Backstreet Boy Focuses on Cancer Education

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) _ Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson understands that talking about colons can be an unpleasant subject. <br/><br/>``But if it can save someone's life, it's worth it,''

Monday, June 21st 2004, 9:48 am

By: News On 6

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) _ Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson understands that talking about colons can be an unpleasant subject.

``But if it can save someone's life, it's worth it,'' said Richardson, who appears in a series of public service announcements that urge children to discuss colon, or colorectal, cancer and its treatment with their parents.

Richardson, who grew up in Lexington, said he feels a responsibility to educate others about the disease that ended the life of his father in 1991. Richardson thinks if children talk to their parents about colon cancer, it will encourage parents to seek information about the disease before it's too late.

``Children have a great impact on their parents,'' said Richardson, speaking by phone from southern California. ``When they say something like that, it deeply affects the parent.''

In 2004, about 147,000 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed and about 56,700 people will die of the disease, said Leonard Lichtenfeld, a deputy chief medical officer with the American Cancer Society. But if the cancer is detected early and still is localized, it can be cured in about 90 percent of those cases, he said.

Richardson, 32, said he will undergo a colon cancer screening soon, as will one of his two brothers. The other brother recently underwent a screening in which a polyp was detected. That polyp was removed, ``and everything is fine,'' Richardson said.

Richardson said The Backstreet Boys are almost finished with a new album, which will be their first with completely new material in about four years.