Cancer. The very word scares. Do I have it? How can I get it? How can I prevent it? What is the best treatment?
To find answers to these questions, we need to develop better scientific data through research. You've heard about the basic research, like those using test tubes with doctors and technicians in white lab coats. You may also be familiar with studies that are at work to identify the most effective treatments for different kinds of cancers. Treatment and prevention studies like these are called clinical trials, meaning that they involve people.
You may not be aware, however, that the largest clinical trial ever undertaken is taking place right here is Hawaii. The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial will enroll 148,000 men and women across the nation. Hawaii is one of 10 sites for this important nationwide study.
Together, prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancers account for approximately half of all cancers diagnosed and half of the cancer deaths in the United States. Today two of every five people will develop cancer, and half of those will die from this disease. The PLCO trial may help us significantly reduce cancer deaths through early detection and treatment.
The test being studied may detect these cancers before symptoms develop, but whether treatments at this stage will reduce the chance of dying from the diseases remains unknown. Some cancer screening tests very clearly reduce the number of deaths from disease, such as Pap tests that have reduced deaths from cervical cancer.
But many other tests are being routinely used to screen healthy people for cancer when there is insufficient evidence that they reduce the number of deaths from the disease.
Men and women, ages 55 to 74, can participate in this clinical trial. If eligible, based on the criteria of this trial, volunteers will be "randomized," or selected by chance, either to have the screening tests (intervention group) or to continue their usual health care (control group). Both groups will answer yearly questionnaires about their health. No medications are involved. All screening tests are free.
To find these important answers, we need the help of Hawaii's residents. Your participation in this clinical trial will help us find important answers about the early detection and treatment of these four cancers -- cancers that account for nearly half of cancer deaths in the nation.
If saving lives is something you like thinking about, please kokua by calling PLCO-Hawaii, at 545-3006 or 1-800-834-7500 for more information.
More information about the trial is also available on the World Wide Web (http://www.dcpc.nci.nih.gov/PLCO).
What: Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, the largest national clinical trial ever undertaken.