What is the Prevention Outpatient Clinic?
The Prevention Outpatient Clinic at the National Cancer Prevention Center is a unique point of contact for citizens in Germany for cancer prevention and early detection, directly linked to a study center for cancer prevention. Together with prevention experts, you can develop and test new methods and programs in innovative prevention studies. Soon, you will also receive individual advice on cancer prevention and early detection based on your personal risk profile.
This will supplement and support already established and widely available prevention and early detection services (e.g. from general practitioners and specialists).
Standard care is explicitly not part of the Prevention Outpatient Clinic.
Focus of the Prevention Outpatient Clinic
In the Prevention Outpatient Clinic, we combine comprehensive, personal advice on cancer prevention and early detection based on the latest scientific findings with innovative prevention approaches within the framework of studies.
What is special about the Prevention Outpatient Clinic?
In the Prevention Outpatient Clinic, the focus is on maintaining your health. We want to contribute to better exploiting the enormous potential of cancer prevention. This means preventing cancer from developing in the first place or at least detecting it at an early stage. Because: 40 out of 100 new cases of cancer could be prevented by lifestyle changes alone. Around 60 out of 100 cancer deaths could be prevented through a healthy lifestyle and early cancer detection. That is why we explicitly target our services at healthy people who want to take care of their health at an early stage. With our individual cancer risk analysis and the prevention advice based on it, we lay the foundation for a health-conscious lifestyle.
A central component of the Prevention Outpatient Clinic is the close link between advice and research. Advice in the Prevention Outpatient Clinic is based on your individual cancer risk profile and takes into account the latest scientific findings, which are updated on an ongoing basis. In addition, you have the opportunity to participate in further research projects and prevention studies that help to further improve the prevention and early detection of cancer for yourself, but also with regard to the health of the population as a whole. Alongside this, the team at the Prevention Outpatient Clinic works with researchers to develop various measures to help you lead a healthy life. These include
- Group offers that integrate behavioral, motivational and informative elements
- Nutritional advice and exercise programs that specifically address cancer risk factors such as an unhealthy diet, obesity and lack of exercise
- Supplementary external services such as tobacco cessation or additional sport and exercise programs, individual nutritional advice as well as age- and risk-appropriate cancer screening examinations and genetic counselling
- Referral to specific local contacts and support in arranging appointments
Note: The services offered by the Prevention Outpatient Clinic are free of charge. You do not need a referral.
How does a visit to the Prevention Outpatient Clinic work?
Making an appointment
You will soon have the opportunity to make a personal appointment in the Prevention Outpatient Clinic here.
Fill in the questionnaire
In order to give you recommendations tailored to your specific situation, the experts at the Prevention Outpatient Clinic will determine your personal cancer risk profile. Using a digital questionnaire, they will first ask you about your individual lifestyle habits and medical history. This includes your diet, exercise habits, previous illnesses and possible hereditary predispositions. Environmental factors and occupational risks can also play a role.
Personalized prevention advice
Based on your information and a specially developed guideline based on the latest findings, you will receive an individualized medical recommendation for cancer prevention. This can include various measures, including
- Group offers to initiate behavioral changes,
- exercise programs,
- nutritional advice or
- referral to specialists, e.g. nutritionists, tobacco cessation services or specialists to carry out cancer screening examinations and human genetic counseling.
In order to check the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of the counseling, we will offer you follow-up appointments for which you will visit again the prevention outpatient clinic.
Optional donation of biosamples
You also have the opportunity to voluntarily provide biosamples (blood, saliva, urine, stool) for prevention research and to participate in other prevention studies conducted by the DKFZ and its partner institutions. These studies cover various areas, such as the recording of genetic risk profiles, the establishment of new biomarkers, the development of innovative methods for radiological early detection or the introduction of app-based early detection methods.
In addition to the Prevention Outpatient Clinic, we are setting up highly specialized research studios such as the Hopp Movement Laboratory and the Viessmann Nutrition Workshop:
- In the Hopp Movement Laboratory, we will be researching in future how exercise influences the development of cancer and which other influencing factors play a role in this context.
- In the Viessmann Nutrition Workshop, everything revolves around the influence of nutrition on the development of cancer. Nutritional studies are used to develop measures that specifically reduce the risk of cancer. The aim here is also to develop new methods and tools to promote a health-conscious lifestyle.
