Early Detection & Prevention

We all have the power to control our cancer risk.

We know that five-year survival rates are substantially lower for persons with advanced-stage disease. Screening, leading to an early-stage diagnosis, greatly increases the chances of survival. Over the next five years, we will continue to aggressively promote screenings for five screenable cancers: breast, cervical, colon, prostate, and lung cancer. Our recommendations are heavily focused on screening and include additional strategies to help people avoid a late-stage cancer diagnosis. These include establishing relationships with providers to increase screenings; helping the public understand the resources available to them; encouraging health care providers to increase their screening efforts, reducing late-stage diagnosis; enhancing efforts to have women and men get the HPV vaccine to prevent certain cancers; partnering with other organizations to keep the screening message in people’s minds; targeting rarely or never-screened Delawareans; identifying barriers to screening and working to remove them; and using data to understand and enhance all we do.