There's truth to the old adage, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and that is why HHC considers life-saving screenings to be the lynchpin in its strategy to intervene early and aggressively in the treatment of cancer.

In one year, alone, HHC facilities performed more than 70,000 mammograms and 180,000 cervical cancer screenings. Hundreds of pre-cancerous polyps were removed by performing four times as many colonoscopies as had been done just two years earlier. Since breast, cervical and colon cancer are all highly treatable if found early, this major cancer screening outreach has had a dramatic and positive impact on the lives of New Yorkers.

HHC has paid particular attention to encouraging populations vulnerable to specific types of cancers to get screened. Wide-scale public awareness campaigns and materials in 11 languages have alerted New Yorkers ages 50 and over, and black New Yorkers, who remain at highest risk from death due to colon cancer, to get colonoscopies. Other campaigns have centered on screening for prostate cancer, which also affects African-American men, who have the world's highest incidence of prostate cancer.

Cancer screenings are available at all HHC acute care hospitals and many other HHC facilities. Click here to locate an HHC facility near you.