LOCAL STUDY TO HELP FIND CURE

During the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life fundraiser in Middle Village this June, participants and visitors will have the opportunity to enroll in a long-term study aimed at determining the various causes of cancer and ways to prevent contracting the disease.

The event, scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 26 through Sunday, June 27 at Brennan Field of Juniper Valley Park, raises funds annually for cancer research and treatment. At this year’s edition, the ACS will also recruit volunteers to take part in its Cancer Prevention Study 3, which will follow individuals over a number of years to determine which factors play a role in either developing or preventing cancer.

Andrea Moreau, a spokesperson for the ACS’s New York chapter, told the Times Newsweekly in an e-mail that the recruitment drive at the Middle Village Relay for Life will be the only one of its kind held in New York City this year. In total, the ACS will be signing up 500,000 people nationwide to take part in the study.

Healthy adults between 35 and 65 years of age living in the United States who have not been previously stricken with a form of cancer and are “truly committed” to the research effort will be sought as participants, Moreau said. Specifically, the society is looking for individuals from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds in order to determine if any individuals are susceptible to a particular form of the disease.

The main goal of the study is to examine which factors cause or prevent cancer, including a person’s lifestyle, the environment in which they live in or their genetics.

Those who sign up for the study will be asked to complete a registration and consent form providing their personal information. The ACS noted that all data will be closely guarded and will not be used for other purposes.

Medical records may be requested from participants who develop cancer in the years following registration, it was noted.

Additionally, participants will be asked to have their waists measured and to submit a blood sample for test- ing. Following the relay, a survey will be sent to each registrant asking for further information; the ACS will then send questionnaires to participants every one to two years for the duration of the study regarding the person’s health, activities, lifestyle and environment.

The information gathered from the surveys will then be analyzed and compared to other individuals to help scientists and researchers from a number of prominent universities and institutions to determine how cancer develops and can be prevented among adults, the ACS noted.

There is no charge to all participants who agree to take part in the long-term study. The ACS’s Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research is paying for all blood tests and postage for the surveys.

For more information on the cancer study, visit www.cancer.org or call 1-800-ACS-2345. To sign up for the Middle Village Relay for Life, visit www.relayforlife.org/middlevillageNY.