January 14, 2004

SIU Med School's Cancer and Genetics Program Offers Screenings, Talks by Experts

A public education event about cancer and genetics will feature cancer screenings and assessments as well as talks by four SIU cancer specialists and a national patient rights expert. It is being presented in February by the Cancer Institute at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The program, Cancer and Genetics: Knowledge that May Protect Your Family, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, February 5, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 3000 S. Dirksen Parkway, Springfield. It coincides with SIU's fourth annual cancer symposium for health professionals February 5-6 at the Crowne.

The program begins with an opportunity for visiting a series of information booths and participating in various risk assessments and screenings. The American Cancer Society, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Springfield Department of Public Health and Illinois Department of Public Health also are participating. Co-sponsors of the program are Memorial Medical Center and St. John's Hospital.

At 6 p.m., short presentations will be given by SIU faculty physicians. The topics and presenters are - cancer overview by Dr. K. Thomas Robbins, interim director of the SIU Cancer Institute and professor and chair of the otolaryngology head and neck surgery division; breast cancer by Dr. Gary L. Dunnington, professor and chair of surgery; colorectal cancer by Dr. Jan Rakinic, associate professor of surgery, and prostate cancer by Dr. Thomas H. Tarter, Ph.D., associate professor of urology.

At 6:30 p.m., a keynote talk, Cancer Genetics and Your Rights as a Patient and Health Care Consumer, will be given by Barbara Parker-Fuller, J.D. She is chief of policy and program analysis for the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

There is no charge for the program but registration is encouraged. Contact SIU's Continuing Medical Education office, 545-7711 weekdays.

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