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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:

Access to preventive services saves lives. Over the past four decades, cancer prevention and screening services alone have averted approximately 4.75 million deaths from breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers.

Vaccinations are an essential part of care for people with cancer and their families. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) advocates for science-based policies that improve access to vaccines that prevent and treat cancer as well as protect people living with cancer.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) are pleased to provide comments to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in advance of the June 25-27th, 2025 meeting.  Our comments focus on Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Workgroup.

La División de Prevención y Control del Cáncer de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC) supervisa el Programa Nacional de Detección Temprana del Cáncer de Mama y de Cuello Uterino (NBCCEDP).

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) calls on Congress to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) NationalProgram for Cancer Registries (NPCR). Accessible, high-quality and usable registry data is critical to protect health and save lives.

The CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) plays a crucial role in providing millions of screening exams, funding state cancer registries, providing technical assistance and funding to state cancer control programs and educating the public directly on how to reduce their risk of c

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP) provides grant funding to 20 state health departments, eight universities, two tribal organizations, and five other organizations to help prevent colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in men and women and the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. for men and women combined.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) urges Congress to reauthorize the the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) to provide the program greater flexibility to NBCCEDP grantees, enabling them to implement evidence-based lifesaving screening, diagnostic, and treatment services and continue the innovative work aimed to reduce breast and cervical cancer disparities by passing the Screening for Communities to Receive Early and Equitable Needed Services (SCREENS) forCancer Act (H.R. 2381/S. 1866). This is critical to overall efforts to ensure that everyone has a fair and just opportunity toprevent, detect, treat and survive cancer.

Breast cancer screening is a continuum. It begins with a screening mammogram, which is often free for most insured women.

Tobacco Control Resources:

All cigars, including large cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars pose a serious threat to Americans’ health, with 10.2
million U.S. adults reporting current cigar use in 2022. Yet, these products remain less regulated than other tobacco

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) calls on Congress to support a sustained level of funding of $310 million for tobacco control and reject the elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH).

Sustained, dedicated federal investment in tobacco control through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Smoking and Health (OSH) is necessary to prevent initiation of tobacco products, monitor tobacco product use, identify tobacco related disparities, and promote effective strategies to help individuals who use tobacco products to successfully quit.

Comprehensive tobacco retailer licensing laws can reduce the harmful impact of the tobacco retail environment by regulating where and how tobacco retailers can operate and sell tobacco products as well as providing the licensing entity the authority to ensure tobacco retailers are complying with all applicable tobacco control laws.

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against major tobacco manufacturers Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard, and Altria to hold the industry accountable for more than 50 years of conspiring to defraud the public in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Big Tobacco, an industry which has for decades knowingly addicted and endangered the lives of millions of Americans for their own profit, must now post the truth about their deadly products, including at the point-of-sale (POS) for approximately 220,000 tobacco retailers.

The tobacco industry has a history of using litigation to avoid and delay laws and regulations enacted to safeguard the public. ACS CAN, with our tobacco control partners, has also relied on the courts to hold Big Tobacco accountable and to ensure the federal government is effectively implementing the Tobacco Control Act.

Big tobacco has a history of prioritizing corporate profits over people and communities burdened by tobacco-related illness and death. For decades, the tobacco industry has lied to specific communities and the public at large saying their products are not addictive, harmful or deadly. Tobacco manufacturers continue to create and flood the market with newly designed products they market as being less harmful and alternatives to quitting – a tactic that is not new.

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