Because the best way to fight cancer is to keep it from starting, I strongly recommend a web site called "Your Cancer Risk." Developed by the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, "Your Cancer Risk" is a personalized tool that estimates your risk of cancer and provides tips for prevention. What an amazing free service!

Anyone can use this tool, but it's most accurate for people age 40 and over who have never had any type of cancer. Take a few minutes to answer some questions and get information on your risk of breast, prostate, colon or lung cancer. (And, as of June 21 or so, the Center is adding risk assessments for eight additional cancers–bladder, melanoma, uterine, kidney, pancreatic, ovarian, stomach and cervical. This tool will then cover about 80% of the U.S. cancer burden.)

Find out how to lower your risk and where to focus your prevention efforts. www.yourcancerrisk.com.

How does this work? After filling out brief questionnaires, users receive a description of their risk in the form of a colored bar graph, which they can electronically manipulate to experience "virtual" risk reduction. The bar graph is a 7-level scale that compares users to a typical man or woman their age. Users learn where to focus their prevention efforts and how to make lifestyle changes by "clicking" on personalized strategies. With each click, the bar graph shrinks, and they watch their risk drop. In addition to its tailored cancer prevention messages, "Your Cancer Risk" provides users with cancer-specific fact sheets–"risk lists"–that explain the link between exposure and disease. Resources for more information are also provided.

If a web site's success is measured by visitor hits, then "Your Cancer Risk," is a verified winner. The site, launched on January 19, received a staggering 1 million hits on its first day and a total of 2.7 million hits in its first week, making it the most successful site launched at the Harvard School of Public Health. as of May 20th (the last time I checked stats) the site had over 12,200,000 hits!

And this is all before it was even registered with search engines!

"It's a huge success," said Deane Eastwood, HSPH webmaster, who has overseen the launch of more than a dozen sites for the school. "It has as many unique visitors in its first week as the entire HSPH site has in an average week."

Nearly 15 percent of the hits on the web site resulted from home networks, which may reflect the personal nature of the questionnaire. "It's easy to speculate that people may feel more comfortable in the privacy of their own homes," said Graham Colditz, director of education at the Center.

Please note, "Your Cancer Risk" is an educational web site for informational purposes only. It does not take the place of regular medical check-ups.