Colorectal Cancer Seminar for Health Professionals March 6 at UAMS
| LITTLE ROCK – Health care professionals can learn the latest information about colorectal cancer at a seminar sponsored by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Arkansas Cancer Research Center (ACRC) at UAMS, Saturday, March 6.
The professional component of the Eighth Annual Charles William Rasco III Symposium on Colorectal Cancer will be from 7:30 a.m. to noon in Sam Walton Auditorium in ACRC. Co-sponsored by the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, the seminar will be approved for Category I credit toward the American Medical Association Physician’s Recognition Award.
The symposium will cover the results of current colon cancer prevention efforts; the role of polypectomy in colorectal cancer prevention; the risk factors for colon polyp development; and the ways to maximize colorectal cancer screening among primary care patients. A brief question-and-answer session will follow each presentation.
The registration fee for non-UAMS faculty is $100 per person and includes educational materials and refreshments. The program will be free for UAMS faculty members, resident physicians and medical students and for all nonphysician health care professionals. Free parking will be available in the UAMS outpatient parking deck across from ACRC at the corner of Elm Street and Capitol Avenue. Call (501) 257-5300 for a registration form.
Speakers will be Peter Lance, M.D., of the University of Arizona and the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson; Douglas Rex, M.D., of Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis; David Lieberman, M.D., of the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland; and Mark Dignan, Ph.D., of the University of Kentucky Prevention Research Center in Lexington. Nicholas P. Lang, M.D., a professor of surgery in the UAMS College of Medicine and at ACRC and chief of staff at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, will serve as course director.
The symposium is named in honor of an Arkansan whose courageous battle with colon cancer included his participation in a clinical trial at ACRC.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third-most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that 106,370 new cases of colon cancer and 40,570 new cases of rectal cancer will be diagnosed in 2004. This year, colorectal cancer is expected to cause approximately 56,730 deaths – accounting for about 10 percent of all cancer deaths in the country. However, this disease is preventable and highly treatable when detected early.