Feb. 16--PLATTSBURGH -- The response to a request for volunteers for a long-term cancer study far exceeded expectations.
The American Cancer Society held a volunteer sign-up session for Cancer Prevention Study 3 during last summer's Relay for Life fundraiser at the Clinton County Fairgrounds.
As participants focused their energies on raising funds for and awareness of cancer research, they also had an opportunity to enroll in the Cancer Prevention Study, a grassroots effort to collect information on cancer trends from 500,000 Americans.
"Our goal was to enroll 200 people (during the regional Relay for Life)," said Joan Sterling, community executive for the American Cancer Society of Clinton and Essex Counties. "We enrolled 262 and actually turned away 40 more because we ran out of kits."
Sterling and Linda Boire of CVPH Medical Center organized the North Country enrollment process, which resulted in a ranking of 10 across the nation for participant response to the initial survey information.
"These people have signed up because they want to make a difference," Sterling said. "They understand that they are playing a significant role in cancer research."
Information collected decades ago from the first Cancer Prevention Study was instrumental in identifying the impact cigarettes have on cancer.
This new wave of participants may reveal other factors just as significant as they submit surveys every two years for the next two decades.
The American Cancer Society will host a Relay for Life in Saratoga Springs June 4 and will hold a Cancer Prevention Study 3 sign-up at that event. Those who did not have a chance to sign up in Plattsburgh can do so in Saratoga, Sterling noted.
Participants must not be cancer patients.
E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com
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