14 Strategic Communication for Cancer Prevention and Control: Reaching and Influencing Vulnerable Audiences Gary L. Kreps George Mason University USA 1. Introduction Strategic health communication efforts can help reduce cancer risks, incidence, morbidity and mortality, and improve quality of life for at-risk populations. However, providing relevant information about cancer prevention and control to vulnerable populations is fraught with difficulties. Just the ability to get members of at-risk populations to pay attention to information provided about cancer can often be a challenge. Most people do not want to hear or think about cancer unless they are forced into it because they or someone they care about has been diagnosed with some form of the dreaded disease. Since the term “cancer” is surrounded by a significant stigma in modern society that equates cancer with death and suffering, communication about cancer makes many people uncomfortable, forcing them to think about their potential to suffer and die. 1 Strategic cancer prevention and control communication campaigns should be designed to overcome the pervasive social stigma that influences public attitudes towards cancer education. The good news for health communicators is that the extremely negative social stigma surrounding cancer as an unavoidably deadly disease does not reflect the reality of cancer care in the modern world. Increasingly, those who are diagnosed with cancers are able to get helpful treatments and live productive lives as cancer survivors. Some public health scholars have suggested that with the advent of viable cancer treatments, cancer is becoming a chronic, rather than a terminal, disease due to increases in long-term cancer survivorship. 1 There are also many good evidence-based health promotion strategies available to help people reduce their risks for developing cancers, to help them detect cancers early when the cancers can be most effectively treated, and to get the best care for living with cancer. 2 However, consumers who have elevated cancer risks need access to the relevant information about cancer prevention and control to make their best health promoting decisions. While the pervasive negative social stigma surrounding cancers makes communicating about cancer prevention very difficult to do well, cancer communication efforts can be strategically planned and executed to encourage key audiences to attend to and respond to relevant cancer prevention information. Access to relevant and persuasive health information is essential for helping vulnerable population members reduce their risks for cancer-related morbidity and mortality by guiding evidence-based decision-making about cancer prevention and control.