Today was All About Cancer Research in NJ

Today was the 2011 Annual Cancer Retreat on Cancer Research in New Jersey. It took place at the UMDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway. The professional sessions were on Cell death and Survival Signaling , Genomic Instability and Tumor Progression,Cancer Pharmacology and Preclinical Therapeutics and Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention, Clinical Investigation , Cancer Prevention and Control , Cancer Biology, and Translation Sciences . All the research discussed was performed by NJ researchers. It made me proud to look through the program and see so many researchers in NJ investigating so many different aspects of cancer.

I attended the public forum Opportunities and Challenges :Advancing Cancer Survivorship in NJ and looked at a number of posters. The forum began with a talk by Generosa Grana, MD about the need for survivor care plans and how to coordinate the generation of those plans in various health care settings. Then Tayla Salz, PhD discussed the state of survivor care plans in place at NCI centers for breast and colorectal patients. Shawna Hudson, Phd discussed a study of patient experiences and perspectives of Follow-up care plans. While Ellen Levine spoke about community programs such as Cancer Transitions, and Jennifer Sullivan spoke about public policy advocacy in NJ.

One of the highlights of the day was finding that results of research that I took part in was on display at the poster session and one of the researchers Urmila Chandran was available for questions. So after lunch I found poster # 26 Healthy Eating Index and Ovarian Cancer Risk.For the study I was interviewed and asked to answer questions regarding my eating habits prior to being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The study investigated the association between the Healthy Eating Index ( adherence to the USDA guidelines) and ovarian cancer risk in a population-based case-control study in NJ. The study concluded that "there was limited evidence for a statistically significant association between any of the 12 individual food components and ovarian cancer risk. Based on the results neither individual food groups nor dietary quality showed potential for preventing ovarian cancer".

As a survivor I often wondered what may have caused my cancer or raised my risk for developing the disease. Back in 2005 I could have said no to answering all those questions but I didn't. Now six years later I can state that my diet did not raise my risk for this disease. Special thanks to the researchers at CINJ, UMDNJ Medical School, the NJ Dept of Health and Senior Services and Memorial Sloan Kettering for finding out the answer to one small piece of the puzzle.

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing!