Press Release
FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 27, 2004CancerStory
4-Part Series Premieres on Public Television
LEBANON, NH -- One in every four Americans will develop cancer in his or her lifetime. That means that most of us, either personally or through the illness of a family member or close friend, will be touched by the disease at some point in our lives.
On 4 consecutive Wednesday nights in January, CancerStory, a 4-part television series, will air on New Hampshire Public Television. Produced by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in partnership with Norris Cotton Cancer Center and New Hampshire Public Television, the series breaks through the misinformation, myth and fear around cancer, and provides viewers with a balanced view of the disease.
"These four programs are just what are needed to learn about cancer," says Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General. "The presentation is simple, in easy-to-understand language. This is cancer 101 and its benefits are extraordinary."
Through conversations with New England residents affected by cancer, as well as experts at New Hampshire's Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute, and other centers around the country, the series presents the basics of cancer, the experience, the current research, and information on prevention and screening.
"We are pleased to be a partner with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in providing this important information to our viewers in Northern New England," notes Peter Frid, General Manager and CEO of New Hampshire Public Television. "Since cancer affects more people in New Hampshire than any other disease, this series will offer timely and vital information to viewers about understanding, identifying and treating cancer."
"This is a revolutionary time for cancer treatment," says Dr. Mark Israel, director of Norris Cotton Cancer Center. "In the last 20 years, advances in science and technology have dramatically altered our basic understanding of cancer. We have much better strategies for preventing, diagnosing, and treating it."
The first program, titled What is Cancer?, explains how cancer begins and grows. The concepts of DNA, chromosomes, oncogenes and tumor growth factors come to life through colorful graphics, animation, and re-enactments.
The second program, Voices, presents the reality of life with cancer-told by cancer patients themselves. A 28-year old woman is successfully treated for breast cancer, but then must deal with her physician's advice that she not bear children. A young boy with leukemia and his family recount his three-year journey of treatment. A 54-year-old man with both Hodgkin's lymphoma and lung cancer goes through radiation and chemotherapy, supported by the love and humor of his wife.
New Directions, the third episode, explores promising new treatments at various stages of development, and explains how new therapies are developed and tested through clinical trials. The program begins by looking at Gleevec, a drug that was "fast-tracked" through the Food and Drug Administration's approval process when it showed remarkable success in treating leukemia. The program also talks to Dartmouth scientists developing a cancer vaccine to stimulate the body's immune system to attack colon cancer. The fourth program, Prevention and Screening, looks at ways to detect and "predict" cancer, and the decisions people are making with that information. A 54-year-old woman who carries a rare breast cancer gene tells about her experience with cancer and the choices she made in the hope of preventing its recurrence. Two men talk about their very different responses to a positive PSA test for prostate cancer. And the effects of environment on cancer, and the changes each of us can make to reduce our risk, are also discussed.
"The producers have taken a complicated disease, broken it down step by step, and made it easy to understand," says Dr. William Kassler, MD, New Hampshire's state medical director. More than 20 experts contributed to the series, including Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute; Dr. Robert Weinberg of the Whitehead Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Peter Greenwald, director of the Division of Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute; Dr. Robert Smith, director of Cancer Screening at the American Cancer Society; and Dr. Mark Israel, director of Norris Cotton Cancer Center at DHMC.
The program airs Wednesday evenings from 9-10PM in January, and all four episodes will air back-to-back on a special showing Sunday, January 30, from 1-5PM. For complete information on the series, as well as lists of additional resources, visit the CancerStory web site at http://www.cancerstory.org.
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Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is an integrated academic medical center located on a 225-acre campus in the heart of New Hampshire's Upper Connecticut River Valley in Lebanon. DHMC comprises Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, Dartmouth Medical School and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. For more information, contact Deborah Kimbell, MedNews Office, 603-653-1913.