Presently, prevention is still the most effective way of fighting cancer. The ICA marks Awareness days and months throughout the year, encouraging the public to adopt preventive measures. As part of our prevention efforts, the ICA promotes awareness to the importance of prevention by running wide-range media campaigns that enourage the public to take early detection screening tests, adopt a health lifestyle, and avoid smoking. Some of these campaigns include:
Cervical Cancer Awareness Day: marked each year between 16-21 of January, the ICA stresses that through vaccination, prevention and early detection, we can seek to eradicate this type of cancer in Israel.
Early detection of invasive cervical cancer is possible through screening tests for the disease. Recently, all health care funds have transitioned to using mainly the HPV screening test. In the last decade, the number of women diagnosed with a cervical precancerous lesion increased by about 30%, mainly due to early detection.
Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) World Cancer Day: marked annually around the world on February 4th, the ICA strives to raise awareness to cancer diseases and ways to prevent it. On this day, messages are relayed regarding cancer prevention, reducing risk factors and adopting a healthy lifestyle.
The UICC statistics show that 30%-50% of all cancer incidences can be prevented. Investing resources and implementing strategies in cancer prevention, early detection and treatment, will help save about 3.7 million people around the world from cancer mortality each year.
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month: colorectal cancer is one of the most prevalent cancer diseases in Israel. In 2005, a national screening program for early detection of colorectal cancer was launched by the ICA and the Ministry of Health. The program is based on an annual fecal occult blood test over the age of 50 and through to 74 in individuals with average risk. And colonoscopy for those at a higher risk.
The rate of individuals aged 50-74 who underwent early detection screening for colorectal cancer in the previous year or colonoscopy in the last 10 years is about 64%, however about a third of those tested who received a positive result in their fecal occult blood test – do not follow up with the necessary steps.
'World No Tobacco Day': marked in May by ICA along with the World Health Organization (WHO), marked World No Tobacco Day, a global awareness day in the fight against tobacco and nicotine use aimed at emphasizing the health risks associated with smoking and the legislation measures found efficient in reducing the number of smokers.
According to the organization, smoking is responsible for about 8 million deaths per year, of which about 1 million die of passive smoking. About 8,000 people die each year in Israel from the hazards of smoking, of which 800 have never smoked but were exposed to this hazard.
Skin Cancer Awareness Week: marked in June, the purpose of the campaign is to raise the public's awareness to the importance of skin cancer early detection and prevention. Skin cancer awareness week is held in collaboration with Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet and Leumit health care funds, with hundreds of check-up clinics open to the public free of charge across Israel, manned by dermatologists and plastic surgeons, who perform skin cancer and melanoma early detection examinations that can save lives.
ICA conducts media campaigns and distributes hundreds of thousands of educational information pamphlets in Hebrew, Russian and Arabic.
ICA’s "Telemeida"® hotline service is another means by which it offers the public comprehensive information on all aspects of cancer in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian.
The ICA's Cancer Resource and Information Center provides assistance in seeking further knowledge through access to international databases and professional publications. In this way, ICA is proud to serve as Israel's leading source of information in the fight against cancer.