Read the full Health Day article.

Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, is a former fellow of the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Dr. Braithwaite and her colleagues compared yearly breast cancer screening with screening every two years to see if there were differences in the stage of diagnosis. The results showed that, for women ages 66-74, the risk of having breast cancer detected at a later stage is no greater for women screened every two years than it is for women screened annually.

The study also looked at how screening intervals affected the number of false-positive test results. For women ages 66 – 89, Dr. Braithwaite found that women screened yearly were more likely to have false-positive results than were women screened every two years.

The results of this study may not resolve the ongoing debate about breast cancer screening intervals, but these new findings provide valuable information for older women discussing the impact of screening yearly versus every two years.

Recently, we caught up with Dr. Braithwaite to ask her a few questions about the impact of the Foundation’s fellowship on her career and the importance of funding cancer prevention and early detection research. Here is what she had to say:

How did receiving an earlier Prevent Cancer Foundation/American Society of Preventive Oncology fellowship impact your career in breast cancer research?

Receiving a Prevent Cancer Foundation/American Society of Preventive Oncology fellowship enabled me to develop further expertise in cancer prevention research and epidemiology. I am incredibly grateful to the Prevent Cancer Foundation for helping to launch my career in breast cancer research.

Why is it important to fund research in prevention and early detection?

Cancer, especially breast cancer, is a common disease and one of the leading causes of death around the globe. Through prevention and early detection, our goal is to reduce the disease burden and improve life expectancy.

Learn more about the innovative research being funded by the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Keynote speaker John Polanowicz, Massachusetts HHS Secretary, talks with Michael McCalla, MSHA, at a break.

The Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Dialogue for Action on Cancer Screening: Hitting the Targets took place in Baltimore on March 20 – 22, 2013. Over 200 attendees from diverse health professions came from 35 states and the District of Columbia, six tribes and Urban Indian Health Organizations and Japan to be part of this lively and dynamic interactive conference on access, quality and cost of health care.

Since the conference, we’ve heard many positive comments from attendees by email and phone and in our online survey (with about a 50% response rate).

Here are some of the comments shared by attendees:

“This is always my favorite conference to attend all year and wish others emulated it in both style and substance. Even the small details of food choices matching the mantra of healthier choices and behaviors is emphasized.”

“It was well worth the investment of time and money!”

“The speakers were experts in their fields—thank you. All levels of the diverse audience benefited from the information. The conference certainly inspired innovative thought and debate. This is what generates great healthcare quality!”

From left: moderator Cliff Goodman, PhD, & Seiji Hayashi, MD, MPH, Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA, & Joe Lipscomb, PhD, discuss access, quality & cost of health care.

Here are the top three reasons for coming to the Dialogue:

1. Informative Presentations: “Information on current trends, innovations and updates on cancer screening” was key to over 80% of attendees.
2. Networking Opportunities: “Networking” was named by over 64%; some also noted that speakers were very accessible. One attendee wrote, “It was a wonderful networking opportunity. I am coming away with some good tools to implement in our prevention program.”
3. Expert Speakers: “Speakers on the agenda” was named as a draw by over 50%. One attendee commented that “the outstanding panels provided a wealth of information which proved useful in understanding the current changes which affect my job.”

Attendees plan to ‘keep the Dialogue going’ with actions on cancer screening that they plan to take after the Dialogue:

From left: Lillie Shockley, RN, MAS, & Jennifer Smith, PhD, MPH, share perspectives in a small-group discussion.

• Over half plan to implement change in their workplaces or communities
• Over 60% plan to contact colleagues they met at the Dialogue to discuss or collaborate on cancer screening activities

Check out the two-page overview of the 2013 Dialogue.

Since 1999, the focus of the Dialogue has been on colorectal cancer screening. This year, the Dialogue expanded to include mandated guidelines-driven screenings for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, as well as screenings for skin, prostate and lung cancers. Continuing education credit is available for physicians, nursing professionals and certified health education specialists.

If you’re a professional working in cancer screening, put this on your calendar: March 20 – 21, 2014 (with March 19 as pre-conference day), and join us at the Dialogue next year! Send your ideas and suggestions for 2014 session topics and speakers to me at Karen.Peterson@preventcancer.org.

Read the full Reuters article

Tell us about your project aimed at reducing colorectal cancer risk in polyp patients and their families.

Although all of the current guidelines for colorectal cancer screening describe the importance of a family history of cancer, they also include a family history of polyps as a risk factor for patients and doctors to be aware of. But we suspected that knowing about your family history of polyps is difficult, because there is a whole chain of communication that this information has to pass through: When patients are diagnosed with colon polyps (in particular, the kind called an “adenoma“), they need to be told about the polyps by their gastroenterologists. Then the patients need to tell their relatives. Then the relatives need to tell their own doctors. We had no idea if this communication was something that happened routinely, or if there were breaks in the communication chain. So we set out to ask patients who had polyps what they were told by their doctors and whether they in turn told their family members.

What did you find out through your research on communication about colorectal polyps?

Our most interesting finding was that very few patients with polyps reported that their doctors told them to share that information with their family members. We also found that most patients with polyps didn’t tell all their siblings about their colonoscopies, though women were more likely than men to tell all their siblings and people with family histories of colon cancer were also more likely to tell their siblings.

Based on your research, what recommendations do you have for patients undergoing a colonoscopy?

Always ask for a copy of your colonoscopy report, including the pathology reports from any biopsies that were taken. Sometimes the doctor performing the colonoscopy will remove polyps during the procedure, but the type of polyp cannot be known until the pathology report is issued. Many people thought they had polyps removed, but then the pathology report found that what looked like a polyp was just normal colon tissue. We recommend that people with adenomas tell their brothers and sisters about those polyps, especially if there is a family history of colon cancer. If several people in the same family have had colon cancer and/or colon adenomas, they can consider asking for a referral to a cancer genetics clinic to see if genetic testing makes sense for their family.

How did receiving a Prevent Cancer Foundation grant impact your research?

It’s challenging to find funding for research in the area of patient-physician communication, or to do research that involves surveys. My colleagues and I are so grateful for the funding from the Prevent Cancer Foundation, because it enabled us to get a really good understanding of these communication issues. Since colorectal cancer is one of the few cancers that can be detected at an early stage, or prevented altogether, it is critically important for people to communicate openly with their doctors and family members so that they can get the right test at the right age. We are now working to develop some new and innovative tools to help with this complicated chain of communication and would not have been able to move forward without the funding from the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Read the Full Philadelphia Inquirer Article

Surbhi Jain, PhD, is postdoctoral researcher at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. One of her major research goals is to develop a reliable non-invasive method for the early detection of liver cancer. Dr. Jain credits the Prevent Cancer Foundation with helping her work towards this goal by “motivating [her] to work hard with confidence…”

3. Why is it important to fund research in the field of cancer prevention and early detection?

Success in the treatment of individuals with cancer often depends upon early detection.  The earlier a tumor is detected, the better the prognosis.  The survival rates drop dramatically as the stage of cancer progresses. Not only does the treatment become increasingly complex and agonizing for the patient, but it is also a drain on personal financial and national economic resources. More research and work needs to be done for particularly aggressive cancers such as liver cancer and pancreatic cancer for which early detection is the only key to survival.

The screening tests that are developed also need to be patient-friendly. For example, in spite of having colonoscopy as a good screening test for colon cancer, the screening rate is lower than desired due to the inherent discomfort associated with the procedure.  There is an urgent need to develop “non-invasive” tests for early detection of cancer in order to have better screening rates.

Cancer treatment is moving towards personalized medicine. Thus knowing the genetic makeup of the tumor “non-invasively” and at an early stage is extremely crucial for effective treatment. To fully benefit from this new wave of personalized medicine, there is an imminent need for non-invasive research in early detection of tumor presence and its genetic makeup.

4. How did receiving a Prevent Cancer Foundation grant impact your research?

The Prevent Cancer Foundation fellowship has motivated me to work hard with confidence in this project’s great potential to detect cancer early with a non-invasive urine genetic test.

This study has resulted in key discovery of liver-specific methylation patterns and the identification of liver- cancer specific methylated CpG sites. This information is extremely vital for a successful assay design of a urine-based test. The study provides proof of concept that it is feasible to develop a urine test that can pick up tumor signatures from the liver (and, by extension, from any tumor in the body) with sufficient sensitivity and specificity to be used as a screening test for early detection of cancer. The information obtained from this study has provided preliminary data for multiple grants in the field of liver cancer research. The technology developed towards designing these assays can be used as a platform technology to detect essentially any cancer in the body, because all tumors dump their apoptotic DNA into circulating blood.

This funding has contributed tremendously towards my professional growth. I have co-authored 5 publications (two as first author and one as co-corresponding author), presented at the 2012 International Symposium on Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and completed a certificate course in Biostatistics as a direct result of this highly regarded fellowship.

Three years ago, I got introduced to the field of cancer prevention, and it is so promising that I can see myself working in this arena long term. I want to thank Prevent Cancer Foundation for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter

Throughout his term in the United States Senate, which spanned three decades, Senator Specter supported funding for biomedical research, embryonic stem cell research and access to quality care for patients from prevention through treatment.  Senator Specter represented the State of Pennsylvania, home to a myriad of corporate, academic and nonprofit medical research leaders and understood the complexities of biomedical research, but also the enormous impact that it has on patients.

Prevent Cancer Foundation was proud to work alongside the Senator and recognize his work with several awards during his tenure. These acknowledgements include the Courage Award through a former program of the Foundation, Tracy’s Kids, as well as the National Coalition for Cancer Research (NCCR) Congressional Champions Award.  The NCCR is a research-focused policy coalition on which Prevent Cancer Foundation serves as a member of the Board of Directors.  Additionally, as former President of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR), we had the honor of presenting him with the Champion of Stem Cell Research Award through the CAMR coalition to commend his leadership in regenerative medicine.

We offer our condolences to the Senator’s family, and also our thanks and admiration.  We will continue our work to ensure that the research he championed in the US Senate will continue to yield even greater results to reduce the burden of disease and help individuals protect themselves from cancer.

Read the Full UPI Article

Though local and national government efforts have recently attempted to regulate indoor tanning by implementing a tanning tax or banning usage by minors, tanning bed use remains popular, particularly among young adults.  Researchers of the study encourage more active interventions and stricter protocols that discourage use of tanning beds as a prevention mechanism for skin cancer.

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