Let's Make More Survivors!

Throughout the month of June we've been sharing information about survivorship and what it means to those who are given the title "Survivor" after hearing the words "You have cancer." The journey of cancer is different for everyone. Some consider the journey to be a kind of battle - a war they will either win or lose. Others look at it as just one bump in the road that they will get over and put behind them. For others it is (or becomes) a spiritual journey that causes them to look at their life differently and perhaps rearrange some of the priorities they had pre-diagnosis. And for some, it's a combination of some or all of these, or something completely their own.

No matter what the journey is to each individual, it's safe to say that the desire to become a "survivor" is universal. And for those of us who have been caregivers or who have just been around as a friend or loved-one dealt with cancer treatments, we want to do everything we can to make their journey shorter, easier, and more likely to end with the rest of a long life ahead of them. What if we told you that you have the opportunity to help potentially millions of people not only become survivors, but never be diagnosed at all? It's true... read on.

The American Cancer Society's Epidemiology Research Program is inviting men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 years of age who have no personal history of cancer to join an historic research study. The ultimate goal is to enroll at least 300,000 adults from various racial/ethnic backgrounds from across the U.S. By joining Cancer Prevention Study - 3 (CPS-3), you can help researchers understand how to prevent cancer.

The first version of this study, CPS-1, was the largest prospective mortality study of diseases caused by tobacco use ever conducted. The study, which began in 1959 and continued through September 1972, played a critical role in establishing the causal linkage between smoking and several diseases, and it remains one of the most comprehensive presentations of the disease risks caused by smoking. The laws and regulations currently in place related to advertising and sales of tobacco products are a direct result of CPS-1.

CPS-2 began in 1982 as a prospective mortality study of approximately 1.2 million American men and women. Approximately 77,000 volunteers for the American Cancer Society recruited participants into the study in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This study is still ongoing.

All voluntary participants in CPS-3 will be required to undergo a simple blood draw, and to complete a detailed questionnaire that will be used as a base-line for your current health and lifestyle. The purpose of CPS-3 is to better understand ways to prevent cancer. This multi-year survey will study lifestyle, behavioral, environmental and genetic factors that may cause or prevent cancer with the ultimate goal of eliminating cancer as a major health problem for this and future generations.

A local enrollment opportunity is coming up July 19 and 20 in Fort Smith. You can find more information on enrollment on the event website. Feel free to share the site and recruit your friends and family. Together, we can make an impact on the future of cancer in our world.

Cancer Prevention: What's on the Horizon?

As early as 2006, we were seeing news articles about the possibility of a vaccine coming to market to fight cervical cancer. At that time, the HPV vaccine was in the final stages of research, and was under review by the FDA. In the summer of that year, the vaccine was approved for girls and young women, and was later approved for males as well. It is now considered a vital tool in the prevention of cervical cancer in men and women, and is as close to being a "cure" as we have seen to date.

Just like those conducted on the HPV vaccine, there are hundreds more clinical research trials being done every day that are investigating the effectiveness of newly developed drugs and procedures. Clinical trials are a vital key to removing the word cancer from "household word" status.

Cancer research trials are conducted for many reasons. Some are simply focused on finding a "cure". Sometimes, these lead to discoveries that were unexpected - such as a medication that was being used to treat one kind of cancer that is then found to be effective on another type, or even another disease altogether. In other studies, researchers may be trying to discover ways to manage symptoms or after-effects of treatment such as "chemo-brain" and post-radiation nerve damage. Trials are also conducted that study the psychological impact of medical treatments and offer new "best practices" for doctors in order to prevent patients from suffering emotional distress during their treatment and recovery.

For a patient, the decision to participating in a clinical trial can be a difficult one to make. Many trials are "double-blind", meaning that the doctor and the patient don't know if the syringe or i.v. of fluid being administered is actually a newly created medication, or a placebo. Entering into that kind of study means placing faith in the importance of the study, not necessarily in any improvement that might be seen by the patient themselves.

There are many benefits to participating in a clinical trial. They offer a level of care that may be a step up from the standard if the treatment you are receiving is found to be effective. Participation can empower a patient and allow them take a lead role in their treatment plan. The psychological effect of this can be beneficial to many patients - feeling "helpless" is a common complaint of cancer patients who are undergoing cancer treatment and request counseling support. Finally, participation in clinical trials allows patients to become part of the important work being done to improve cancer treatment and find cures on a national and global scale. The ongoing legacy of cancer trial participants is significant.

Of course, there can be drawbacks to participation, and patients have to discuss them with their physician as well. There could be side-effects that doctors are not yet aware of. Even if the new treatment has benefits, it may not work on every patient. Health insurance does not always cover all the costs of a research study. New treatments may simply not be any better than the standard of care, which would mean that money spent and side-effects endured may be of no benefit to the individual patient. That's where the ongoing legacy comes in... the more people that are involved in trials, the more quickly the most effective treatment options and cures will be discovered.

More information on clinical trials being conducted in Northwest Arkansas is available on the Highlands Oncology Group website. Their research staff is on the fore-front of the cancer fight and can provide additional information for patients interested in looking at all their treatment options.