The American Cancer Society (ACS) is an organization that funds and conducts research, shares expert information, and supports patients to free the world from cancer through prevention and care. Education and support are important when people are newly diagnosed with cancer. Being diagnosed with cancer is a shocking, and life changing experience. Knowing the correct places to go for answers can help with the anxiety of the diagnosis. Many people research their medical diagnoses in google, and are brought to unreliable sources. Unreliable information may cause their anxiety to become worse. The ACS is committed to providing research based information to the community to improve the quality of life in cancer patients and to provide better treatments. They provide information for specific cancers on their website, including information about understanding the pathology report, learning about recent news, and understanding the specific diagnosis. For example, patients with lung cancer may have three different types of lung cancer, including non-small cell, small cell, and lung carcinoid tumors.

They also provide information about treatments, side effects, what to expect during and after treatments, and ways to find and pay for treatment. In addition, ACS provides information for caregivers and family, end of life care, and includes information for children with cancer (ACS, 2017a).

They also provide resources for support. They provide information for connecting to the national cancer information center, are connected to patient lodging programs and rides to treatment, and give information for cosmetic companies to improve coping from hair loss or breast loss. Their webpage helps patients to search for programs for support in their area and online groups (ACS, 2017b).

Discussion: American Cancer Society

Discussion: American Cancer Society

For my friend or colleague, I would suggest the National Cancer Information Center. They provide up to date information and the ability to connect the patient with services and resources (ACS, 2017b). I would also point them to the information about payment and finding treatment for their cancer. Even with insurance, cancer can be expensive and knowing where to seek treatment is not always easy. The information provided on their website would be beneficial to lessoning that burden (ACS, 2017c).

2) According to the National Cancer Institute, lack of health care coverage and low socioeconomic status are factors that contribute to health disparities. This information, plus medically underserved populations contributes to mortality rates, because those patients that do not receive regular care are more likely to be diagnosed later, when cancer may be untreatable. Race also contributes to the incidence and mortality rate. Some races and groups are more likely to have certain types of cancers. For example, African Americas, Asian Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and underserved Whites are more likely to have higher incidences of cancer and higher death statistics (NCI, 2008). The NCI also notes that obesity and aging are risk factors for cancer (NCI, 2017).

Policy changes and practices help to decrease the rates of cancer. For example, work environments, restaurants, and other public facilities have changed to non-smoking. The decline in smoking has caused a decline in cancers caused by smoking. From 2004 to 2013, the rate of cancer deaths have decreased by 1.8% in men and 1.4% in women; in addition, there was a 1.4% decreased from children aged 0-19 between 2009-2013 (NCI, 2017). Screening for cancer can affect the figures over time, because early screening may detect early cancer inpatients. For example, a new campaign by the CDC, Inside Knowledge: Get the Facts About Gynecologic Cancer, helps to raise awareness, and has been popular, with 5.6 million visits to their website. More people may be screened, which in turn would increase the rates of detected cancer (CDC, 2016).

3) There are several different research programs funded by the ACS. Nutrition is always on my mind. When I go to the store, I am forced to decide between organic foods or inorganic foods, whole grain or whole wheat, dairy-free or dairy. The ACS funded research about nutrition and cancer, with a $726,000 5-year grant. The Harvard Medical School and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA conducted research to discover how diet increase or decrease the chance of developing colon cancer. They use plasma samples and look at 2,700 different samples to compare diets and metabolism. The Western diet is very different from the Mediterranean diet in foods consumed. “The bottom line is, we are not what we eat but what we metabolize,” and blood will show what we eat and what we are at risk for developing because of our dietary choices (Dale, 2017). This information will help to prevent cancers by educating the population on diet changes. When more processed foods are consumed, it can lead to more inflammation. When more fruits, vegetables, and fish are consumed, people tend to have less chronic inflammation, which results in less colorectal cancer (Dale, 2017).

I NEED YOU TO COMMENT FROM THIS POST, 150 WORDS NEEDED AND A REFERENCE PLEASE

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.