Your chance to help fight cancer

Now is your chance to make a dif­fer­ence. In part­ner­ship with the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety, Ohio­Health is seek­ing to enroll 600 cen­tral Ohio vol­un­teers in a national, long-term research study to bet­ter under­stand the lifestyle, envi­ron­men­tal and genetic fac­tors that cause or pre­vent cancer.

This is a rare oppor­tu­nity for ordi­nary cit­i­zens to par­tic­i­pate in a land­mark study that will sig­nif­i­cantly advance our knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of can­cer and work to elim­i­nate can­cer as a major health con­cern for gen­er­a­tions to come. Out­comes are expected to influ­ence pub­lic health pol­icy and per­haps pub­lic opinion.

The Amer­i­can Can­cer Society’s CPS-3 (Can­cer Pre­ven­tion Study — 3) is the third largest, national can­cer pre­ven­tions study the Can­cer Soci­ety has con­ducted since 1959. CPS-1 (1959–1972) and CPS-II (1982-ongoing) have addressed a wide range of envi­ron­men­tal, lifestyle and nutri­tional issues that have decreased the risk of cancer.

Ohio­Health is the host part­ner for CPS-3, respon­si­ble for dri­ving par­tic­i­pa­tion in our area. Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal and the Delaware Health Cen­ter are among nine cen­tral Ohio loca­tions enrolling patients Aug. 7 through 14.

Enroll­ment at Grady will be from 7 to 11 a.m. Aug. 10, and at Delaware Health Cen­ter from 3 to 7 p.m. Aug. 14.

Men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 who have no per­sonal his­tory of can­cer, other than skin can­cer, are invited to join this his­toric study.

We have made enroll­ment as easy as pos­si­ble. You can sched­ule an appoint­ment at CentralOhioCPS3.org where you will receive instruc­tions to com­plete a 45– to 60-minute online sur­vey. You can then visit one of our sites listed on the web­site for a 20– to 30-minute enroll­ment pro­ce­dure that will include com­plet­ing a short sur­vey packet, sign­ing a con­sent form and pro­vid­ing a waist cir­cum­fer­ence mea­sure­ment and a small blood sample.

For the next 20 to 30 years, you will then be asked to com­plete a mailed sur­vey every few years to update your infor­ma­tion. The sur­vey will include ques­tions about your fam­ily his­tory, lifestyle choices and envi­ron­men­tal expo­sures. You will also receive an annual study newslet­ter to update you on the research results. The Can­cer Society´s Epi­demi­ol­ogy Research Pro­gram is seek­ing to enroll at least 300,000 adults nation­wide from var­i­ous racial-ethnic backgrounds.

If you are unable to enroll, please tell friends, neigh­bors, cowork­ers, fam­ily mem­bers and other loved ones about the oppor­tu­nity. If you are close to some­one who has or has had can­cer, par­tic­i­pa­tion in this study is one of the best ways to show your support.

Ohio­Health has encour­aged all of its eli­gi­ble asso­ciates to vol­un­teer for the study and I have per­son­ally enrolled. Please join me for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit CentralOhioCPS3.org, email cps3@cancer.org or call 888–604-5888.

Steve Gar­lock is senior vice pres­i­dent of can­cer ser­vices for OhioHealth.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Jul 18 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.