The commonwealth only gets top marks for its tobacco tax rates.

The Cancer Action Network report gives Pennsylvania low marks on tobacco prevention and cessation efforts.

Spokeswoman Laura Weis says the state also scores poorly for physical education time requirements, which can help in cancer prevention.

"One in three cancer deaths is due to factors relating to poor nutrition and physical inactivity," Weis says.

The report gives the commonwealth low grades for tanning bed restrictions, because over-exposure to UV rays can lead to skin cancer.

The state's smoking ban only gets moderate marks because many locations are not covered by the law.

The Cancer Society also docks the commonwealth for an uptick in the use of smokeless tobacco.

Please visit witf's Facing Cancer Together project for more cancer resources and stories.

Getting started in CPS-3 is a two-step process. First, participants register online. Then, Carol Miller of the society's York office says they attend an enrollment event at Sovereign Bank Stadium on September 17th.

"I call it a no-brainer," Miller explains. "It's really simple. You fill out a questionnaire, you come for 30 minutes, you're in and you can have a profound influence on the research that will lead to a cure."

Miller says they hope to enroll more than 200 people at the event.

Participants must be 30 - 65 years old and will to commit for the long-term. They will receive a survey in the mail every few years for the next two to three decades. This is the second midstate enrollment event for the Cancer Prevention Study-3. Nationwide enrollment closes at the end of the year.

Mike was diagnosed with diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma, an aggressive form of blood cancer, in 2008. After six rounds of a potent chemotherapy regiment, Mike went into remission with no signs of cancer activity in his body. Unfortunately, like many other lymphoma patients, his remission was short lived. Mike relapsed and in 2009, he had to have a stem cell transplant.

Dealing with a cancer diagnosis and then its subsequent treatment regiments, tends to give people a deep and newfound appreciation for life. It could be that the mere mention of cancer forces people to come face-to-face with their own mortality. This was at least true for Mike. Following his second remission from lymphoma, Mike was ready to dive head first back into life. And so, six months after his stem cell transplant, Mike decided it was time to try scuba diving.

“After battling through cancer, you realize that you have already faced the worst of all your fears and survived, so you don’t let fear get the best of you anymore,” Mike said. “I never knew if and when the cancer would come back, so I wanted to enjoy every moment of my life and the thought of exploring the depths of the ocean with my wife seemed like the perfect way to feel alive again.”

With his fears subsided, Mike quickly became a certified scuba diver. Less than a year after his stem cell transplant, Mike took his first official scuba trip to Hawaii in 2010. Since then, he and his wife have gone on a diving trip almost every year, diving in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, throughout the Caribbean and back in Hawaii.

Jolie is in a very small group of women with a genetic mutation, BRCA1, which made it very likely she would develop breast cancer at some point. She said her doctors estimated her risk at 87 percent, far more than a woman’s average risk of 12.4 percent.

Jolie’s mother died of ovarian cancer at age 56. Her cancer was caused by the same genetic mutation. When she learned that she too carried the breast cancer gene mutation, Jolie decided to have a preventive mastectomy and breast reconstruction. She estimates the surgery lowered her risk to five percent.

It is a drastic choice for an extreme circumstance. In the aftermath, Jolie is being praised as courageous and brave and for making her medical choice public in an Op-ed piece in The New York Times.

As one of the world’s most glamorous and influential women, Jolie has certainly raised awareness of the seriousness of carrying the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, and of the importance of genetic testing to give some women potentially life-saving information.

But genetic testing—and preventive mastectomies—are not for women of average risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Testing may be appropriate for people who are likely to have inherited a mutation, who have a personal or family history of cancer, or who have specific types of breast cancer.

At Lancaster General Health, we have partnered with the University of Pennsylvania to offer a Cancer Risk Evaluation Program on-site. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of your family history to see if it’s likely that you inherited a mutation. You will be counseled so that you can give informed consent to the test and how the information will be used. And you will receive a risk-reduction plan, regardless of whether you have the mutation or not. The program is staffed by two genetics counselors and directed by a medical oncologist.

Remember, more than 99 percent of women do not have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which cause only five percent of all breast cancers. They are not like Angelina Jolie. They will not face the choices she had to make.

We must make sure that Jolie’s revelation helps the right women—those in the high-risk category. And even these women need to proceed with caution because preventive mastectomies may not be the best option in all cases.

Randall A. Oyer, MD, is the medical director of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Risk Evaluation Program at Lancaster General Health and the Ann B. Barshinger Institute. He is a hematologist/oncologist with Hematology-Oncology Medical Specialists in Lancaster.

(Angelina Jolie photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

I was able to deal the best I could with this, but the worst part was the gender bias that I endured and still continue to endure. From finding a lump and having my doctors office tell me over the phone (without seeing me) to "come in 3 weeks to have it checked out" (I refused and demanded to be seen that day), to my boss demanding me to meet my work quotas as I was a "man and needed to stop being a baby, and wanting to be treated like a 'woman;'" to workers compensation calling me the day after surgery to say that as a man I only needed 5 days rest (I still had 2 drainage tubes); to my insurance company declining breast reconstruction because I was "not a woman;" to a doctor declining a counseling referral because "I was not a woman and did not need my breasts anyway;" to a college professor stating to me when I requested some assistance with classes due to a mastectomy- "I am sorry about the breast cancer. I really did not know you were a woman. I always thought you were a man."

Support for males with breast cancer? No. Support from doctors? No again. Support from Susan Komen Foundation? No.

I cannot get people to understand how we force men with breast cancer into the "shadow of pink" because we become insignificant. But, men still die each year of breast cancer while suffering from depression as well, as potential support is little or none due to lack of education and interest.

Breast cancer does not discriminate. Unfortunately our society does.

While we see photos of men at the beach, in movies and commercials, body building competitions, and in calendars showing their 'manly' chests, there are still men who die from having been diagnosed or misdiagnosed with breast cancer, or should we say 'chest or pec cancer' as the word breast in itself denotes femininity.

Please help me educate people on the topic of male breast cancer. Breast cancer is NOT a woman's disease. It is a peoples disease. Even though I was diagnosed 5 years ago it appears that nothing has changed in regards to gender bias. I continue to encounter gender bias to this day.

Thank you,
Thomas
Birdsboro, PA

But a new proposal from state Representative RoseMarie Swanger could soon bar Pennsylvanians under the age of 18 from using tanning beds, even if they have permission from a legal guardian.

The Republican from Lebanon County says other behaviors deemed harmful to minors are banned, so indoor tanning should be, too. "We protect children by prohibiting their use of tobacco, which is also irrefutably linked to cancer. We also ban them from consuming alcohol. Likewise, for minors, we mandate seatbelt use, require bicycle and motorcycle safety helmets, and do many other things to help protect their safety."

The measure would also require Pennsylvanians to show ID before gaining access to an indoor tanning facility.

Tanning beds give off ultraviolet radiation, which has been linked to skin cancer, or melanoma.

A study from the International Journal of Cancer has found using tanning beds before the age of 35 can increase the risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent.

Swanger's bill has been referred to the House Health Committee.

Ann said, "Being encouraged to do something I'd never done before was so strengthening and so important to me. Everybody with cancer should know that this is one of the possibilities." Adding, "It's just the business of hope."

Click here to watch the video interview.

In our interview, she also reflected on her life's adventures and how grateful she was for her loving husband and family, saying:  "85 years... almost every day there was something special."  

Remembering Ann Durr Lyon:

Trailblazing educator, political activist and beloved HACC Professor, Ann Durr Lyon of Camp Hill, PA passed away at her home on Thursday surrounded by family on February 7th.

Ann was born in Birmingham, AL the eldest of four daughters of famed civil rights activists Clifford and Virginia (Foster) Durr of Montgomery, AL.

Over three decades as Professor of Sociology at HACC, Ann taught a variety of popular courses. She especially enjoyed teaching about racial inequality and the history of civil rights. She founded, developed and led the Human Service Program at HACC and attained Emeritus status. She also Co-Founded the Temple University Graduate Program in Social Work in Harrisburg.

Ann founded the Harrisburg Civil Rights Oral History Project. She served as an East Pennsboro Township Commissioner, on the West Shore Council of Governments and the Cumberland Co. Board of Assistance. Ann represented local voters as a Democratic Committeewoman, was active in the league of Women's Voters and the National Council of Jewish Women and helped begin the Head Start program in Perry County

Ann is survived by her husband, Walter A. Lyon, of Mechanicsburg; daughter, Nan Lyon of Columbia, MD,, three sons, Cliff and Paul Lyon, wife Mel of Salt Lake City, James Lyon and wife Diane and six grandchildren; Brittany, Jane, Otto, Greth, Lilly and Sophie

A memorial service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday March 2nd at the Bethany Village East Side Community Center (entrance 1E).

In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made to:
The Ann Durr Lyon Human Service Student Scholarship Fund
℅ The HACC Foundation
1 HACC Drive
Harrisburg, PA 17110

TRAIL is a natural antitumor protein that suppresses tumor development during immune surveillance, the immune system’s process of patrolling the body for cancer cells. This process is lost during cancer progression, which leads to uncontrolled growth and spread of tumors.

The ability of TRAIL to initiate cell death selectively in cancer cells has led to ongoing clinical trials with artificially-created TRAIL or antibody proteins that mimic its action. Use of the TRAIL protein as a drug has shown that it is safe, but there have been some issues, including stability of the protein, cost of the drug, and the ability of the drug to distribute throughout the body and get into tumors, especially in the brain.

“The TRAIL pathway is a powerful way to suppress tumors but current approaches have limitations that we have been trying to overcome to unleash an effective and selective cancer therapy,” said Dr. Wafik El-Deiry, professor of medicine and chief of the hematology/oncology division, Penn State College of Medicine. “The TRAIL biochemical cell death pathway naturally lends itself as a drug target to restore anti-tumor immunity.”

Researchers have identified a compound called TRAIL-inducing Compound 10 (TIC10) as a potential solution. TIC10 stimulates the tumor suppression capabilities of TRAIL in both normal and tumor tissues, including in the brain, and induces tumor cell death in mice. They report their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

TIC10 is a small molecule. This organic compound binds to a protein and alters what the protein does.

Stimulation of TRAIL protein is sustained in both tumor and normal cells, with the normal cells contributing to the TIC10-induced cancer cell death through a bystander effect. It is effective in cancer cell samples and cell lines resistant to conventional therapies.

“I was surprised and impressed that we were able to do this,” El-Deiry said. “Using a small molecule to significantly boost and overcome limitations of the TRAIL pathway appears to be a promising way to address difficult to treat cancers using a safe mechanism already used in those with a normal effective immune system. This candidate new drug, a first-in-its-class, shows activity against a broad range of tumor types in mice and appears safe at this stage.”

New treatments are needed for advanced cancer, as more than half a million people in the United States will die of cancer in 2013.

“We have enough preclinical information to support the rationale for testing this new drug in the clinic,” El-Deiry said.

TIC10 seems to be nontoxic to normal cells or mice even at doses 10 times higher that an observed therapeutic dose, however more research needs to be completed to satisfy FDA requirements prior to initiation of clinical testing.

Other researchers are Joshua E. Allen, David T. Dicker, Akshal S. Patel, Nathan G. Dolloff, Kimberly A. Scata, Wenge Wang, all of Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute; Gabriel Krigsfeld, Patrick A. Mayes, Luv Patel, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Evangelos Messaris, Department of Surgery, Penn State College Medicine; Jun-Ying Zhou and Gen Sheng Wu, Wayne State University School of Medicine.

This study was funded by the American Cancer Society, Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.

Located on the campus of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa., Penn State College of Medicine boasts a portfolio of more than $106 million in funded research. Projects range from the development of artificial organs and advanced diagnostics to groundbreaking cancer treatments and understanding the fundamental causes of disease. Enrolling its first students in 1967, the College of Medicine has more than 1,600 students and trainees in medicine, nursing, the health professions and biomedical research on its campus.