February is Cancer Prevention Awareness Month, and to many employers, that likely sounds like yet another opportunity to highlight standard prevention advice: quit smoking if you smoke, prioritize fresh foods and exercise, and make sure to follow cancer screening guidelines. But the truth is that there is much more to this issue than this one-size-fits-all advice. Increasingly, health experts and employers alike are discovering that no standardized message is enough to adequately solve this persistent problem.
FAST FACTS:
- A little over 2 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year, and more than 600,000 die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.[1]
- Research suggests that less than half of cancers can be prevented by a healthy diet and lifestyle alone.[2]
- Only 14% of diagnosed cancers in the U.S. are detected by a recommended screening, per research from the University of Chicago.[3],[4]