Taking A Bite Out of Cancer
By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
first published in the Central Oregonian, August 2007
Two incidents in recent weeks caught my attention.
The first was the phenomenal success of the Relay for Life event held over the weekend of July 28. It was a sobering reminder of just how many lives are touched by the effects of cancer, and touching monument to the way people can open their hearts and wallets to help people they have never met. The event raised over $54,000 from our small community to help fund cancer prevention and research. That’s a whopping achievement for community the size of Prineville.
The second matter to come to my attention was contained in a not-so-interesting report copied front and back on a yellow sheet of paper that I receive every month from the Oregon Public Health Division. Entitled, “Communicable Disease Summary, this front-and-back newsletter usually contains statistics and treatment information geared more for healthcare providers than for county judges. This time, however, the newsletter contained a timely fact: Cancer has climbed above heart disease as Oregon’s number one killer.
It isn’t true in every county. In ten of Oregon’s counties, including Crook County, heart disease is still the leading cause of death, but the gap between heart disease and cancer is steadily shrinking. It is just a matter of time until cancer overtakes heart disease and all counties see cancer as the number one enemy.
In a corollary study, the Division of Health looked at the impact of cancer on a county-by-county basis. Their findings were that in Crook County in 2004 (the last year for which complete statistics have been compiled) cancer caused a combined loss of 119 years, compared to average life expectancy had cancer not intervened. Imagine all that lost economic, cultural and social productivity that would lost to this disease.
The report contained a few more surprises.
Not surprising was the fact that the leading cause of death in Crook County in 2005 was by far and away lung cancer. Nor is there much surprise that the leading cause of lung cancer is tobacco, with 80 percent of lung cancer diagnoses linked to tobacco use. What did surprise me were the numbers two and three cancer-related deaths: brain cancer was second while cancer of the lymphatic system (non-Hodgkins lymphoma and leukemia) were third. Bringing up fourth place were colon, pancreatic, ovarian and bladder cancer and not until fifth place did breast and prostate cancer appear. Who knew?
One of the keys to effective cancer treatment and prevention is early diagnosis. This got me wondering, just what are we doing in Crook County to raise awareness on this issue? So I called Crook County Public Health Director Wendy Perrin and asked for a report. This is what she told me.
The Crook County Health Department offers a numbers of programs designed to detect potential cancer, help patients identify treatment and assist patients in modifying behavior that may lead to cancer. The department has a strong program for helping local residents kick the tobacco habit. Smoking cessation supplies are available through the department as well as one on one counseling. In fact, one full-time person does nothing but counsel individuals on how to quit—an investment which saves lives and, in the long run, tax dollars for all of us to the degree indigent and elderly people don’t contract lung cancer.
This year, the department is excited to have launched an aggressive new preventative vaccine to address cervical cancer. The vaccine is called Gardisil, and it is available through the local Health Department. Doctors recommend it for girls age 9-26. One vaccine can eliminate 70 percent of cervical cancers later in life. Those are pretty impressive odds. The cost of the vaccine is reasonable too. Based on income, the vaccine can be had for as little as $10. In addition, the department offers screening for cervical cancer (pap smears) which are vital for the detection of precancerous lesions. An annual pap smear is recommended for all women over the age of 18, but one in seven women “hasn’t gotten around to” a test in the last three years. Twenty-two percent of women ages 18-24 have never had a paper smear. That’s too bad because this simple test precipitously increases the chance of survival as a result of cervical cancer.
Women are also encouraged while visiting the health department or their local medical providers to receive annual breast exams and to learn the techniques for monthly self examination. These are important pre-screening tools which can help women learn when to seek a mammogram—an important means of detecting breast cancer early and increasing survival rates. Despite the importance of these basic prevention activities, 27 percent of breast cancer cases are caught too late in Oregon when the prognosis for cure is poor. An astonishing one in eight women reports never having had a mammogram.
For the gentlemen, the county doesn’t offer as many services. There are a couple of reasons for this: for one thing, the principle cancer of concern to men is prostate cancer, and we guys are notorious for not going to the doctor. Since you can’t very well examine the prostate of the unwilling, there’s not much point of keeping a doctor on staff to twiddle his thumbs and wonder where the clients are. For another, only a doctor can perform a prostate exam, so this service is best left to local practitioners. What the health department can do, however, is provide information about the symptoms of prostate cancer and help arrange medical examinations by physicians and nurse practitioners—help which is especially important for low-income individuals. As with all cancers, early detection is the key to long-term successful prognosis.
Those are just a few of the service the Crook County Health Department offers. Now co-housed with the Ochoco Community Clinic, the goal of Crook County Health Department is to be a primary source of information for individuals in the community who need help getting information about health conditions or connecting to health services. In some cases, the health department itself is a direct provider of services and it is an excellent resource for those needing to be matched with providers. For more information about health-related issues, call the health department at 447-5165.
Crook County and particularly the Crook County Health Department are committed to doing our part to help reduce and perhaps in some cases even eradicate cancer and other diseases in our community. Not only do we enjoy keeping our friends and neighbors around, but we also realize that everyone who walks through our doors is someone’s child, sibling, parent or other loved one, and the pain that accompanies premature loss of life to diseases like cancer and heart disease is pain inflicted on our entire community.
Our goal is to keep you well, and I and the folks at the Health Department look forward to the day when the yellow sheet from Oregon Public Health lists the leading cause of death for Crook County as “Old Age.”
first published in the Central Oregonian, August 2007
As Cancer Surpasses Heart Disease As State's No. One Killer,
Here's What We're Doing About It
Here's What We're Doing About It
Two incidents in recent weeks caught my attention.
The first was the phenomenal success of the Relay for Life event held over the weekend of July 28. It was a sobering reminder of just how many lives are touched by the effects of cancer, and touching monument to the way people can open their hearts and wallets to help people they have never met. The event raised over $54,000 from our small community to help fund cancer prevention and research. That’s a whopping achievement for community the size of Prineville.
The second matter to come to my attention was contained in a not-so-interesting report copied front and back on a yellow sheet of paper that I receive every month from the Oregon Public Health Division. Entitled, “Communicable Disease Summary, this front-and-back newsletter usually contains statistics and treatment information geared more for healthcare providers than for county judges. This time, however, the newsletter contained a timely fact: Cancer has climbed above heart disease as Oregon’s number one killer.
It isn’t true in every county. In ten of Oregon’s counties, including Crook County, heart disease is still the leading cause of death, but the gap between heart disease and cancer is steadily shrinking. It is just a matter of time until cancer overtakes heart disease and all counties see cancer as the number one enemy.
In a corollary study, the Division of Health looked at the impact of cancer on a county-by-county basis. Their findings were that in Crook County in 2004 (the last year for which complete statistics have been compiled) cancer caused a combined loss of 119 years, compared to average life expectancy had cancer not intervened. Imagine all that lost economic, cultural and social productivity that would lost to this disease.
The report contained a few more surprises.
Not surprising was the fact that the leading cause of death in Crook County in 2005 was by far and away lung cancer. Nor is there much surprise that the leading cause of lung cancer is tobacco, with 80 percent of lung cancer diagnoses linked to tobacco use. What did surprise me were the numbers two and three cancer-related deaths: brain cancer was second while cancer of the lymphatic system (non-Hodgkins lymphoma and leukemia) were third. Bringing up fourth place were colon, pancreatic, ovarian and bladder cancer and not until fifth place did breast and prostate cancer appear. Who knew?
One of the keys to effective cancer treatment and prevention is early diagnosis. This got me wondering, just what are we doing in Crook County to raise awareness on this issue? So I called Crook County Public Health Director Wendy Perrin and asked for a report. This is what she told me.
The Crook County Health Department offers a numbers of programs designed to detect potential cancer, help patients identify treatment and assist patients in modifying behavior that may lead to cancer. The department has a strong program for helping local residents kick the tobacco habit. Smoking cessation supplies are available through the department as well as one on one counseling. In fact, one full-time person does nothing but counsel individuals on how to quit—an investment which saves lives and, in the long run, tax dollars for all of us to the degree indigent and elderly people don’t contract lung cancer.
This year, the department is excited to have launched an aggressive new preventative vaccine to address cervical cancer. The vaccine is called Gardisil, and it is available through the local Health Department. Doctors recommend it for girls age 9-26. One vaccine can eliminate 70 percent of cervical cancers later in life. Those are pretty impressive odds. The cost of the vaccine is reasonable too. Based on income, the vaccine can be had for as little as $10. In addition, the department offers screening for cervical cancer (pap smears) which are vital for the detection of precancerous lesions. An annual pap smear is recommended for all women over the age of 18, but one in seven women “hasn’t gotten around to” a test in the last three years. Twenty-two percent of women ages 18-24 have never had a paper smear. That’s too bad because this simple test precipitously increases the chance of survival as a result of cervical cancer.
Women are also encouraged while visiting the health department or their local medical providers to receive annual breast exams and to learn the techniques for monthly self examination. These are important pre-screening tools which can help women learn when to seek a mammogram—an important means of detecting breast cancer early and increasing survival rates. Despite the importance of these basic prevention activities, 27 percent of breast cancer cases are caught too late in Oregon when the prognosis for cure is poor. An astonishing one in eight women reports never having had a mammogram.
For the gentlemen, the county doesn’t offer as many services. There are a couple of reasons for this: for one thing, the principle cancer of concern to men is prostate cancer, and we guys are notorious for not going to the doctor. Since you can’t very well examine the prostate of the unwilling, there’s not much point of keeping a doctor on staff to twiddle his thumbs and wonder where the clients are. For another, only a doctor can perform a prostate exam, so this service is best left to local practitioners. What the health department can do, however, is provide information about the symptoms of prostate cancer and help arrange medical examinations by physicians and nurse practitioners—help which is especially important for low-income individuals. As with all cancers, early detection is the key to long-term successful prognosis.
Those are just a few of the service the Crook County Health Department offers. Now co-housed with the Ochoco Community Clinic, the goal of Crook County Health Department is to be a primary source of information for individuals in the community who need help getting information about health conditions or connecting to health services. In some cases, the health department itself is a direct provider of services and it is an excellent resource for those needing to be matched with providers. For more information about health-related issues, call the health department at 447-5165.
Crook County and particularly the Crook County Health Department are committed to doing our part to help reduce and perhaps in some cases even eradicate cancer and other diseases in our community. Not only do we enjoy keeping our friends and neighbors around, but we also realize that everyone who walks through our doors is someone’s child, sibling, parent or other loved one, and the pain that accompanies premature loss of life to diseases like cancer and heart disease is pain inflicted on our entire community.
Our goal is to keep you well, and I and the folks at the Health Department look forward to the day when the yellow sheet from Oregon Public Health lists the leading cause of death for Crook County as “Old Age.”
posted by Scott Cooper | 11:33 PM
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