Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Derek Raghavan hosted a superb 3 day conference Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Intercontinental Hotel highlighting an incredibly difficult challenge facing northeast Ohio - African Americans and Cancer. Despite many "awareness" campaigns, blacks in this area continue to have higher mortality rates than other races for many of the more predominant cancers - breast, prostate and colon.

Dr. Raghavan brought to town a stellar panel of experts, including Dr. Otis Brawley of Emory University in Atlanta. As Dr. Brawley and many of his colleagues pointed out, scientific studies show much of the disparity in cancer moratlity is based on socioeconimic status. Solutions lie in ensuring patients have access to quality health care, not just for screening, but also for treatment.

We'll be posting more about the conference in weeks to come, but its important to note that the conference brought together key players in the health care, advocacy and African American community, with NOBCCF the only breast cancer group present. Here's hoping those alliances will continue as well as progress in reshaping the effort to lower cancer mortality in the area.

Sometime in the next several weeks, a new clinical trial will begin to validate the accuracy of the OncotypeDX test. You've probably heard of the new test, introduced last year, which provides a genetic "fingerprint" of some breast cancer tumors to predict whether a patient is at risk of having a recurrence and thereby avoid chemotherapy if their risk is low.

The TailorRX trial will focus on patients whose test scores for their tumor fall in the middle range of scores - where its hard to definitively predict risk of recurrence.

Following is a link to a recent article in the New York Times about the trial. It will be conducted at most of the major cancer centers in Ohio and nationwide. We'll keep you advised of new developments!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/health/12chemo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Consumer Reports, the bible of independent consumer ratings, has introduced a new database of information on thousands of herbs, dietary supplements and other natural medicines, a response to the enormous growth in the use of these products.

The database, called the National Medicines Comprehensive Database, is easy to read and contains detailed information on the safety, effectiveness and possible harmful interactions of nearly 14,000 supplements. The web site is available for a $19 annual fee.

There are two other similar databases that are publicly funded through the National Institutes of Health which are free to the public. But the Consumers Union database has even more detailed information.

Links to all three web sites:

Consumer Reports
http://www.consumerreportsmedicalguide.org/

Office of Dietary Supplements
http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
http://www.nccam.nih.gov/