The American Association for Cancer Research held its 92nd Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA. Over 17,000 people attended. Among these were a small number of cancer advocates(connected to various organizations). Most were invited by the leadership of this organization which offered a Scientist-Survivor Program. This special program has been in place since 1998. Scientists are asked to sit in on meetings with the advocates and help them understand some of the basic science that applies to the cancer area they represent. Additionally the meeting opens on Saturday each year with a Public Forum called "New Hope for Cancer Patients". There is a panel of presenters who talk about various directions that research is going in. Ann(a) Barker, former AACR president, told the audience that most Americans underestimate their cancer risk. Studies showed that people tended to think it was 1 in 100 whereas for men it is now 1 in 2 and for women 1 in 3, lifetime risk. Two advocates were part of this panel-Virgil Simpson, founder of Prostate Net (www.prostate-online.com) and Fran Visco, President of the National Breast Cancer Coalition (www.stopbreastcancer.org). Both spoke eloquently of the need for researchers to understand the human 'face' of cancer. Visco started her talk by protesting the fact that the advocate portion of the presentation was held so late that any scientists in the audience had to leave to attend seminars starting at noon. She said she had privately stated her position on this each year and was now making it public. After all the scientists already knew the basics of cancer research yet sat through 4 or 5 presentations pitched to the lay audience. She suggested it would be much more beneficial for them to hear the advocate position. John Potter, Ph.D spoke, as he has in past years, on the connection between diet and cancer. He spoke eloquently against smoking and deplored the rise in use of cigars. He is closely involved with the American Institute for Cancer Research which is greatly concerned with dietary issues. Questions were taken from the audience in written form and then people were offered the opportunity to come to the microphones. No one did so. After the meeting there was an opportunity to speak with individual scientists. Each researcher posted information about their area of expertise so that a woman interested in ovarian cancer could find someone to speak with, while someone concerned over lung or kidney cancer would go to that poster area. I went around to speak to as many of these researchers and patients as I could. I came with an abstract (a specially prepared paper) suggesting that the AACR researchers consider supporting a call for randomized multi-center clinical trials, (which is considered the BEST scientific evidence and would be acceptable to doctors and others) for patients receiving chemotherapy and using antioxidants versus patients just taking chemotherapy versus patients using antioxidants alone. This is called The Patient Track because The Annie Appleseed Project believes that the information obtained from such a study would be immediately useful for patients. Many of us are currently combining substances from the so-called alternative world with conventional therapies. Many of us do NOT tell our healthcare providers what we are doing. Thus a study like this could answer some important questions for everyone. Additionally, there would be no downside for the pharmaceutical companies. If they would agree to sponsor such a study, combining multiple vitamins (E,C, A, Selenium, OPC, EPA/DHA etc), they run no risk. If it proves useful to take vitamins with conventional therapies, then more patients could more comfortably take conventional therapy using this combination. If the study demonstrated that there was NO value in using vitamins with conventional therapy, then the pharmaceutical companies would be exactly where they were before. If you have not yet seen the Relevant Studies section on this website, please take a look at the many studies that seem to demonstrate that the use of vitamins can enhance the immune system and possibly protect the body during conventional therapy. Since studies show patients are already doing this type of combining, it can only be beneficial to us to KNOW if what we are doing is worthwhile. The Project, in common with other advocacy groups, would like to see patients or patient advocates involved in the design of such a study. Below you will find summaries of research posters presented at this conference. There were over 5000 posters and papers presented so this is going to be a very subjective summary. Third in a series of studies on Botanicals Study in mice with implications for humans Includes:Genistein/Tamoxifen, curcumin,Vitamin E/Selenium ROS and more Reuters Health Story Doctors' Guide story AACR 2001 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.