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6B Daily News – Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Vitality & health fitness Study seeks key to staying cancer-free By Rachael Levy Chicago Tribune (MCT) CHICAGO — When Alpa Patel's grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, he seemed healthy: The 64-year-old had been training for a triathlon when doctors found a lemon-size tumor in his brain. He died almost a year to the day from when he was diagnosed. Patel, only a teenager at the time in Daytona Beach, Fla., said that experience "really got me to thinking what causes most cancer." She became an epidemiologist and is now the principal investigator — and one of the participants — in the American Cancer Society's third generation study on cancer prevention, which researchers hope will help them solve one of medicine's most perplexing puzzles: why some people never get cancer. To take part in the study, a person must be 30 to 65 and never have had cancer. Participants fill out comprehensive surveys about their health and habits and give blood samples and waist measurements. Researchers will track participants' progress over the years, sending short follow-up surveys every two years or so that can be filled out at home in about 15 to 20 minutes. The American Cancer Society has already enrolled 200,000 people and hopes to find 100,000 more people nationwide. When the cancer society started tracking cancer-free participants in its first study in the 1950s, a cancer diagnosis was "like a death sentence," Patel said. But that study, by following participants over the years, established the link between smoking and lung cancer — a no-brainer today, but groundbreaking research at the time, Patel said. Findings from the second study, which started in the 1980s, helped link obesity with increased cancer risk. That's one area upon which researchers are hoping to expand with new data from today's participants, whose health will be tracked for at least the next 20 years, Patel said. "We haven't really studied people who have been very heavy their entire lives, which wasn't the case in previous generations," said Lauren Teras, an epidemiologist at the cancer society. Teras, 36, who has enrolled in the study along with several of her cancer-free family members, also intends to focus on what happens to people living in a more sedentary society. "More people are in their cars, in front of an iPad, at their desk in front of a computer all day," Teras said. She hopes to explore whether increased sitting time has adverse health effects even for people who exercise regularly, Teras said. That research question wasn't the point of focus in generations past, when Frances Kent's parents took part in the first study in the 1950s. Kent, 62, of Chicago's North Shore, said her parents "were always active physically." Both have since passed away, but Kent's mother never had cancer. She died at 85 simply of "old age, didn't have any particular disease," Kent said. Her father had prostate cancer, but only in his late 70s, and "he was never in the hospital or getting chemo or all that." He died of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia at 86. "They always watched things that we know now are not so good for us — salt, they didn't eat red meat. They kept their diet simpler, like vegetables, rice, grains and nuts," Kent said. But Kent's oldest sister passed away at 47 of colon cancer, a motivating factor for Kent, who remains cancer-free and intends on enrolling in this generation's cancer study. Test helps identify heart attacks DEAR DOCTOR K: but the blood tests can take I've heard there's a new test hours to give results. Over the years, different that can help doctors diagnose a heart attack more types of blood tests have been used to diagquickly. Can you nose heart attacks. tell me about it? In recent years, the DEAR READmost widely used ER: A heart attack tests measure the is instantly recogblood levels of difnizable on TV and ferent types of a in the movies: The chemical called troactor breaks into a ponin. A heart sweat and clutches attack kills some his heart. But in real Dr. K heart muscle cells. life, a heart attack by Anthony L. isn't always so easy Komaroff, M.D. When they die, they spill the troponin to identify. There are many different that is inside them into the conditions that can cause blood. Within the first few hours pain in the chest and sudden sweating. A heart attack is of a heart attack, though, just one of many possibili- both the troponin level and ties, though one of the most the EKG can be normal. serious. The main tests doc- People can spend 12 to 16 tors use to diagnose heart hours waiting in an emerattacks are blood tests and gency room. That's a long heart tests (the first of which time to sit there wondering is usually an electrocardio- if you might have a condigram, or EKG). 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A new blood test may help speed the diagnosis. This is important because the sooner a heart attack is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can begin. And the sooner treatment begins, the more heart muscle can be saved. The new test that you're probably asking about is a new high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T test that can detect smaller amounts of troponin in the bloodstream. This could let doctors identify small heart attacks that would otherwise go undiagnosed, or identify heart attacks earlier. We know it's important for doctors to quickly diagnose a heart attack. But it's even more important for people with chest pain or other signs of a heart attack to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Call 911 right away if you have: — uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, burning, tightness or pain in the center of your chest; — pain, numbness, pinching, prickling or other uncomfortable sensations in one or both arms, your back, neck, jaw or stomach; — shortness of breath; — sudden nausea or vomiting; — lightheadedness or dizziness; — unusual fatigue, especially if accompanied by a great deal of sweating; — sudden heaviness, weakness or aching in one or both arms. These symptoms don't mean you are definitely having a heart attack, but they do mean the risk that you're having a heart attack is high enough that you need to get it checked out, and fast.