A new landmark clinical study is taking place to determine the best ways to prevent cancer. St. Joseph’s Hospital, a cancer treatment center in Florida, is helping the ACS find “cancer fighters” living near Tampa Bay who wish to join this new study being conducted nationwide. The research study is about how lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors might cause or even prevent cancer.
This oncology clinical study is open to both men and women between the ages of 30 and 65, with the only major stipulation being that participants have never been diagnosed with any type of cancer. If you would like to join, you can visit the St. Joseph’s Hospitals on the following dates:
July 19, 12 – 4 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North
July 27, 12 – 4 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa
July 28, 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at the Bob Sierra YMCA
At these events, participants will be asked to do the following things:
- read and sign a consent form
- complete a questionnaire
- provide physical measurements (like height, weight, waist size, heart rate and blood pressure)
- give a small blood sample, height, weight and blood pressure information.
When back at home, individuals will receive a periodic follow-up survey and research updates via the study’s annual newsletter.
Participants won’t have to have all of the answers for the questionnaire during the enrollment event – there’s actually going to be a specific timeframe for people to go back and do some research on their health history, if need be. What they suggest to do prior to attending is to do explore the CPS-3 website and do some research before registering.
Says St. Joseph’s Cancer Institute Director Brad Smith, “By participating in this study, you can personally contribute to the fight against cancer. Just as CPS-1 and CPS-2 helped us better understand the harmful effects of smoking, CPS-3 promises to help us better understand the relationship between other factors and cancer. We need to know what genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors can cause and or prevent cancer to help protect our children and grandchildren.”
This clinical research study will follow the participants for a duration of over 20 years. Once someone is enrolled, they will be contacted every two years via questionnaires delivered by mail. St. Joseph’s Hospitals Cancer Institute is hoping that individuals in the community will pay homage to their loved ones who’ve been affected by cancer in the form of joining in this new cancer prevention study.
“It might take a few years to reach the goal of 300,000 people, but the faster we enroll participants and complete the surveys, the faster we can learn even more about the causes and prevention of cancer,” said Smith.
While they intend to enroll across every division of the American Cancer Society (ACS) over the next 5 years, they will not be enrolling in every state. The decision to do this was based on many factors including the quality of state cancer registries, proximity of the study laboratory partner facilities and population density. Here are the states that will be participating: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, San Diego, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virgina, Washington, Wisconson, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
For more information about the study call St. Joseph’s Cancer HelpLine at (813) 870-4123 or visit http://acsgld.org/cps3tampa/.
