Cancer Prevention

The American Cancer Society is launched a major, long-term prevention study across the country and is looking for people in the Baltimore area to participate. The society says 12 million people have survived cancer and many more have avoided it. This study could provide the information to keep others healthy. The study, much like the one that initially linked tobacco to cancer, will look at other genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that may play into a person's risk of getting or preventing the disease.

The American Cancer Society is launched a major, long-term prevention study across the country and is looking for people in the Baltimore area to participate. The society says 12 million people have survived cancer and many more have avoided it. This study could provide the information to keep others healthy. The study, much like the one that initially linked tobacco to cancer, will look at other genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that may play into a person's risk of getting or preventing the disease.

When Nawal Qalbi enrolled in a belly dancing class at the Carroll County YMCA five years ago, she never dreamed she would find her calling. Qalbi discovered the ancient dance form offered not just exercise, but camaraderie. "I was curious, really," said Qalbi said about signing up for that first class. "I thought I would be going in and be one of the oldest. There were so many women of different shapes, sizes and age groups. "It was very refreshing to see such a mixture of women in this classroom, and everybody enjoying each other's company.

Two new government studies show young people are still putting themselves at risk for skin cancer by getting sunburned and going to indoor tanning beds. One study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that half of those aged 18 to 29 had at least one sunburn it the past year, though they were increasingly using sunscreen, seeking shade and wearing protective clothing. The other study by the National Cancer Institute found 32 percent of those 18 to 21 were going to indoor tanning salons and 30 percent of those 22 to 25 were.

The county Health Department is sponsoring a free program on women's health and cancer prevention from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. next Tuesday at the O'Malley Senior Center.The speaker will be Lois Levine, a registered nurse as well as breast and cervical cancer program coordinator at the Health Department.The program, part of the Health Department's "Learn to Live" cancer prevention campaign, is intended to inform women about the importance of regular checkups for breast and cervical cancer.

The rites of spring are upon us again. Winter's hibernation has been replaced by Opening Day fever, the Easter Bunny, daylight-saving time and the sight of dimpled, droopy body parts that haven't seen the light of day since September.But it's never too late to start that long-delayed, healthier lifestyle.From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, dietitians from the county Health Department's "Learn to Live" cancer prevention campaign will be at Lauer's Super Thrift on Edwin Raynor Boulevard promoting the benefits of a high-fiber diet.

When his wife suggested he should take advantage of a free prostate cancer screening last September, Rupert Bradshaw objected that he had no symptoms."

Maryland would spend millions of dollars to fight smoking-related heart and lung disease and send new state aid to suburban Washington hospitals under a plan approved by two House committees in Annapolis yesterday. The committees' plan for distributing Maryland's share of the national tobacco settlement is substantially different from the approach favored by Senate leaders -- assuring a showdown between the two chambers in the remaining three weeks of the legislative session. The Senate plan, approved by a key committee Friday, would direct much of the money to cancer prevention, treatment and research.

The discovery that the painkillers Vioxx and Celebrex may increase the risk of heart problems wasn't just a disappointment to people with chronic pain and the doctors who treat them. The news has threatened to cut off a promising arm of research in cancer prevention. For the last decade, scientists have been compiling evidence that those and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs seem to interfere with the early processes that can give rise to cancer, particularly cancers of the digestive tract.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A drug now used to treat breast cancer might be able to prevent prostate cancer in men with a pre-cancerous condition, doctors said here on yesterday. Another study suggested that the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might stave off breast cancer. But experts cautioned that more studies were needed before the drugs were prescribed to prevent prostate and breast cancer. "We are not ready to recommend statins for those patients who do not have lipid abnormalities," said Dr. Vikas Khurana of Louisiana State University, an author of the statin study, referring to people with high cholesterol.

Want to give to the Maryland Cancer Fund? Officials have made it easy this year. You just have to check a Line 37 on your state tax form and fill in the amount. The money will get deducted from your refund or added to you bill. The contribution is also t ax deductible. The fund provides cancer prevention, detection and treatment programs. "Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Maryland," said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene , in a statement. "Giving to the Maryland Cancer Fund is a great way to help your community.

When Nawal Qalbi enrolled in a belly dancing class at the Carroll County YMCA five years ago, she never dreamed she would find her calling. Qalbi discovered the ancient dance form offered not just exercise, but camaraderie. "I was curious, really," said Qalbi said about signing up for that first class. "I thought I would be going in and be one of the oldest. There were so many women of different shapes, sizes and age groups. "It was very refreshing to see such a mixture of women in this classroom, and everybody enjoying each other's company.

Cheryl Corbin's mother and grandmother had breast cancer, so an oncologist suggested she be tested for an inherited gene mutation linked to the disease. But when the results came in, she didn't show up to hear them. "I was afraid to hear the words," Corbin, 47, said. "There's no turning back from there. " A genetic counselor tracked her down at the University of Maryland Women's Health clinic, where she is an office manager, and told her that she had the mutation that gave her an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer . Corbin had no doubt about her next move - she had her breasts removed.

In his column "Up in smoke" (Commentary, July 28), Patrick Basham grossly mischaracterized the National Cancer Institute's American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention (ASSIST). I was the senior scientific editor for the National Cancer Institute's monograph that evaluated the study, and I know that, contrary to Mr. Basham's assertions, ASSIST was found to be effective. The 17 states that implemented ASSIST policy interventions had significantly lower smoking rates at the end of the program than states that did not implement the program had. Indeed, if all states had implemented such interventions, the National Cancer Institute estimates that there would be 1.2 million fewer smokers nationally today.

Linda Rittelmann has been named executive director and chief operating officer of Greater Baltimore Medical Associates, which is a group of more than 40 physician practices owned by Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Rittelmann, who will be in charge of staffing, billing, performance improvement and budgeting, has 17 years of executive health care experience in managed-care contracting, information-systems applications, cardiovascular and orthopedic program management, capital-project management, strategic planning and marketing.

Here's a question to ponder: Why is acne common in the Western, industrialized world, while the pimples that trouble American kids are rare in developing countries? It's a puzzler -- and one that prompted Australian researchers to ask whether changing the diet of teenagers would have any effect on acne. The results could change the way dermatologists think about diet. To test their theory, the Australian researchers recruited 50 young men between ages 15 and 25 with mild-to-moderate acne.

Dietitians from the county Health Department will visit area supermarkets today to answer shoppers' questions about nutrition and cancer prevention.As part of the department's Learn To Live Cancer Prevention Campaign, low-fat recipes as well as a nutrition newsletter will be made available to shoppers.The dietitians will be at Basics in Linthicum, 7069 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and Farm Fresh in Brooklyn Park, 8 Hammonds Lane, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Police Department asks for public's help after suspicious death Anne Arundel County police are asking for the public's help in determining how a Baltimore teen-ager spent the week before he was found dead in the Patapsco River on Tuesday. The body of Fernando Miranda Garcia, 18, of the 400 block of S. Collington Ave. in Baltimore, was discovered by a fisherman along the shoreline near Hammonds Ferry Road in Linthicum. Autopsy results to determine how Garcia died are pending, but county police are investigating his death as suspicious, said Officer Charles Ravenell, a police spokesman.

Man plunges 25 feet into construction trench A man was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center yesterday afternoon after he fell about 25 feet into a trench at a construction site in Rosedale, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman said. The 48-year-old man had been repairing a pipe, near Chesaco and Severn avenues, that leads to the Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant. Shortly before 1 p.m., he fell from scaffolding into a trench that contained about 3 feet of water, said Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost.

BOSTON -- Hasn't anyone ever told drug companies to put a warning label on their lobbying? You know, the kind you find on every little prescription bottle? "Caution: Too much lobbying may result in an overdose of suspicion. Push too hard and you may experience political acid reflux." As it is, Merck seems to have rolled a million - or many millions - into a shoestring. And the real losers may be girls and women who need access to the vaccine against cervical cancer. Let's return to that magical moment when clinical trials proved that a new vaccine was nearly 100 percent effective in preventing two strains of the human papillomavirus that causes most cervical cancer.