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Teaching the Media About Cancer
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CCR Grand Rounds |
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November 23: Dr. Judith A. Shell, Medical Family Therapist, Osceola Cancer
Center, Kissimmee, Fla. "Symptom Management in Cancer- Related Sexual
Dysfunction" November 30: Dr. Stephen J. Chanock, Section Head, Genomic
Variation, Pediatric Oncology Branch; Director, Core Genotyping Facility,
Advanced Technology Center, CCR, "SNPing Away at Cancer" CCR Grand Rounds are
held 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in the Clinical
Center's Lipsett Auditorium. |
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On October 7, 25 science reporters gathered on the NIH campus in the Natcher
Conference Center, notepads and tape recorders at the ready. It wasn't a press
conference and there was no breaking news to report. The reporters were there
to learn about the role of the environment in causing cancer. The event was the
most recent in a series of science writers' seminars sponsored by the NCI Press
Office. The goal of these outreach programs is straightforward: to provide
science writers from print, broadcast, and online media with an in-depth look
at emerging fields of cancer research on which they will likely be reporting in
the future.
During the "Cancer and the Environment" seminar, four NIH scientists
explained how the interaction between genes and the environment can lead to
cancer and how researchers determine whether a particular substance causes
cancer. Many of the greatest cancer risks - smoking, unhealthy diet, excessive
alcohol consumption, and sedentary lifestyle - are under an individual's
control. This seminar, however, focused on the threat caused by factors that
individuals cannot control, including those in the air, water, and earth.
At
the seminar, Dr. David Longfellow of NCI's Division of Cancer Biology explained
how cancer-causing substances are identified and how scientists use animal
models and laboratory tests to determine carcinogenicity. Dr. Ken Cantor of
NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics spoke about chemical
carcinogens and epidemiological studies. The usual process, he explained,
begins when a physician observes a cluster of cancer patients. This leads to
quantitative studies, including environmental comparison studies, which compare
risk by geographic area. Dr. Ed Trapido of NCI's Division of Cancer Control and
Population Sciences explained how the environment and the genome interact,
using examples from lung cancer research. Dr. Christopher Portier, associate
director of the National Toxicology Program for the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, described how the mixture of substances humans
are exposed to makes it difficult to study specific environmental hazards. To
encourage discussion between reporters and cancer scientists, the seminars are
informal and are web-cast so that reporters who cannot attend in person can
still participate; about 120 people watched the "Cancer and the Environment"
seminar online. October's seminar was the tenth since the program began in the
spring of 2002. Past topics have included molecular targets for cancer,
epidemiology, nutrition, cancer vaccines, and statistics. NCI plans to make the
seminars monthly events, holding them in cities across the country in
partnership with NCI-designated Cancer Centers. Past seminars have been held in
the Washington, D.C., area. By holding the seminars in other cities, NCI hopes
to reach a larger audience and strengthen ties with media across the country.
The next seminar, "Natural Products for Cancer," will be held on November 18 at
NCI's Natural Products Branch in Frederick, Md., about 35 miles north of the
main NIH campus. Scientists in this branch screen and analyze terrestrial and
marine-based compounds and determine whether they have anticancer properties.
For example, paclitaxel (Taxol), a drug used to treat several cancers, was
developed from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. (See NCI Cancer Bulletin, Aug.
17, 2004.) Drs. Gordon Cragg and David Newman will explain how NCI collects
natural specimens and tests their potential as cancer treatments. The seminar
will also feature a tour of the biorepository and cancer cell line screening
centers on the Frederick campus. Seminars for 2005 are tentatively scheduled for
the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the USC/Norris Cancer
Center in Los Angeles, and the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia on
topics ranging from cancer health disparities to clinical trials enrollment.
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