Group sets goals for cancer prevention, reducing deaths

<br>WASHINGTON (AP) _ A new organization working to coordinate public and private efforts to battle cancer announced a goal Wednesday of preventing 1 million cases of the disease and 500,000 deaths by

Wednesday, March 3rd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A new organization working to coordinate public and private efforts to battle cancer announced a goal Wednesday of preventing 1 million cases of the disease and 500,000 deaths by the year 2010.

``This is a day of renewed hope for Americans everywhere in the fight against cancer,'' said former President George Bush, co-chairman of C-Change.

Formerly known as the National Dialogue on Cancer, C-Change includes some 150 organizations, said Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., the group's vice chair.

The group also has formed a ``Roundtable on Cancer'' for chief executive officers of corporations, working together to develop a corporate ``Gold Standard'' for cancer education, prevention, early detection and clinical trial availability through corporate health plans, said Robert Ingram, vice chairman of the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

Cancer is now better understood at the basic cellular level than ever before, opening up the way to new therapies, said Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute.

``We can now envision strategies by which cancer is pre-empted at key stages along the diseases progress,'' he said. ``It is not hard to envision a day when cancer is conquered.''

Meanwhile, said John Seffrin, chairman of the American Cancer Society, ``we're asking people to get engaged in their own care.''

Changes in lifestyle such as losing weight and not smoking can prevent many cancers, he said, as well as reduce the toll of heart disease and diabetes, the three major killers.

Ingram said the governors of West Virginia and Arkansas are part of the group and other governors are being invited to join.