'Ending Cervical Cancer in our Lifetime'
National Lieutenant Governors Association
UTAH
Tooele Transcript Bulletin
Walkers take strides against breast cancer
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Almost 2,500 Utahns walked to support the fight against breast cancer by helping
to raise almost $135,000 for the American Cancer Society's first-ever Making
Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Salt Lake City at Liberty Park. In Utah
in 2006, it is estimated that 1,200 women will be newly diagnosed with breast
cancer and another 230 will lose their battles with the disease. All funds
raised through Making Strides Against Breast Cancer will be dedicated to breast
cancer research, education, advocacy, patient services and programs. The
American Cancer Society is the nation's largest non-government supporter of
breast cancer research. Currently, the Society is funding 186 breast cancer
research projects across the nation, totaling over $96 million. Advocacy efforts
and programs such as Reach to Recovery, Look Good ... Feel Better, Road to
Recovery and I Can Cope are designed to help breast cancer patients, survivors
and their families throughout New Mexico. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
began at 7:30 a.m. with registration of walkers at Liberty Park. The walk began
at 8:30 a.m. with walkers making three laps around Liberty Park. Breast cancer
survivors were honored with special pink T-shirts. Lt. Governor Gary Herbert was
on hand to promote a new state initiative to increase screenings for breast and
cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast
Cancer walk is generously sponsored by St. Mark's Hospital, Stampin' Up and the
Tanger Outlet Center in Park City. Fox 13 Television and KOSY 106.5 FM served as
this year's media sponsors. Honorary Co-Chairs of the walk are Hope Woodside,
News Anchor, Fox 13 and Abby Bonell, on-air personality for KOSY 106.5. The
American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community-based, voluntary health
organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by
preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer through
research, education, advocacy and service. If you or a loved one needs help or
information about cancer, please call anytime, 24 hours a day, 7 days a wee at
1-800-ACS-2345, or visit our website at
www.cancer.org.
The October
12, 2006 press conference was covered by
The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret Morning News, CBS 2, ABC 4, KSL 5, FOX 13,
Univision, NPR, KUER, Clear Channel Radio. Fox 13 was airing stories on the
10:00 am news conference as part of their 11:00 am news.
The Salt
Lake City Tribune
Utah kicks off new campaign to snuff out cervical cancer
10/13/2006 2:13 pm, By
Carey Hamilton
State officials and the American Cancer Society have kicked off a
campaign to reduce cervical cancer cases, and the society plans to ask the
Legislature for $600,000 to help fund the project. Their goal is to spread
awareness that the disease is highly preventable and encourage more Utah women
to get screened under the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
The National Lieutenant Governor's Association chose Utah as one of 10 states to
participate in the "End Cervical Cancer in our Lifetime" campaign.
"For lack of information and for lack of knowledge, women are dying," said
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert at a news conference at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on
Wednesday. The National Lieutenant Governor's Association will supply 8,000
kits containing information on the disease and a bracelet with beads to remind
people about the importance of getting tested. Volunteers will pass them out at
events statewide, beginning with this Saturday's Making Strides Against Breast
Cancer walk at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City (http://www.cancer.org/stridesonline).
"By educating the community, we can save lives," said Rose Defa, regional
vice president of the American Cancer Society's Utah chapter. A virus called
human papillomavirus causes 99.7 percent of all cervical cancer cases. It is a
sexually transmitted disease that affects up to 80 percent of sexually active
Americans. In 2005, about 10,370 women in the United States developed cervical
cancer and about 3,710 died from it, according to the American Cancer Society.
In Utah, 50 to 100 women get cervical cancer each year, with about 25 to 40
percent of those dying from it. This
year, the early detection program received $2.5 million from the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and $485,000 from the Utah Tobacco Settlement
Fund. Officials say that will fund screening for about one in five women who
can't afford the tests, which cost about $330 out-of-pocket, said Michael Siler,
director of government relations for the Utah chapter. The screening is
available to women 50 to 64 years old who earn 250 percent of the federal
poverty rate or less. The campaign will alert parents to Gardasil, the first
vaccine to prevent the virus. Approved by the FDA this year, it is recommended
for females ages nine to 26.
Karen Zempolich, who worked on the Gardasil clinical trial at Huntsman,
said parents should not avoid the vaccine out of fears their daughters will
become promiscuous. She said many women unknowingly contract the virus from
unfaithful partners. "What I see is women who thought they were doing all the
right things and their husbands or partners weren't," Zempolich said. "Now
they're divorced with young children and dying from cervical cancer."
KCPW
October 12, 2006
HPV Vaccine Part of Push
(KCPW News) Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert is
partnering with the American Cancer Society to raise awareness about cervical
cancer, the second-most common form of cancer in women. Part of the effort will
highlight a new vaccine for the sexually transmitted Human Papillomavirus, which
causes cervical cancer. Herbert says he wants to get the information out and let
parents decide whether to vaccinate their girls: "We are just in the process of
giving information," says Herbert. "How people address it, what they do with it
inside the confines of their own home, their own families, their own mores -
that's up to them." Herbert announced yesterday that Utah is one of 10 states
chosen to participate in the End Cervical Cancer in Our Lifetime campaign,
funded in part by a grant from the National Lieutenant Governor's Association.
Eight thousand educational brochures and bead kits - which become awareness
bracelets - will be distributed over the next year. In addition, the American
Cancer Society intends to ask the Utah Legislature to increase its annual
appropriation to cover more cervical cancer screenings for low income women.
Deseret News
Utah Chosen for Cancer Campaign
October 12, 2006
By Lois Collins
About 3,700 American women will die from cervical cancer this year, although
when it's detected early most cases are curable. And the real tragedy, according
to state officials and health experts, is the disease is preventable.
Wednesday, Utah Lt. Gov. Gary
Herbert and first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman announced a cancer initiative to
educate the public about the disease. Utah is one of 10 states selected by the
National Lieutenant Governors Association to participate in a privately funded
campaign they're calling "End Cervical Cancer in Our Lifetime." "Cervical
cancer is highly preventable," said Rose Defa, vice president of the American
Cancer Society, which is co-sponsoring the campaign. "We can eliminate this in
our lifetime. It's doable."
She said cervical cancer found while still localized is 92 percent
survivable. Before it turns into cancer, the pre-invasive lesions on the cervix
are nearly 100 percent curable. A half-million such precancerous cases are
diagnosed in the United States each year. Since cervical cancer is both
predictable and preventable, "it's astounding we haven't eliminated it," said
Dr. Karen Zempolich, a gynecologic oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
"It leaves children motherless and it leaves women childless." Huntsman said
the hope is to eventually have a vaccine for all types of cancers. In cervical
cancer's case, there actually is one. A virus called human papillomavirus (HPV)
is responsible for more than 99 percent of cervical cancers. Nearly all sexually
active adults at some point are infected with HPV, which is spread by skin to
skin genital contact.
Zempolich said cancer experts in Utah see about 50 to 100 cases of invasive
cervical cancer a year. Experts say the vaccine is most effective if given
before first sexual contact ever occurs. Herbert said the lieutenant governors
are promoting educating people about the HPV vaccine. "Ignorance is not
acceptable. People can choose. It's not a mandatory vaccine." The virus
typically has no symptoms and usually disappears on its own, but some HPV may
stay in the body for years and lead to cervical cancer. A simple, routine pap
test is used to detect abnormal cells in the cervix caused by the virus, which
are a precursor to cancer.
For women who are uninsured, underinsured or between jobs, Defa said the
cost of cancer screening may be prohibitive. Part of the coalition's effort will
be asking the Utah Legislature for an additional $600,000 to screen women who
cannot afford the tests. The American Cancer Society says it costs about $330
per woman for both breast cancer and cervical cancer screening. Utah gets about
$2.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to screen women
ages 50-64 who are at or below 250 percent of poverty. The state provides
$485,000 from its share of the tobacco settlement to pay for screening for
women, including "stretching the base" to those 40-49. Still, only about 6.5
percent of income-eligible women are screened for the diseases through the
program, said Michael Siler, local American Cancer Society director of
government relations. Hispanic women are most at risk of developing cervical
cancer, Herbert said — twice as likely to develop it as Caucasians, while
African Americans are 50 percent more likely. More than half of women who
develop cervical cancer rarely or never had a Pap test, according to the
American Cancer Society. Herbert said the campaign in Utah will kick off this
Saturday during the "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk in Liberty Park.
The Utah group hopes over the next few months to distribute 8,000 of the
education packets and bead kits. Information about the disease is online at
www.maketheconnection.org.