Stand Up To Cancer

The countdown is on - just 24 hours to go until the big show! And this week's spate of cancer news is proof positive that now is the time to pull together for a cure. Of course, it ain't news to anyone that health in America is inextricably linked to race and class. But I was still surprised to read the results of a study showing that African American women are less likely to get follow-up treatments for breast cancer than their white peers. We've got even further to go than most people think.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0332690620080903?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

On the plus side, have you heard about this new molecular imaging for breast cancer? It works better than mammography on dense breast tissue, and it's cheaper than an MRI. The technique still has years of validation ahead of it, but it's yet another step toward more accurate - and more comfortable - breast cancer screening.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26529277/

Yet another compelling reason to quit smoking - the CDC just announced that the tally of cancer cases caused by tobacco in the five years between 1999 and 2004 tops two million. Most surprising to me is the fact that only half those cancers were lung/bronchial. Other biggies include mouth, throat and bladder cancer. If ever you needed evidence that smoking takes a toll on your whole body, now you have it.
www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20080904/tobacco-tied-cancer-cases-top-2-million

SU2C is founded on the principle that we live in a time of earth-shattering discoveries in cancer research, so it's fitting that one such discovery would be announced the day before our show. Some docs at a little college called Yale have observed a molecular process normally restricted to cancer cells - in normal cells. "It seems that rather than scrambling chromosomes to invent new genes, cancers mimic normal cellular processes, but in an exaggerated and unregulated fashion. You might say that cancers are clever but not very original," said the study's lead author.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904145200.htm

Today's Time has a great rundown of some of the hurdles the cancer-fighting establishment currently faces. And guess who gets a shout-out on the first page? "A new and more radical approach is being taken by groups like the newly formed Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), which plans to finance research designed to deliver big leaps and home runs rather than the incremental improvements that are more typical of mainstream science." Damn right!
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838776,00.html

Okay, homework's over. You know what that means - now you can watch TV! Tune in tomorrow at 8/7 central. Time to stand up!

--Cat