New York, Upstate celebrate Cancer Prevention Day today
Leslie Kohman, MD speaks with reporter Sarah Blazonis of Time Warner Cable News this morning in the lobby of the Upstate Cancer Center. A three-story staircase in the lobby is designed to remind visitors to take the stairs instead of an elevator whenever possible. After smoking, obesity is the biggest risk factor for cancer in the United States.
Each year more than 100,000 New Yorkers learn they have cancer, and more than 35,000 die from some form of the disease.
"More than half of all cancers are preventable by changes in lifestyle," says Leslie Kohman, MD, medical director of the Upstate Cancer Center at Upstate. "Cancer prevention saves more lives than improved treatments."Kohman, a thoracic surgeon who has practiced at Upstate since 1983, points out that 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General's report on smoking. Reduced smoking rates since then are responsible for a "slow but steady decline in cancer mortality in the United States," she says.
Other efforts that will help:
* improving diet,
* increasing physical activity,
* avoiding excessive ultraviolet light exposure.
Coverage from Time Warner Cable News