Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center to Participate in WNY Health Expo

BUFFALO, NY — Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Roswell Park) invites the community to join its experts at the 2011 Western New York Health Expo Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Fairgrounds Event Center, Hamburg, NY, from 10am to 3pm. Roswell Park will share cancer information through seminars and an information booth; hold a bone-marrow donor drive; and collect samples for its Data Bank and BioRepository (DBBR) through the Spit for the Cure program.

Roswell Park experts will conduct four seminars at the Health Expo:

10:15am:   Are We Carrying Around too Much History? Learn What Your Family Tree Can Tell Us About Your Future Health – Mollie Lyman Hutton, MS, CGC, Certified Genetic Counselor

11:45am:    Questions and Myths about Tobacco and Cancer: Why Everyone – Including Cancer Patients – Should Quit and How to Get Started – Graham Warren, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departments of Radiation Medicine and Pharmacology and Therapeutics

12:30pm:  Cancer Prevention: Is it Completely out of our Hands? How to Reduce your Cancer Risk – James Marshall, PhD, Senior Vice President, Cancer Prevention & Population Sciences

2pm: Can I Get a Second Opinion at Roswell Park? What if I Haven’t Been Diagnosed? Making an Appointment at Roswell Park: Frequently Asked Questions Answered – Kimberly Sweeney, RN, MBA, Senior Director of Patient Access & Therapeutic Services, and Jennifer Hamilton, MBA, Supervisor, Patient Access – New Patient Referrals

The expo will also feature a bone-marrow drive and DNA collection:

• Bone marrow drive (til 2pm)– In conjunction with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and Marrow Drive Rochester, Roswell Park will recruit donors to the national Be the Match registry. Donated bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells are used to treat life-threatening blood diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma. Potential donors will be screened at the Expo through a swab of the inside of the cheek. Contacts: Terrie Carbone, NP, 716-845-8011, or Sue Paprocki, RN, 1-888-298-6571, ext. 101, or www.marrow.org.
• Spit for the Cure –staff from Roswell Park’s Data Bank and BioRepository (DBBR) will collect saliva samples from participants 18 and older, who will be asked to complete a health history questionnaire. The DBBR stores health information and specimen data from people with and without cancer, providing researchers with data that may help identify risk factors and reveal why some people develop cancer and others do not. Contact: Gregory Ciupak at 716-845-8863 or gregory.ciupak@roswellpark.org.

Visitors who stop by all three Roswell Park-sponsored booths can enter to win prizes, including an autographed Buffalo Sabres jersey.

The mission of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. Roswell Park, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit Roswell Park’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or email AskRoswell@Roswellpark.org.