Indiana Cancer Consortium

Prostate Cancer Events in Septmeber

nikki — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:32:59 +0000

Great Prostate Cancer Challenge

Sept. 25, 8 a.m.

Urology of Indiana, 12188 N. Meridian St., Carmel, IN

Proceeds will benefit ZERO: The Project to End Prostate Cancer.

This event is to promote prostate cancer awareness, early detection, and research. For more information, please visit www.greatprostatecancerchallenge.com.

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“A Knock Out Night for Men, with Sugar Ray Leonard”

Saturday, Sept. 11

Sugar Ray Leonard will present “POWER to Win,” a motivational speech, to attendees and discuss the importance of prostate cancer screenings.

For more information, please visit http://www.newstalk1280.com/CommunityCalendar/tabid/1145/Default.aspx.

Prostate Cancer and Men’s Sexual Health Seminar

Saturday, Sept. 18, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

FREE Prostate Cancer Screenings at Schneck Cancer Center

nikki — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:18:18 +0000

Schneck Medical Center Foundation Sponsoring FREE Prostate Cancer Screenings at Schneck Cancer Center

Seymour, Ind.—The Schneck Medical Center Foundation will again sponsor FREE prostate cancer screening tests on September 7^th,1:00 to 4:00p.m., and September 9^th, 9:00 a.m. to noon. The screenings will be at Schneck’s Cancer Center on the medical center campus. You must have a scheduled appointment to participate in the free screening.

Prostate cancer strikes 1 in 6 American men and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men. Over 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be reported in the United States this year.

There is good news. If the cancer is found before it has spread outside the prostate, the 5-year relative survival rate is 100%. If the cancer has spread to tissues near the prostate, the survival rate is 94%. Thus, early detection is critical.

The American Urological Association recommends that a baseline screening be considered in all men at the age of 40. If significant risk factors such as a strong family history or African American race are present, then screening should be considered on a regular basis after that.

A man will be eligible for an early detection screening test, which includes prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test and a digital rectal examination (DRE), if he is between 40 and 74 years of age and has not had a PSA blood test or DRE within the past 12 months.

“We really want to encourage those who don’t have a physician to take advantage of this free screening,” says Sally Acton, RN, OCN, MSN, Director of Cancer Services. “This is a very beneficial test that unfortunately folks without a healthcare provider often go without.” You must have a scheduled appointment to participate in the free screening and time slots are limited.

These free screening tests are for men who do not regularly have prostate exams and are not intended to be a replacement or substitution for regular visits to a physician.

To schedule a prostate cancer screening, call Schneck’s Cancer Center at 812-522-0477. Please leave your name and phone number and your call will be returned promptly. Again, screening times are limited so please call early.

Current Approaches & Emerging Advances in Metastic Breast Cancer

nikki — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:09:01 +0000

To download the flyer, please click here: Microsoft Word – registration flyer #7.

12th Annual Ovarian Cancer Run & Walk

nikki — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:36:25 +0000

Date: Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010

Time: Festivities begin at 7:30 a.m.

Location: Historic City Market, 222 E. Market St., Indianapolis

Summary: The Ovarian Cancer Run & Walk helps to fund the initiatives of Ovar’coming Together which includes education, survivor support, and research support for ovarian cancer.

Registrants can choose to participate in a four mile competitive run, a three mile walk, a one mile walk, or a Jazzercise Workout. Participants will be able to shop at the annual “Teal Market” and participate in a silent auction AND a raffle. Post-race refreshments will be served.

For more information and to access online registration, visit http://ovariancancerin.org/#/run-walk/4541101659.

State: Teens must shape up

nikki — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:07:25 +0000

Survey on smoking, weight raises fears for their health later on

By Shari Rudavsky

June 4, 2010

Unless they clean up their act, Indiana’s teens could end up in worse shape than their parents as they age, according to the latest survey of youth risk behaviors.

Conducted every two years, the Indiana Youth Risk Behavior Survey released Thursday found that more than a quarter of the state’s high schoolers are overweight or obese, while about 23 percent are smokers.

In the 1980s, obesity rates among youths were about a third of what they are today, studies show. As obesity rates among the young increase, doctors are finding diabetes, heart disease and other potentially deadly conditions in younger and younger patients.

“This generation needs to make a lot of changes, I think most physicians would agree, to have the projected tenure of life of the generation before them,” said Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Gregory Larkin.

Despite concerted public and private efforts, Indiana’s teens have made little progress during the past six years in improving their health when it comes to weight, the study found. Although the percentages shifted slightly, high school students in 2009 were just as likely to be obese or overweight as from 2003 to 2007, the study found.

Doctors, policymakers and parents need to face the problem, said Dr. Vaughn Rickert, director of the section of adolescent medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children.

“We can no longer say, my child or my patient will grow out of being overweight or obese,” he said. “If there’s no intervention, it is likely that they’re not going to be more healthy. The question is, are they not going to be more healthy or not live as long?”

Obesity, bad eating habits and lack of physical activity can lead to cancer and cardiovascular disease, experts say. Those three factors contribute to about 30 percent of all cancers, said Tom Rich, director of comprehensive cancer control for the American Cancer Society in Michigan and Indiana.

In Indiana, cancer claims the lives of 12,000 people a year, said Keylee Wright, cancer control manager for the Indiana Cancer Consortium. Pursuing a healthy lifestyle throughout one’s life can translate into better health later in life.

“If adopted at an early age, these behaviors, among others, are part of a healthy lifestyle,” she said.

No simple solutions exist for reducing teen obesity, experts say. Many factors, from their friends to their families, influence teens’ eating behaviors.

“It’s not as easy a problem as just saying you need to lose 25 pounds,” Rickert said. “These are not Jenny Craig commercials.”

On at least one measure, however, Indiana teens performed well. In 2009, 40.6 percent of teens were physically active for at least 60 minutes a day, compared with the national average of 37 percent.

However, that activity does not translate into weight control. Just less than 13 percent of all high school students register as obese, and nearly 16 percent count as overweight.

“It is somewhat of a disconnect,” Larkin said. “We know it isn’t simply ‘exercise more.’ It’s your food choices.”

The percentage of teens who drank soda declined from 35.6 percent in 2007 to 29.7 percent in 2009. But so did teens’ intake of fruits and vegetables. In 2007, just more than 18 percent ate the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Two years later, that number dipped to 16.1 percent.

Nationally, high school students might also fare better when it comes to tobacco-related diseases, such as lung cancer.

But Indiana youths are more likely to be smokers than their counterparts elsewhere, and one in 10 uses smokeless tobacco, the survey found.

Rather than comparing Indiana’s rates to the national average of 19.5 percent, Larkin said he’s more interested in seeing which states perform better and identifying practices that Indiana can adopt.

For instance, many other states impose higher taxes on cigarettes and have statewide anti-smoking laws, two features that discourage youth smoking.

Adopting policies that will help improve teens’ behavior is what public health is all about, Larkin said.

“The challenge for public health is to make the right choices easier than the wrong choices,” he said.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100604/LIVING01/6040329/1083/LIVING01/State-Teens-must-shape-up

Walther Cancer Foundation Grant to Fund Purdue-IU Collaboration

nikki — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:02:56 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — (Feb. 2, 2010) — Purdue’s Oncological Sciences Center and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center will share a five-year, $1 million grant from the Walther Cancer Foundation to exchange medical fellows, engineers and scientists for advancing cancer research.

The Walther Oncology Physical Sciences & Engineering Research Embedding Program will be launched through the IU-Purdue Cancer Care Engineering project to create opportunities for postdoctoral fellows to train in clinics and for medical fellows to work in Purdue laboratories as interdisciplinary cancer research teams.

Purdue and IU each will invest an additional $250,000 in the project.

Go to this link to see the remainder of the article: http://www.cancer.iu.edu/news/article.php?id=3214

Healthiest Counties in Indiana

lindsey — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:44:55 +0000

The County Health Rankings are the first to rank overall health in all 50 states – more than 3,000 total – by using a standard formula to measure how healthy people are and how long they live.

Researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health or “health outcomes” for Indiana by county: the rate of people dying before age 75, the percent of people who report being in fair or poor health, the number of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health, and the rate of low-birth weight infants.

The report then looks at factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment. Among the many health factors, they looked at adult smoking, access to care, unemployment rate, adult obesity, teen birth rate, access to healthy foods, and motor vehicle death rate.

The County Health Rankings report can be found at http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/.