The Cancer Education Survey collected data from 126 of 128 US Medical Schools on the current status of cancer-related educational activities for undergraduate medical students. The study was conducted by a Supervisory Committee of the American Association for Cancer Education, with funding from the American Cancer Society. The survey obtained data concerning institutional characteristics in support of undergraduate medical student cancer education, ie, administrative structures, current cancer-related curricula, sources of financial support, and anticipated changes in these characteristics. Institutions were also queried on specific topics of cancer prevention, detection, and diagnosis that might be taught as identifiable areas of instruction for medical students. Three-fourths of the institutions had a lecture on the principles of cancer screening, and, among those, nearly three-fourths classified it as a part of a required course or rotation. Detection of common cancers is taught in virtually all institutions. The least likely cancer prevention lecture topics are related to prevention and cessation of smoking, a well-verified cancer risk. Also, no consistent pattern emerges that might indicate that association with a cancer center imparts to a medical school a greater emphasis on delivery of cancer prevention topics.

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Higher Education needs to give more broad-based attention to health and wellness. Our graduates will all have to deal with the facts that the general state of health of Americans is not good and our national health care system is badly in need of reform. We should offer innovative approaches to helping our graduates establish positive, lifetime health habits and we should demonstrate to them our own model approaches to promoting health and wellness through more effective health insurance and worksite wellness programs.

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