“Spit For The Cure” At The Race For The Cure

Roswell Park will collect donations to databank at Komen Race for the Cure June 11 in Delaware Park

BUFFALO, NY — At the 2011 Susan G. Komen Western New York Race for the Cure Saturday, June 11 in Delaware Park, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Roswell Park) will collect saliva specimens for its Data Bank and BioRepository (DBBR). One of only a few resources of its kind in the country, the DBBR stores health information and specimen data from people both with and without cancer. It provides researchers working to develop treatments and early-detection and prevention tools with data that may help identify risk factors that reveal why some people develop cancer and others do not.

The “Spit for the Cure” effort on June 11 will see DBBR staff working in a tent in the Delaware Park Rose Garden from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. They’ll collect saliva samples, from which DNA can be extracted. Participants must be 18 years of age and will be asked to complete a health history questionnaire.

“We get wonderful participation for the databank from our patients and many of their family members, but it’s so important for us to provide researchers with access to biological samples from people of all ages, backgrounds, and states of health as they work toward developing novel treatments and detection tools for cancer,” said Gregory Ciupak, Scientific Research Project Administrator at Roswell Park and Director of Recruitment for the DBBR.

For more information about “Spit for the Cure,” contact Gregory Ciupak at 716-845-8863 or gregory.ciupak@roswellpark.org.

About Komen for the Cure:Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. The Western New York Affiliate has invested $3 million in community breast health programs in 8 counties. For more information, call 716-580-3119 or visit www.komenwny.org.

About Roswell Park: 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 1-877-ASK-Roswell Park (1-877-275-7724) or emailAskRoswell@Roswellpark.org.