures in collaboration with a task force of gastroenterologists, primary care providers, clinical management and health insurance companies and other voluntary groups may help overcome and address the issue of Colon cancer and help in reducing the incidences. All these measures and efforts tha t American cancer Centers and the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC.gov) have helped fight colon and rectal cancer and also decrease this cancer for the past 2 decades and will continue the fight.

Every three years, Society epidemiologists (Siegel &Jamel) publish Colorectal Facts and signs which provides developed analyses of colon and rectal cancer incidences mortality trends in US as well as the latest information on risk factors, early detection treatment and current research and according to the epidemiologists they established that 24.4 million people in the US will need Colorectal ccancer screening to achieve 80% by 2018 which a goal for Colorectal cancer Screening prevalence by the National cancer Coalition round table.

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