Churches Recruited in Fight Against Cancer

Thursday, May 26th 2005, 9:35 am

By: News On 6

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ Researchers from three South Carolina universities are working with the Baptist Education and Missionary Convention as part of a project to educate blacks about cancer.

The $2.5 million project hopes to reach 500,000 members of the 1,500 congregation that belong to the convention in South Carolina.

Rachel Mayo investigated cancer clusters for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control before joining the Clemson University faculty.

``I got called when folks believed that their rates of cancer were higher than they should be,'' Mayo said of her health department work. ``Many times these were in African-American communities.''

Mayo said a cancer diagnosis shouldn't be considered a death sentence. It's one of the myths she hears and wants to debunk because early diagnosis and treatment saves many lives.

What's not a myth are the numbers.

South Carolina blacks have six times the rate of cancer of the esophagus as whites. The risk factors are smoking and drinking. Drinking rates are about the same across racial lines, but South Carolina whites smoke more than blacks, Mayo said.

While black women are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than whites, they have a 60 percent higher risk of death. At one time the explanation was screening delays, ``but we've come a long way in screening and there's not a big difference in screening between African-Americans and whites now,'' Mayo said.

``There is a lot of information we make assumptions about, but we really don't know the reasons for these disparities, and we want to go to these communities and ask them,'' Mayo said.

Nationally, about 33 percent of cancer can be linked to diet and physical activity, said another researcher involved in the project, Cheryl Dye, also an associate professor of public health at Clemson.

Researchers will work through the churches ``to get community input and let them tell us what the issues are,'' Dye said.

``Diet and exercise is something they need to look at. The church is taking a lead on health issues in the African-American community,'' Dye said.

Researchers also plan to provide information to church members, such as cooking and exercising classes and clubs, Dye said.

``Two-thirds of cancers would be prevented if we put into place what we know works as far as diet, physical activity and not smoking,'' Mayo said. ``The other third we still don't know about, so we'll be looking at the whole picture, all risk factors.''

Breast, cervical, colorectal, head and neck and thoracic cancers are the primary focus of the study.

``South Carolina has some of the worst health indicators in the United States,'' said James Herbert, a professor in USC's Arnold School of Public Health, who will lead the effort funded by the National Institutes of Health. ``For some conditions, including a number of cancers, we have the highest incidence rates in the country.''