Anal Cancer Prevention

Cancer prevention is action taken to lower the chance of getting cancer. By preventing cancer, the number of new cases of cancer in a group or population is lowered. Hopefully, this will lower the number of deaths caused by cancer.

To prevent new cancers from starting, scientists look at risk factors and protective factors. Anything that increases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer risk factor; anything that decreases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer protective factor.

Some risk factors for cancer can be avoided, but many cannot. For example, both smoking and inheriting certain genes are risk factors for some types of cancer, but only smoking can be avoided. 

Regular exercise and a healthy diet may be protective factors for some types of cancer. Avoiding risk factors and increasing protective factors may lower your risk, but it does not mean that you will not get cancer.

Different ways to prevent cancer are being studied, including:

• Changing lifestyle or eating habits.
• Avoiding things known to cause cancer.
• Taking medicines to treat a precancerous condition or to keep cancer from starting.

HPV vaccination

HPV vaccines help protect the body against infection with certain types of HPV. They are used to prevent anal cancer, cervical cancer, vulvar cancer, vaginal cancer, and some other types of cancer caused by HPV. They are also used to prevent abnormal lesions caused by HPV that may lead to some of these cancers.

Studies show that being vaccinated against HPV lowers the risk of anal cancer. The vaccine may work best when it is given before a person is exposed to HPV.

Screening for anal cancer using anoscopy

Cancer screening is looking for cancer before a person has any symptoms. This can help find cancer at an early stage. When abnormal tissue or cancer is found early, it may be easier to treat.

An anoscopy is a procedure that uses a short, lighted tube called an anoscope to check for abnormal areas in the anus and lower rectum.

Studies suggest that using anoscopy to screen for anal cancer could reduce the number of deaths from the disease in people who are HIV positive.

Treatment of anal lesions

Studies show that treatment of anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) decreases the development of anal cancer in people who are HIV positive. 

Condom use

It is not known if the use of condoms protects against anal HPV infection. This is because not enough studies have been done to prove this. 

Cancer prevention clinical trials are used to study ways to lower the risk of developing certain types of cancer. Some cancer prevention trials include healthy people who may or may not have an increased risk of cancer. Other prevention trials include people who have had cancer and are trying to prevent recurrence or a second cancer.

The purpose of some cancer prevention clinical trials is to find out whether actions people take can prevent cancer. These may include eating fruits and vegetables, exercising, quitting smoking, or taking certain medicines, vitamins, minerals, or food supplements.

Information about clinical trials supported by NCI can be found on NCI’s clinical trials search webpage. Clinical trials supported by other organizations can be found on the ClinicalTrials.gov website.