Psychosocial wellbeing and cancer are intimately linked. At least one third of cancers could be prevented with healthy lifestyle and avoidance of cancer risk factors.  People who have to cope with mental health issues also tend to take greater risks, and therefore have a higher prevalence of cancer. Prevention is also important during survivorship as anti-cancer therapy increase the risks of secondary cancers.

The prevention interest groups aims to focus psycho-oncology research and practice to these problems, and draw on their counselling skills to improve outcomes for all patients. Others aims are to:

• Increase networking within the membership about topics of interest for the prevention of cancer
• Promote proactive involvement of PoCoG members in activities which aim to assist people to prevent cancers, or second cancers after a first diagnosis
• Create more opportunities for members to become involved in initiating, developing and participating in collaborative research projects, especially those relevant to the interest group’s focus
• Facilitate implementation of multi-centre research studies