Many people believe that the cause of their cancer or their risk of developing cancer is from their family history or linked to their genetics. While this may be true for a minority of individuals, much of the cancer risk comes from lifestyle factors which actually can be controlled. However, making sense of the vast amount of information out there can be very confusing.

This research was performed in Ireland in 2014 and led by two nurses working in Oncology in Letterkenny General Hospital. It was funded by a grant received from the Health Research Board. The researchers wanted to assess the knowledge and perception of the lifestyle risk factors for developing cancer among people in Ireland who have had cancer. Anonymous questionnaires were posted to a sample of 620 individuals who had cancer and who were attending follow-up clinics in Letterkenny General and Beaumont Hospitals. 414 (69.5%) of these questionnaires were returned to the researchers. From the responses obtained we identified that people require clear and concise information so that they can make lifestyle changes to help prevent cancer or reduce their risk of a previous cancer coming back.

This App is the end result of this piece of research. It contains the results from this survey as well as the latest research/information available to date around lifestyle factors that affect cancer risk and how you can reduce this risk.

The researchers and authors of this App want to thank all those people who took the time to answer and return the questionnaires and made this work possible. Thanks also to the collaborators in the Oncology Departments in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and Letterkenny General Hospital, Co Donegal and the Health Research Board for funding this work.


Janice Richmond
Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Letterkenny General Hospital
Mary Grace Kelly
Oncology Research Nurse
Letterkenny General Hospital
The research team would like to acknowledge the fantastic work done by the development team in Sendmode.com based in Letterkenny, and the excellent illustrations provided by Don Carey based in Cork.
Sendmode.com
Software Development
www.sendmode.com
Don Carey
Illustrator
careydon@gmail.com