Cancer Deaths

Charles Yeo could hardly have been mistaken for a preacher, not with the white lab coat. But as the surgeon mingled among the crowd in a ground floor auditorium at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, one could see why he referred to the mid-November gathering as "almost a religious experience. " It was the fifth annual Pancreatic Cancer symposium, a chance for survivors and those recently diagnosed to learn about the latest advances and - not least - to give each other moral support.

Timothy Loudenslager's cancer seemed to come right out of nowhere. One minute he's eating a sandwich at Preston's Diner, as he always does. The next minute, he says, he tries tipping the waitress four times. That's how dizzy he was. An ambulance takes him away that afternoon. Then the doctors tell him he has a tumor in a lung and one in his brain. Now, two months later, Loudenslager, 53, is walking with a cane and wearing a cap to hide the baldness from his cobalt treatments.

After a review of six cancer victims reported in a Horsham neighborhood, the state Department of Health has ruled out the chance that the cause was linked to a similar environmental source. Dr. Robert A. Houseknecht, acting director of the state's chronic disease department and a cancer epidemiologist, said last week that there was no connection in the cancer deaths of six Willowbrook Road residents. Four of the victims had lung cancer, breast cancer was diagnosed in one and another had bladder cancer.

Living on or near Cherry Street in Beverly City can be hazardous to your health, residents from that area plan to tell local, state and federal officials at a special hearing Wednesday night. Residents said they were concerned about the number of cancer deaths that have been reported in the area. They believe the cause of the cancer is the chemical wastes that have been dumped on the 6.7-acre lot owned by the Cosden Chemical Coatings Corp. at Manor Road and Cherry Street. Cosden is one of the state's 96 Superfund sites.

Lung cancer cases among men have dropped significantly, the National Cancer Institute reported yesterday in its annual statistical survey. Overall, the institute said, death rates for all cancers were "essentially stable . . . for both blacks and whites" from 1973 to 1985, the last year covered in the survey. But analysis showed markedly differing trends for a number of cancer sites. For example, lung cancer incidence was down from 84 cases per 100,000 white men in 1984 to 80.5 in 1985 and from 135.5 to 124.7 for black men. The institute attributed the decrease to a decline in cigarette smoking.

The ARCO Chemical Co. has awarded the Fox Chase Cancer Center a $25,000 grant to train physicians, nurses and public health personnel to operate liver-cancer prevention centers. The grant will be used to distribute information gained at Fox Chase to other cancer centers in the United States, Asia and Africa. The World Health Organization lists liver cancer as one of the three most common causes of cancer deaths in the world. The Northeast Health Spa at Krewstown Road and Grant Avenue will hold an open house this week celebrating its complete renovation.

Heart attacks stalk Roxborough-Manayunk and the Far Northeast. Cancer strikes hardest among men in the Lower Northeast and in South- Southwest Philadelphia. And a swath of poverty-level city neighborhoods has been revealed as a "cancer-plus" killing field - a section hard-hit by cancer and a number of other deadly diseases. Those are the results of two studies of major causes of death in Philadelphia, done for the city Health Department in the mid-1980s. The reasons why cancer and some other diseases take an especially heavy toll in certain parts of the city were the focus of an uncompleted Health Department survey that has been sidelined for a lack of funds.

1Colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum) is the second-leading cancer killer in the United States. 2Colon cancer is an equal opportunity disease, affecting men and women of all racial and ethnic groups and socio-economic backgrounds. 3Colon cancer is most often found in people older than 50, but some people may get the disease at a younger age, especially those with genetic predispositions. 4About 60 percent of colorectal cancer deaths could be prevented with regular screenings.

A vast human experiment on the health hazards of radiation is beginning to unfold with millions of people acting as the unwitting subjects. It is an experiment stemming from the April 26 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which scientists say released as much radioactivity into the environment as all of the atomic-bomb tests of the 1950s and 1960s put together. Scientists hope that the Soviet accident, which has killed 31 people so far and forced the evacuation of 135,000 others, will shed some new light on how low levels of radiation affect people's health.

Under perfect weather conditions - not too hot, not too cold - thousands walked, ran and strolled along The Parkway yesterday in the 10th annual Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure. "I'm a physician, and I have a number of patients who have cancer, so it's a win-win situation today," said Joe Howe of West Deptford, N.J., as he took a breather in front of Rodin's "Thinker. " Elizabeth Howe, who joined her father, said: "I'm here for my brother-in-law's mom. She's a breast cancer survivor.

1Colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum) is the second-leading cancer killer in the United States. 2Colon cancer is an equal opportunity disease, affecting men and women of all racial and ethnic groups and socio-economic backgrounds. 3Colon cancer is most often found in people older than 50, but some people may get the disease at a younger age, especially those with genetic predispositions. 4About 60 percent of colorectal cancer deaths could be prevented with regular screenings.

Charles Yeo could hardly have been mistaken for a preacher, not with the white lab coat. But as the surgeon mingled among the crowd in a ground floor auditorium at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, one could see why he referred to the mid-November gathering as "almost a religious experience. " It was the fifth annual Pancreatic Cancer symposium, a chance for survivors and those recently diagnosed to learn about the latest advances and - not least - to give each other moral support.

NEW YORK - Aspirin, one of the world's oldest and cheapest drugs, has shown remarkable promise in treating colon cancer in people with mutations in a gene that's thought to play a role in the disease. Among patients with the mutations, those who regularly took aspirin lived longer than those who didn't, a major study found. Five years after their cancers were diagnosed, 97 percent of the aspirin users were still alive versus 74 percent of those not taking the drug. Aspirin seemed to make no difference in patients who did not have the mutations.

But for the touch of his wife, Mike Campbell might not have found the lump lurking under his left pectoral muscle until it was too late. For Harvey I. Singer, it took the shooting pain from an old friend's bear hug to finally persuade him to ask his doctor about the change in his left breast. Neither Campbell nor Singer was prepared for the news that his doctor eventually delivered. Even today, most men would be shocked by a similar diagnosis: Campbell and Singer had breast cancer.

WITH WORRIES about the economy and stress over the Thanksgiving holiday, you may have forgotten that Nov. 18 was the Great American Smoke Out. This annual event encourages Americans who smoke and or use tobacco products to quit for a single day, with the hope that they will eventually quit for good. Quitting for good is not only the healthiest thing to do, but the most intelligent, too. During the recent holiday, I had the displeasure of reminding a relative of the oh-so-obvious facts about the dangers of cigarette smoking.

Pfizer Inc.'s hormones, once used by millions of women to ease menopause symptoms, almost doubled the death risk from breast cancer, a U.S. study found. The findings from the U.S.-funded Women's Health Initiative are the first to tie Pfizer's hormone replacement therapy Prempro, already linked to higher rates of breast cancer and heart disease, to increased mortality from tumors. Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, on Tuesday won its sixth of 13 jury cases over Prempro's health risks an hour before the research was reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

THERE are two glaring problems with the Senate health bill. First, it takes $464 billion out of Medicare over 10 years, of which $120 billion comes out of Medicare Advantage, unless you live in New York, Oregon or Florida, exempted cuts through a special deal made before the bill went to the floor. These cuts can't be good for Medicare, which is already becoming insolvent. Those with Medicare Advantage will be forced to buy a Medigap policy to replace the coverage they now have.

Before the plumes of radioactive material wafted over farms, homes, schools and parks around Three Mile Island, waves of fear and dread spread through the region. Within three days after the March 28 accident, people reported classic symptoms of radiation sickness - they vomited, they felt nauseous, their hair fell out. Pets and farm animals died unexpectedly. But no radiation escaped until the fourth day of the crisis, say independent physicists with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Phyllis Cooperman and her daughter Lisa Kolar jogged arm in arm across the finish line of the Philadelphia Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure yesterday morning with huge smiles on their faces. "We do it together," said Cooperman, 63, a 17-year breast-cancer survivor running in her 12th race. All told, 20 members of the family joined 45,000 others running, jogging and walking the 3.1 mile course on a bright, brisk Mother's Day morning to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research and treatment.

There's good news in the war on cancer. Fewer people died of cancer in 2004 than in the previous 12 months - the second straight year that U.S. cancer deaths dropped. The American Cancer Society thinks this new statistic means that a small decline in 2003 wasn't just a fluke but the start of a positive trend. People are taking preventive measures - and they're working. Regular screenings by a health-care professional can prevent cervical and colorectal cancers. Mammography has improved early detection of breast cancer and boosted survival rates.