Cancer Awareness

Whether you know it or not, many healthy habits are intended to protect against cancer. Folks slather on the sunscreen, obsess about eating right and working out and berate smokers. Experts have concluded that as much as 80% of all cancers are caused by bad health habits, according to a UC Irvine Web site. At https://www.yourcancerrisk.harvard.edu, you can assess your risk for different kinds of cancer, including colon, breast and stomach, in a relatively unscientific way.

You answer a few questions, and the site produces a rank (above average, for example) and recommendations for prevention. But the minimum age you can enter is 40. The assessment is based on the findings of the Risk Index Working Group at Harvard University.

At https://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/bcra_tool.html, you can check your risk for breast cancer using a test developed by scientists at the National Cancer Institute and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project. The tool projects a woman’s individual estimate of breast cancer risk over a five-year period and over her lifetime. It’s a bit more scientific, and it assesses the risk for women 35 and older.

This month marks the 16th anniversary of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with Friday declared National Mammography Day. The disease kills more than 40,000 women a year. More than 2 million survive breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization’s Web site, at https://www.y-me.org/english.htm, links to NexCura’s Breast Cancer Profiler and also helps explain pathology reports.

At https://www.breastcancer.org, you’ll find guides, personal and medical, including chats. There’s one tonight at 6:30 on quality of life for women affected by breast cancer.

For all types of cancer, the American Cancer Society has a very good site, at https://www.cancer.org, that walks patients, relatives and survivors through the process, from diagnosis to treatment to recovery. It also lists local resources and related news.

The University of Pennsylvania cancer site, at https://www.oncolink.upenn.edu, offers a wealth of information. It explains in plain terms the various types of cancer such as lymphomas and myelomas, separated into adult and pediatric categories. Oncolink also covers treatment and coping.

At https://www.cancerfacts.com, NexCura provides its Cancer Profiler, an interactive tool for personalized treatment-planning information based on published medical studies. Patients enter specifics about their medical history and preferences. The profiler then compares this information with data in its database of peer-reviewed clinical studies and generates a report that is specific to the situation.

MayoClinic.com lists cancer-coping techniques and interactive tools, for which you have to register, at https://www.mayohealth.org/home?id=3.1.5.

For emotional support, patients and survivors can goto https://www.cancersurvivors.org/support/emotional/chat,.htm. It provides a series of free community activities such as a message board, chat room, photo album and links. Cancersurvivors.org covers issues of emotional, physical and financial support.

Treating and beating cancer can get costly.

If you’re looking for clinical trials, there are several across the Web.

* You can check out https://cancer.ucsd.edu/level2/clintri.htm for clinical trials at UC San Diego and beyond. There’s also https://cancernet.nci.nih.gov, offering current and comprehensive information from the National Cancer Institute, the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research. The site, like others, details types of cancer, treatment, clinical trials, risk factors, prevention and coping.

* At https://www.centerwatch.com, you’ll find an extensive list of international clinical trials.

It also lists therapies recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

* The Clinical Trials Matching System at https://www.canceranswers.org matches breast cancer patients to trial information in California, based on stage of disease, previous treatment and other criteria.

There’s also NeedyMeds, at https://www.needymeds.com, where you can find out how to qualify for inexpensive or free medications.

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Michelle Maltais is a broadcast producer and copy editor at The Times. She can be reached at michelle.maltais@latimes.com.