Some cancer risk factors, like smoking, are widely well-known. Others have yet to be discovered.
UNMC Eppley Cancer Center Director, Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., has designed several disease specific cancer registries to collect data to explore risk factors.
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To date all of the data collected has come from people with cancer. Now Dr. Cowan would like to collect data from people who have no history of cancer. That data would become part of the Great Plains Health Informatics Database and Biospecimen Bank.
“I really hope that through the data we collect we will be able to uncover risk factors that we never thought of before or find new links to causes of cancer that will help us to provide develop better screening techniques and prevent cancer,” he said.
Information helps research
The information collected will help researchers around the world assess risk factors and incidence of certain types of cancer and other diseases.
Participants fill out a multiple choice questionnaire that is designed to assess cancer risk, including demographic information, past medical history and environmental exposures.
In addition to the questionnaire, participants also provide blood samples to look at biomarkers in the blood that might document exposure to environmental or dietary factors and to look for potential interactions between genetic and environmental factors that influence cancer risk.
500 needed for database
Dr. Cowan seeks 500 people, age 19 or older to participate. So far 150 people have enrolled in the registry.
“These registries are anonymous, confidential and provide a wealth of information for researchers,” Dr. Cowan said.