UAMS Seminar on Colorectal Cancer March 6
| LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Arkansas Cancer Research Center (ACRC) at UAMS will hold a free public seminar about colorectal cancer Saturday, March 6.
This special program, part of the Eighth Annual Charles William Rasco III Symposium on Colorectal Cancer, will be held from 12:15 to 3:45 p.m. in Sam Walton Auditorium on the 10th floor of ACRC. To register, call (501) 526-7563.
The symposium will cover colorectal cancer prevention studies, risk factors, screening tools and surgical treatment. Each 20-minute presentation will be followed by a 15-minute period for questions from the audience.
Two of the speakers will be UAMS College of Medicine faculty members – Sandeep Bhargava, M.D., an assistant professor of internal medicine (gastroenterology and hepatology), and Niazy Selim, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery. Others will be Peter Lance, M.D., of the University of Arizona and the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson; David Lieberman, M.D., of the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland; and Mark Dignan, Ph.D., of the University of Kentucky Prevention Research Center in Lexington. Nicholas P. Lang, M.D., chief of staff at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) and a professor of surgery in the UAMS College of Medicine and at ACRC, will preside over the program.
Local restaurants will provide samples of healthy foods during the seminar. Free parking for participants will be available in the UAMS outpatient parking deck across from ACRC at the corner of Elm Street and Capitol Avenue. Co-sponsored by CAVHS, the Rasco Symposium is named in honor of an Arkansan whose battle with colon cancer included his participation in a clinical trial at ACRC.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in men and women in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that 106,370 new cases of colon cancer and 40,570 new cases of rectal cancer will be diagnosed in 2004. This year, colorectal cancer is expected to cause approximately 56,730 deaths – accounting for about 10 percent of all cancer deaths in the country. However, this disease is preventable and highly treatable when detected early.