American Cancer Society

Not long ago, a typical hotel banquet meal consisted of a fat-marbled cut of beef smothered in gravy, vegetables drenched in butter and gooey desserts piled high with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. And it wasn't unusual to find this kind of artery-choking menu at fund-raisers for organizations battling heart disease and cancer. But now groups such as the American Heart Assn. and the American Cancer Society realize that their reputations are at stake when they serve a meal to hundreds of supporters.

The American Cancer Society is looking for 120,000 volunteers for a long-term study, called Cancer Prevention Study 3 , that could help determine cancer risks for future generations. “Many cancer patients struggle to answer the question, 'What caused my cancer?' In many cases, we don't know the answer,” said Alpa V. Patel, the study's principal investigator. “CPS-3 will help us better understand what factors cause cancer, and once we know that, we can be better equipped to prevent cancer.” Earlier studies, CPS-1 and CPS-2, helped determine the links between smoking and cancer and weight and cancer, said Eric Beikmann, cancer society spokesman.

Kellie Pickler shaved her head this week in a sign of solidarity with a close childhood friend facing cancer, and to raise awareness about early prevention of the disease. But the country singer might not know how many other cancer patients were moved by her gesture. Cancer patients endure a particular kind of hell when they lose their hair, said Nancy Lumb of Chevy Chase, Md. For many -- especially women -- it's the single hardest part of their battle. Lumb should know. She never cried when she was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago. She stayed strong when she had to tell her husband, her friends and her family about the diagnosis.

It's been three years since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force launched the mammography wars with its controversial recommendation that most women get fewer of the breast cancer screening exams -- one every other year between the ages of 50 and 74. Younger women could get tested if they wanted to. The recommendations were made after researchers tested 20 screening strategies using six diferent models of how breast cancer grows and...

If you're in the unwelcome position of needing as much good information as possible about cancer treatments and support, take a look at the American Cancer Society's revamped website. The society hopes the changes it has made will make the site more user-friendly and helpful. The site should also prove useful for people who are interested in cancer prevention, as well as anyone who's interested in getting involved in helping people who are dealing with cancer.

The local American Cancer Society chapter is seeking volunteers to fill several positions in its Oxnard, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ventura offices. The society is seeking someone to coordinate and schedule office volunteers, a job that can be done from the home or office. It would require two to four hours each month. Volunteers are also sought to perform general office tasks, including labeling, word processing, data entry and greeting clients.

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

The American Cancer Society warned Internet users about an online scam that claims the society will donate money to cancer research for every person who responds. Last November, an unknown user apparently began sending a chain letter that used a story about a 7-year-old girl dying of a brain tumor. It asked the recipients to forward the letter to as many people as possible.

Gourmet food, fine wine and great music--the key ingredients for a successful party--were all present in abundance at the South Coast Cancer League's "A Taste for Life." A sell-out crowd of 600 party-goers danced under a cluster of gold paper stars, sampled from among 140 wine selections and tasted gourmet offerings from 21 Orange County restaurants Sunday at the Robert Mondavi Wine & Food Center in Costa Mesa.

It's a safe bet that you're one of the more than eight out of every 10 adult Californians who do not smoke cigarettes. If that's so, perhaps you are also among those folks who used to take in a nightclub or a lounge after work or on weekend evenings every now and then. You went there to relax, meet friends and listen to a little live music. Perhaps those were the days when you weren't worried about secondhand smoke.

Allan K. Jonas, a Los Angeles real estate developer and a longtime leader and volunteer with the American Cancer Society, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civic and political groups in Southern California, has died. He was 91. Jonas died Sunday at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica of complications from pneumonia, his son Tony Jonas said. A resident of Los Angeles since 1948, Allan Jonas built his real estate career in the 1950s when he began purchasing and constructing commercial properties near Los Angeles International Airport, which had just started to be used for commercial airline service.

Cancer has become the leading cause of death among U.S. Latinos, nosing past heart disease in 2009, researchers at the American Cancer Society reported Monday. For most demographic groups - and for the country as a whole - heart disease is the top killer, claiming a total of 599,413 American lives in 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That same year, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 567,628 Americans died of cancer. Among Latinos that year, the rankings were reversed: 29,935 died of cancer and 29,611 of heart disease, according to a study in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Male pot smokers beware: Your seemingly harmless habit may be increasing your risk of developing the most dangerous forms of testicular cancer. A new study, published Monday on the website of the medical journal Cancer, reports that men who have testicular cancer are twice as likely to have smoked marijuana before they were diagnosed than control subjects. The association existed only for nonseminomas, the more dangerous form of testicular cancer that is harder to treat. In the study, carried out in Los Angeles, a team of researchers enrolled 163 men who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer between 1986 and 1991.

Kellie Pickler shaved her head this week in a sign of solidarity with a close childhood friend facing cancer, and to raise awareness about early prevention of the disease. But the country singer might not know how many other cancer patients were moved by her gesture. Cancer patients endure a particular kind of hell when they lose their hair, said Nancy Lumb of Chevy Chase, Md. For many -- especially women -- it's the single hardest part of their battle. Lumb should know. She never cried when she was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago. She stayed strong when she had to tell her husband, her friends and her family about the diagnosis.

French-born Veronique Peck, who was the widow of actor Gregory Peck and an ardent supporter of civic and cultural causes in her adopted country, died Friday of heart failure at her Los Angeles home, her family said. She was 80. As a young journalist, Veronique met Peck in 1953 when she interviewed him for a French newspaper. They were married on New Year's Eve 1955, soon after his divorce from his first wife was finalized. "I just participate in everything Greg does. I like it that way. I am not a career woman," Veronique told The Times in 1967 when the newspaper named her Woman of the Year.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released new guidelines for prostate cancer screening - urging doctors not to use the popular PSA test to detect the disease. The new recommendations , which were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, hardly mark the first time public health officials have called the value of the blood test into question. The first concern is that the test doesn't actually save lives. The second is that it might cause harm because it ferrets out slow-growing cases of prostate cancer as well as aggressive ones -- leading many men with harmless cases to get unnecessary treatment.  Fighting prostate cancer can involve surgery or radiation, and can cause men distress, incontinence and sexual dysfunction, critics of overtreatment say.  But advice against screening can be difficult for physicians and patients to accept, said researchers who study how the public understands health risk.  Julie Downs, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Risk Perception and Communication, said that patients often think of cancer the same way they think of infectious disease - as a toxin in the body that needs to be expunged, rather than cells gone awry that might best be left alone.

More than 400 women, many dressed like the glamorous characters on the "Dynasty" TV series, paid tribute to the show's costume designer, Nolan Miller, at "A Taste of Fashion" benefit for the American Cancer Society/Orange County. Staged by the South Coast Cancer League, the recent fashion show and luncheon featured a nostalgic look at some of the opulent gowns Miller has created for Hollywood's leading ladies, as well as his new couture collection and spring styles from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

Reporting from Sacramento -- The proposal is simple: Raise taxes on cigarettes to pay for cancer research. The push for it is quintessentially Californian, melding celebrity salesmanship and the whims of state voters, who have increasingly been called on to decide key policy questions. The pitchman for Proposition 29, which will appear on the June ballot, is seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, who is asking voters to increase taxes on a pack of cigarettes by $1. On Wednesday, he announced a $1.5 million contribution from his Texas-based foundation to the Yes on 29 campaign.