Leap Fall 2011

ORANGE YOU HUNGRY?
CHOOSE HEALTHY HARVEST VEGGIES
SCREEN TIME: LEARN ABOUT SOME COMMON CANCER TESTS
PREVENTION: REDUCE YOUR RISK

t er-free movemen into Albertas canc
FALL 2011
Hugh McColls lifelong passion for tness and philanthropy
FAT FINDINGS
CAN CANCER BE PREVENTED?

Balancing environment, lifestyle, genes and infection
The case for obesity legislation
MEET RADIATION MAN

Hug a medical physicist today
CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL PRODUCT AGREEMENT #40020055 Non-deliverable mail should be directed to: 10259 105 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 1E3
The Tomorrow Project

Will You Lend a Hand to End Cancer?
1 in 2 Albertans will get cancer and 1 in 4 will die from it. The Tomorrow Project is a research study designed to determine what causes cancer so it can be prevented in the future. We need 50,000 cancer-free Albertans to join the study by mid 2012.
Join today and make a difference tomorrow.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO JOIN THE STUDY
VISIT: www.in4tomorrow.ca
and complete the on-line form CALL: 1 877 919-9292

In Partnership With
CONTENTS
ON THE COVER: Hugh McColl, PHOTO: Curtis Trent
FALL 2011 VOL 2 No. 2
FALL SPOTLIGHT
PREVENTION: Reduce your risk
22 THE NEW TOBACCO
Obesity is a leading cause of preventable cancer. What can we learn from anti-smoking efforts?
25 FROM SURVIVE TO THRIVE 28 ALCOHOL + CANCER 30 32

16
A research initiative blossoms into a plan
Is happy hour helping or hurting your health?
CAN WE PREVENT CANCER?

Disease happens at the intersection of genes, lifestyle, infection and environmental exposure
TIME TO INTERVENE
Tour the risks around you, and inside you, to decrease your chances of cancer
DEPARTMENTS 4 OUR LEAP 6

44
FOREFRONT
34
ITS EASY BEING SCREENED

The idea of screening for disease is scary, but most tests are quick and painless
A message from the new CEO of the Alberta Cancer Foundation
Expedias cancer cruises; prevention quiz; Pincher Creek moms walk; a six-year-old fundraiser; book review; beautiful spa for cancer patients; prevention by the numbers; Drayton Valley doings
FEATURES 16 WHY I DONATE: IN THE RING WITH

HUGH MCCOLL
An Edmonton businessman now boxer trains his eye on a ground-breaking cancer treatment technology
12 13 14
48
BODYMIND
Move it to stave off cancer
36 39
DEEP BREATHING
Does it really matter if a lung cancer patient smoked? New treatments are bringing a new face to the disease
SMART EATS
Orange you hungry?
BEST FOOD FORWARD

Our busy schedules can derail our best intentions to stick to a healthy eating plan. Help is here!
ASK THE EXPERTS

What does my waist circumference say about my health? PLUS: veggie choices and the HPV shot for boys
42 RESEARCH MEETS COMMUNITY 44 RESEARCH ROCKSTAR 47

A GENEROUS SPIRIT
An Edmonton doctor creates a lasting legacy for a cutting-edge reconstructive facility
The largest cohort study ever conducted in Alberta, The Tomorrow Project, recruits 50,000 volunteers
21
CORPORATE GIVING
From head office to the front lines, Shoppers Drug Mart employees 36 walk for a cause
Meet a scientist who treats cancer using his brains and some laser beams
50 MY LEAP
50
Alber tas cancer-free movement
Stan Ball rides his bike and celebrates the memory of his wife (and her sense of humour)
48 TOP JOB
Events planner Charissa Spencer builds relationships and raises funds for cancer on the green and elsewhere
fall 2011
message /
ALBERTA CANCER FOUNDATION
Another Leap Forward

The Alberta Cancer Foundation represents a powerful and exciting movement for cancer-free lives. Im pleased in this issue of Leap to introduce you to Myka Osinchuk who has accepted the challenge for lead this movement as our new CEO. Myka brings rst-hand experience of the difculties the cancer journey brings. She began her career as a speech and language pathologist specializing in patients recovering from head and neck cancers. From there, she held leadership positions in Albertas growing technology sector before serving as executive director of the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine (iRSM). We rst met Myka when the Alberta Cancer Foundation partnered with iRSM to fulll a dream of the late Dr. Murray Mickelborough (page 47). She brings the focus and energy that characterizes our movement and we are condent that under her leadership, the Alberta Cancer Foundation will continue to deliver on its promise to donors progress towards a cancer-free future. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I am learning this saying is certainly true of cancer. Cancer affects so many of us nearly half of us that its easy to think it is unavoidable. But in this issue, Dr. Heather Bryant, The bottom line, whether one of Canadas leading experts on cancer prevention, tells us in Can Cancer be Prevented? that as many as were trying to prevent 50 per cent of cancers are preventable. Thats a stagcancer or cure it, is that gering percentage. were in this together. And the steps we all know lower our cancer risk can also reduce the chances of cancer recurring. But if it is so simple eat right, exercise more, remain smoke-free, sun safe and limit alcohol intake why is it so hard? As we read in The New Tobacco (page 22), it has as much to do with our surroundings, our workplaces and our communities as it does with our will power. Researchers have now coined the term, obesogenic world, referring to an environment designed to make food consumption easy and active lifestyles difcult. The good news is that the roots of change lie in our own communities. The Alberta Cancer Foundation is proud to partner with Alberta Health Services on a grassroots initiative, Thrive on Wellness (page 25), where neighbours gather to custom-design programs to make their communities healthier. The bottom line, whether were trying to prevent cancer or cure it, is that were in this together. I came to the Alberta Cancer Foundation because I was excited by its vision a cancer-free future and even more excited by its determination to get there by reaching clearly dened, measurable milestones. Preventing those cancers we can is a critical milestone. I hope you learn as much with this issue of Leap as I did, that you share the information with neighbours and friends, so that together, we create an unstoppable movement for cancer-free lives right here in Alberta.
TRUSTEES Leslie Beard, Edmonton Angela Boehm, Calgary Heather Culbert, Calgary Steven Dyck, Lethbridge Dianne Kipnes, Edmonton John J. McDonald, Edmonton Brent Saik, Sherwood Park Prem Singhmar, Sherwood Park Heather Watt, Edmonton Vern Yu, Calgary
John Osler, Chair Alberta Cancer Foundation 4
Myka Osinchuk, CEO Alberta Cancer Foundation
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FALL VOL 2 No. 2
ALBERTA CANCER FOUNDATION EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND PUBLISHER: LEE ELLIOTT ASSOCIATE EDITOR: PHOEBE DEY EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE DR. PAUL GRUNDY, Senior Medical Director, Cancer Care Alberta Health Services DR. HEATHER BRYANT Vice-President, Cancer Control Canadian Partnership Against Cancer DR. STEVE ROBBINS Director, Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute Associate Director, Research, Alberta Health Services, Cancer Care CHRISTINE MCIVER CEO, Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta VENTURE PUBLISHING INC. PUBLISHER: RUTH KELLY ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: JOYCE BYRNE EDITOR: MIFI PURVIS ASSISTANT EDITOR: CAILYNN KLINGBEIL ART DIRECTOR: CHARLES BURKE ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR: COLIN SPENCE PRODUCTION MANAGER: VANLEE ROBBLEE PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: BETTY-LOU SMITH DISTRIBUTION: NICK JAMISON CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Linda Carlson, Caitlin Crawshaw, Liz Crompton, Dawna Freeman, Craille Maguire Gillies, Lewis Kelly, Annalise Klingbeil, Cailynn Klingbeil, Omar Mouallem, Debbie Olsen, Rick Overwater, Mi Purvis, Karol Sekulic, Kelley Stark CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ILLUSTRATORS: 3TEN, Drew Myers, Heff OReilly, Rob Olson, Raymond Reid, Curtis Trent ABOUT THE ALBERTA CANCER FOUNDATION The Alberta Cancer Foundation is Albertas own, established to advance cancer research, prevention and care and serve as the charitable foundation for the Cross Cancer Institute, Tom Baker Cancer Centre and Albertas 15 other cancer centres. At the Alberta Cancer Foundation, we act on the knowledge that a cancer-free future is achievable. When we get there depends on the focus and energy we put to it today.
The Alberta Cancer Foundation is more than a charityits a movement for cancer-free lives, today, tomorrow and forever.
Its a movement of those who know a cancer-free future is possible and who wont settle for some day. Its a movement of Albertans who stand with those who have no choice but to stand up to cancer. Its a movement of those who know something can be done and are willing to do it. For those facing cancer today, in honour of those lost to cancer, and for generations to come, we promise progress.
Leap is published for the Alberta Cancer Foundation by Venture Publishing Inc., 10259-105 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 1E3 Tel: 780-990-0839, Fax: 780-425-4921, Toll-free: 1-866-227-4276 circulation@venturepublishing.ca
The information in this publication is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek advice from your physician or other qualied health provider regarding any medical condition or treatment.
Printed in Canada by Transcontinental LGM. Leap is printed on Forest Stewardship Council certied paper Publications Agreement #40020055 ISSN #1923-6131 Content may not be reprinted or reproduced without permission from Alberta Cancer Foundation.
albertacancer.ca
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PREVENT, TREAT, CURE
BY CAILYNN KLINGBEIL, LEWIS KELLY AND MIFI PURVIS
How can I reduce my risk of developing cancer?

While theres no single cause of cancer, research
has revealed factors that increase your risk of developing it. To reduce this risk, avoid tobacco, eat a healthy diet, exercise daily, limit your alcohol use and limit your exposure to UV rays. Take Leaps quick quiz to test your knowledge of some of the specic lifestyle choices that can help to reduce the risk of cancer. WHAT IS THE SAFEST WAY TO GET A TAN? A. There is no safe way to get a tan. B. Avoid tanning beds and using sun lamps, and instead tan outside. C. Sit outside in the early afternoon, when the sun is at its strongest. (Answer: A. There is no safe way to get a tan. Instead, protect yourself from the sun by covering up, wearing a hat and sunglasses, using sunscreen and avoiding indoor tanning. Take vitamin D supplements to get enough of the vitamin that your body makes in the sun.) WHAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL INTAKE? A. Women and men should have fewer than three drinks a week. B. Women should have fewer than two drinks a day and men should have fewer than three drinks a day. C. Women should have less than one drink a day and men should have fewer than two drinks a day. (Answer: C. There is a link between drinking alcohol and an increased risk of developing several types of cancer. If you drink, limit your alcohol intake to reduce your risk and remember that one drink is equivalent to one 350 mL bottle of beer, one 145 mL glass of wine and one 45 mL shot of spirits.) HOW MUCH RED MEAT IS HEALTHY TO EAT PER WEEK? A. Avoid red meat entirely and instead consume sh and poultry. B. Theres no need to limit your red meat consumption as long as you choose the leanest meat at the supermarket. C. Limit the amount of red meat you eat each week to three servings. (Answer: C. A diet high in red meat, which includes beef, pork, lamb and goat, may increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Limit your red meat consumption, choose lean meats and trim visible fat. A serving should be smaller than a deck of cards, just 85 grams when cooked.) C.K.
Beautiful Business
Saundra Shapiros business cuts a lot of hair. Compassionate Beauty, a Calgary center for women undergoing cancer treatment, treats more than 1,000 patients a year with special spa treatments, prosthetics for amputated breasts and a head shave for women dealing with chemotherapy. Shaprio says the head shaves are free and describes them as the most emotional service we oer. Two years ago, Shapiro did her most memorable head shave. I had to do it for my mother, she says. My knees buckled a whole bunch. Shapiros mother eventually recovered from the lymphoma that necessitated the cut. Shapiro makes her living from Compassionate Beauty, which also oers an extensive selection of wigs, cancer treatment-safe manicures and cosmetic tattooing to help with missing eyebrows. The most popular services deal with breast cancer. I hope to give people more control over the side eects of the disease, she says. I want them to pick up their kids at school and not have them feel uncomfortable. I want them to go to the restaurant and have the waiter only care about how they like their supper cooked. L.K.
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Overheard
Given that 60 per cent of our population does
not eat the minimum of ve servings of fruits and vegetables a day, and studies show we can reduce risk of cancer by 20 per cent simply by eating ve servings of fruits and vegetables per day, the best advice to get the benefit of cancer-fighting foods is: eat your fruits and vegetables! Jennifer Black, registered dietician, Tom Baker Cancer Centre
Little Guy, Big Dreams

Like most kids his age, Brady Roy prefers to let his parents do the talking when strangers come knocking. Unlike most six-year-olds, though, hes already made a triple-digit donation to charity. His grandmother, Rita Britton, died following two years of treatment for ovarian cancer in March. Brady, born March 16, decided to do something unusual for his birthday party to honour her memory. For his birthday, he asked his friends to take the money they would spend on a gift and asked for a donation, says his mom Lorraine. Bradys request resulted in a $575 donation to the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Lorraine Roy, who says Brady was especially close with his grandmother, encourages her sons charitable tendencies. Its something wed like him to continue doing, she says. I think its important to give Tell us your stories of selfless kids in back to the community. action at albertacancerfoundation.ca. L.K.
Give the gift of a lifetime.

In 2007, when Wayne Scott told his family he had cancer, he asked, What positive can we take away and learn from this experience? Although he died in January 2010, today, hes building a cancer-free future with a gift from his estate supporting cancer research chairs in Alberta. What positive can we take away and learn from this experience?
To learn more about leaving a legacy to a cancer-free future, please contact Derek Michael, 78 0 643 440 0, 1 866 412 4222 or email derek.michael@alberta cancerfoundation.ca albertacancer.ca
ott yne Sc Wa
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Stronger Together
It was at regular support meetings run by social worker Lisa Lamont
at Calgarys Tom Baker Cancer Centre that lung cancer patient Judith Winer (diagnosed six years ago at age 49) and her husband Gordon started meeting other patients with the same disease. Dealing with an isolating diagnosis and an under funded disease, the couple found therapeutic benefits to fundraising. This kind of involvement is a concrete way that patients can make a difference, Lamont says. It gives hope that change is ahead. The Winers heard about an opportunity from Lamont. Julie Toft, a travel consultant with Expedia CruiseShipCenters at Fish Creek in Calgary, was looking for people to serve on a committee to help her plan the fth annual THE Beach Party, a band, a dance and a silent auction to benet lung cancer. The Winers and three other members of Lamonts group joined. (I voluntold him to join, Judith says of Gordon.) The Winers goal this year is $10,000. They hope their events will grow to fill the void in lung cancer fundraising. The fourth annual THE Beach Party takes place at Crossroads Community Centre in Calgary on November 26. Attendees can count on a band, a dance and a silent auction. Toft calls the committee voluntherapy. For a while members can step away from being patients and get into planning. To date weve raised $26,000 from this event, says Toft. Money goes to two funds set up by Dr. Elizabeth Kurien: the Southern Alberta Lung Tumour Group Research Fund and the Patient Education Fund. In addition to THE Beach Party, travel consultant Toft has another ongoing project. A few years ago Toft, like the Winers, was looking for a way to help. At one time shed worked in the radiation department of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, and the experience left her with some good connections. Toft spoke to Dr. Colum Smith at the centre about an idea she had to raise funds with the help of Expedias Charitable Cruising Program. He felt lung cancer would be a good target, Toft says, noting the dearth of funds directed to its treatment and research. Cruising for Cancer was born. It works like this: Fundraisers book a block of cabins. Points are applied to sales against the block and turned into cash that gets directed to a charity in this case the Alberta Cancer Foundation. The rst three cruises we did were specically for lung cancer, Toft says. (Now cruisers can direct their donations.) Some of the doctors who attended gave talks about what was new on the horizon for treatment and research. Attendees include current and former cancer patients and family members, doctors, other medical staff and vacationers who want to make their vacation dollars do a little good work. The fth annual cruise departs from Florida on February 19, 2012 for the Caribbean. To book a cabin on the Cruising for Cancer trip or to buy a ticket to THE Beach Party, contact Julie Toft, at 403-829-5075 or julietoft@ cruiseshipcenters.com. M.P. 8
Walk the Walk

Jane Goddard goes to physiotherapy once a week to help with the degenerative disk disease aecting her back. Shes had two surgeries over the years and the 65-year-old wants to avoid a third. She used to run, but no longer can. So every summer, she walks a marathon. Goddards son David died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he was 25. She organizes a walk around Pincher Creek each year to raise funds for cancer research and to honour his memory one mile for every year he lived. Goddard says she raises about $4,000 each year and usually convinces seven other people to join her on the walk. Goddard, a former breast cancer patient, keeps a remarkably low-key attitude about her considerable fundraising eorts. I just dont want to be 85 and say, Look, I could have walked a little extra for my son, she says. The people who are really heroes, like Terry Fox look at what they did. And they were sick when they did it. Ask her about the walk and Goddard quickly points out the contributions of others, like her training partners or her husband, Doug, who follows the walkers in a grey pickup to make sure they stay safe two years ago, the group spotted two grizzlies while en route. But Goddard organizes and animates the whole thing. Though shes lost her father, sister and son to cancer, shes positive. There is a cure out there for cancer, she says. There really is. L.K.
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myleapmagazine.ca
Reading List: AUGUST FAREWELL by David Hallman

Sometimes people who have been married
for a long time know that the years can leave love a little at. But anyone who has faced their partners cancer will tell you that the diagnosis sharpens that love into a high relief. Such was the case for David Hallman when his partner of 33 years, Bill Conklin, was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in August 2009. Conklin died at home 16 days later. Hallman wrote about Conklins diagnosis and their last days together in August Farewell, interspersing it with scenes from their long relationship, in order, he says, to pin the memories down. Those weeks were so intense and spiritual and profound, he says. Being able to support each other in that time was our last great gift of love to each other. M.P.
To watch Hallman talk about the book, or for ordering instructions, visit at davidghallman.com
Thank you!
Thanks to thousands of participants, donors and volunteers in events like the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, Shoppers Drug Mart Weekend to End Womens Cancers and Underwear Affair the Alberta Cancer Foundation has been able to invest a net $44 million in critical cancer prevention, research and care since 2005.
you are
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Good News Numbers
600 25,000
Albertans survived cancer last year that would not have survived the same diagnosis 25 years ago rural women have access to mammography through mobile units The number of new cancer research projects launched last year alone. Hundreds more are ongoing
healthy Albertans are enrolled in the Tomorrow Project, a huge research study that will help teach us more about cancer and its prevention, treatment and causes
30,000
50
The number of times patients and families have made use of the Alberta Cancer Foundations patient assistance fund
2,500
14
The number of cancer research chairs in Alberta made possible with Alberta Cancer Foundation support
Pick up your free copy of My journey, now available at centres throughout the province. Tom Baker Cancer Centre:

New patient information sessions A lbertaCancerFoundationoffice
Cross Cancer Institute:
New patient clinicis A lbertaCancerFoundationoffice Cancer Information Centre
For those facing cancer today

Manage your cancer-care and navigate the health care system with a patient journal from the Alberta Cancer Foundation.
The more information you can track and communicate with your care team, the more they can ease your cancer journey.
Associate cancer centres:

Grande Prairie Cancer Centre Central Alberta Cancer Centre (Red Deer) Medicine Hat Cancer Centre Jack Ady Cancer Centre (Lethbridge)
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Down in the Valley

A cancer diagnosis can be made even more challenging when travel is required just to receive treatment. For those living in Drayton Valley, having a community cancer centre where locals can receive treatment, without leaving town, is important. Locals held two fundraising events recently, supporting the role of the local centre in the community. In June, Kerrie-Ann Lemermeyer organized St. Anthony Schools second Shave to Save event. Lemermeyer rst organized the event in 2009 in honour of her mother, who died from bladder cancer. She says students have been requesting another head shave since then. I challenged sta and students to raise $5,000 and for at least 10 people to shave their heads or cut and donate their hair, in order for me to shave my hair o, says Lemermeyer. Sixteen students and two parents shaved their heads and another six students cut their long locks to donate to making wigs for cancer patients suering hair loss, raising a total of $17,700 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation in support of the Drayton Valley Community Cancer Centre. Members of the Drayton Valley 4-H Beef Interclub took a less conventional approach to their fundraising eorts, raising cash for cancer while raising a steer. For the past few years the group, whose 50 members are from the Lin-Berry-Buck, Two Rivers and Lobstick 4-H clubs, have raised a steer and then raed it o for charity. This year, the money raised was donated to the Drayton Valley Community Cancer Centre. The 4-H members range in age from nine to 20 years old, and many, says Two Rivers club leader Tanya Hines, have had family and friends aected by cancer. Theyve also seen their loved ones who have cancer stay closer to home, receiving treatment in Drayton Valley. More than $6,000 was raised through the sale of $10 rae tickets for the steer. The group wanted to help people within their community and make the burden of going through cancer treatments easier for them, says Hines, who works as a chemotherapy nurse at the cancer centre. C.K.
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bodymind /
MAKING POSITIVE CONNECTIONS
Move It to Stave Off Cancer

BY LINDA E. CARLSON
Many things that cause cancer are not under our control, such as genetics, family history and early environmental exposures. Thats the bad news. But the good news is that current research has identified a number of factors in the development of many types of cancer that are under our control. Modify these and we may mitigate risk. There are a few big ones: we can avoid too much sun exposure, quit smoking, eat better and become more physically active. Its the last one, physical activity, that many people nd surprising.
WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?
HOW MUCH EXERCISE IS ENOUGH?
Dr. Christine Friedenreich, an epidemiologist in cancer The recommendations based on this large body of research say that people care at Alberta Health Services, is a world expert on the should do 30 to 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity at least ve days a associations between exercise and cancer prevention. week. Moderate activity includes walking briskly, gardening, cycling or dancing, but She conducted a number of studies looking at large can also include household or occupational tasks such as scrubbing, mopping, groups of women with breast cancer. She has since vacuuming, hammering or lifting and carrying heavy objects such as building expanded her studies to include a wide variety of materials or even groceries. More vigorous activities include anything that makes cancers to try to identify differences between people you breathe hard, such as running, swimming laps, playing sports such as soccer or who went on to develop cancer and those who stayed hockey, climbing stairs or biking up hills. healthy. In fact, a very large body of research Physical activity decreases HOW DOES PHYSICAL ACTIVITY on the relationship CANCER? the risk of cancers by about PREVENT are underway looking at several possible reasons between exercise and Many studies cancer has accumulated, 25 per cent. for this effect. The best understood mechanisms behind with hundreds of studies exercises impact in reducing cancer across groups relate to the looking at hundreds of thousands of people all around benecial effects of lowering body fat and increasing muscle mass. Less fat on the world. your body results in lower levels of some hormones related to cancers, including Recently Dr. Friedenreich reviewed all these estrogens and testosterone. Lower body fat also improves insulin sensitivity and papers in the European Journal of Cancer (2010) and resistance and decreases markers of inammation. Improved lung function as a concluded that overall, physical activity decreases result of physical activity may also lower concentrations of cancer-causing materials the risk for cancers by about 25 per cent. That means in the lungs. All of these biomarkers are known to be risk factors for various forms that one in four cancers could have been prevented by of cancer. increasing levels of physical activity alone. The types of cancers that have the strongest research support WHEN IS IT TOO LATE? for this association are colon, breast, endometrial The good news is its never too late. In fact, research shows that the biggest effect (uterine), lung, prostate and possibly ovarian. Other of exercise on prevention of breast cancer occurs in women over the age of 50. types of cancer have not been studied enough to So whatever you enjoy doing, get out there and do more of it. There are plenty of conclusively say whether physical activity would help resources out there that encourage inactive people to incorporate more physical or not, but it is likely that this effect translates across activity. Not only is exercise good for your mental health and physical strength and most cancer types. The authors estimated that in stamina, we now know it can also help to prevent cancer. Europe, if people exercised more, as many as 330,000 new cases of cancer could have been prevented in Dr. Linda Carlson (lindacarlson.ca) is the Enbridge Chair in Psychosocial Oncology at the 2008 alone. University of Calgary and a clinical psychologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. 12
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FOOD FOR LIFE
Healthy Harvest
BY KAROL SEKULIC
This fall, take the orange hue of the leaves outside as your reminder to eat well. People know that eating greens is good for your health, but so is eating orange. Canadas Food Guide to Healthy Eating recommends eating one dark green and one orange vegetable per day. Orange vegetables get their great colour from beta carotene that your body converts to vitamin A, which is essential for growth and development, immune system function and maintaining normal vision. Beta carotene is also a powerful antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage. Orange vegetables are a great source of potassium, which is important for maintaining a normal blood pressure and nerve and muscle function. A diet high in a variety of vegetables can help reduce the risk of cancers in the stomach, mouth and throat. To boost the orange factor, include carrots, squash, pumpkin and sweet potatoes in your diet. Canadas Food Guide suggests that apricots, cantaloupes, mangoes, nectarines, papaya and peaches can be substituted for these vegetables. Here are a few ways to consider adding orange vegetables to your day.
Pumpkin Red Pepper Soup

2 Tbsp (60 mL) 1 cups (375 mL) 1 cups (375 mL) 2 cups (500 mL) 2 cups (625 mL) 2 tsp (10 mL) tsp (1 mL) pinch to taste cup (125 mL) cup (60 mL) canola oil onion, diced red pepper, diced cooked or canned pumpkin puree milk chili powder cumin cayenne pepper pepper red pepper, nely chopped (garnish) green onion, nely chopped (garnish)
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
In a soup pot, heat oil and saut onion and diced red pepper until limp (3 to 5 minutes). Add the pumpkin puree and milk. Heat thoroughly. Cool slightly and puree the mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add spices and pepper. Continue cooking at low heat for 15 minutes. Serve hot and garnish with chopped red pepper and green onion.
THE HUMBLE CARROT

Carrots are easy to find, inexpensive and keep well. Another selling point: They can be added easily to your diet. Baby carrots or raw carrot sticks are a tasty snack food. Add grated carrots to mufns, pasta sauce and green salads. Julienne or dice them to add to soups, stews and stir fries.
SWEETER SPUD
Sweet potatoes can be used in place of white potatoes. Sweet potato fries have become commonplace, but there are healthier ways to eat them. Like squash, pureed sweet potato can be added to pancake or mufn batter. Shred raw sweet potato into your cabbage for colour in your coleslaw. Mix steamed sweet potato with tofu and broccoli, and add your favourite salad dressing.
SUPER SQUASH
Fall is a great time to experiment with squash. Hubbard, butternut and acorn squash are packed with taste and nutrients. If dealing with a hard-skinned winter squash daunts you, look for precut squash or ask your grocer if hell cut one up for you. To cook squash, preheat oven to 400F, cut squash in half and remove all the seeds. Cut the squash into slices that are a half- to one-inch thick and place them on a cookie sheet that youve sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the squash is tender. Cooked and diced squash can be added to homemade or canned soups. Or puree the cooked squash and freeze it in small containers for later use in baking, soups, stews, pancakes or mufns.
PRETTY PUMPKIN
You may think of adding it to pumpkin breads or pumpkin pie, but there are other ways to use this versatile vegetable. You can use canned or homemade pumpkin puree to make a rich-tasting soup. (See the recipe above.)
FRUITY FINDS
Apricots, cantaloupes, mangoes, nectarines, papaya and peaches count as beta carotene-rich orange foods. These are delicious seasonally and you can keep a few cans of peaches on hand for an easy dessert or to toss into a breakfast smoothie.
Karol Sekulic is a registered dietitian with expertise and interest in the areas of weight management, nutrition and communications.
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asktheexpert /
A RESOURCE FOR YOU
SINCE YOU ASKED

From belly measurements and veggie choices to the HPV shot for boys, Leap answers some tough questions
Im a 20-year-old guy. My sister got the HPV shot. Do I need one too?
HPV is the human papillomavirus, a family of more than 100 commonly found viruses. Infection with HPV may have no clinical symptoms and the body can clear itself of HPV infection in many cases. Some HPV infections are transmitted through sexual contact and can cause genital or anal warts. Two types of HPV are known to be behind 70 per cent of cervical cancers in women. HPV is also a factor in some anal cancers, some other genital cancers and some head-and-neck cancers, but the percentage is much smaller. The Alberta government initiated an immunization program in 2008, with all girls entering Grade 5 eligible to receive the Gardasil vaccine to protect them against HPV and, later in life, to avoid those cervical cancer cases that are related to the two types of virus. The current program vaccinates only girls and young women, but this could change. In February 2011, Health Canada approved Gardasil for use in boys and men age nine to 26 and, at the end of May, indicated of Gardasil for the prevention of anal cancer in both men and women. Thats good news according to Dr. Martin Lavoie, Albertas deputy chief medical ofcer. Females and males do transmit the disease, so by immunizing males we would see a reduction in the spread of the disease, says Lavoie. Also, it will protect males directly because theyre also at risk, in particular of anal cancer. The approval of the vaccine for boys and men is recent, so you should stay tuned for more information about who should be getting the vaccine and how they can get it. Its a step in the right direction in terms of having one more tool to reduce the spread of these infections and their complications and the burdens associated to that, says Lavoie of the recent approval. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization, the body that informs Canadians and regional health agencies how to use a vaccine, has not yet issued a statement advising boys and young men to get the vaccine. 14
Based on the committees recommendation, which was still pending as of August, individual provinces and territories will determine their own vaccination programs, including the possible expansion of the program in Alberta to boys and young men. Its not going to take forever, but it is a process were going through and it is going to take a little while to get there, says Lavoie. In the meantime, young men who want to get the vaccine can contact their physician to discuss it, though Lavoie notes there may be some lag time between approval and accessibility of the vaccine.
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I am supposed to avoid cruciferous veggies because they mess with my blood thinner. How? What can I eat instead? Cruciferous vegetables contain high amounts of vitamin K, which can counteract the effects of your blood thinner medication, explains Dr. Raylene Reimer, a professor at the University of Calgary in the faculty of kinesiology and the faculty of medicine, department of biochemistry and molecular biology. Vitamin K is involved in our bodys ability for the blood to clot, says Reimer. Blood thinner medication, under names like Coumadin and Warfarin, works by blocking the action of vitamin K. That is how the medication prevents blood clots from forming in the body. Vegetables that are high in vitamin K are cruciferous vegetables (including broccoli, brussels sprouts and cabbage) and leafy green vegetables (spinach, lettuce and other greens). Doctors will advise people taking blood thinners to be very aware of their vitamin K intake. This can include recommendations to try to eat the same amount of vitamin K every week, in order for your doctor to correctly adjust your dose of medication. Or, you may be instructed to limit your intake of food rich in vitamin K. Its very important that you get the right levels of vitamin K in the body [when on blood thinner medication], because that determines how quickly your blood will clot, says Reimer. You want a good balance so that you dont bleed too easily, but on the other hand that youre not forming blood clots too easily. That doesnt mean cutting out vegetables altogether, though, as there are many vegetables that contain lower levels of vitamin K like red, orange and yellow peppers, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, carrots, squash and potatoes. Fruit, dairy and most protein choices are also naturally very low in vitamin K.
Ive heard that large waist measurements are a better indicator of poor health than the numbers on the scale. What is the best way to tell if Im at a healthy weight?
While stepping on the scale, wrapping a measuring tape around your waist or calculating numbers to nd your body mass index (BMI) are common at-home tools to determine if youre a healthy weight, an obesity expert says such measures are just screening tools. Only a doctor can tell if youre at a healthy weight, says Dr. Arya Sharma, a professor of medicine and chair in obesity research and management at the University of Alberta. Health problems related to excess weight are subtle and people may not realize they have them, says Sharma, so a visit to your doctor is the best way to determine if you are at a healthy weight, instead of tools like BMI, measuring waist circumference or stepping onto a scale. Because many of the problems related to excess weight can sneak up on you, its going to be a visit to your doctor that will actually tell you whether or not you have any obesity-related or excess weight-related problems, says Sharma. Those health problems include elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and high glucose levels. The risk of health problems is higher when someone is putting on weight or carries a few extra pounds, says Dr. Sharma, It doesnt mean that they have those problems, but it certainly means that theyre at risk for those problems. A checkup would be something that they might want to do. Dr. Sharma says during such a checkup, patients can expect their doctor to check blood pressure, order lab work, complete a physical exam and ask questions to help determine if there are any current or potential weightrelated health issues. Ask our experts questions about cancer prevention and treatment. Please submit them via email to letters@myleapmagazine.ca. Remember, this advice is never a substitute for talking directly to your family doctor.
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Edmonton businessman, philanthropist and now boxer Hugh McColl is helping to finance a ground-breaking cancer treatment technology
BY DAWNA FREEMAN / PHOTOGRAPHED BY CURTIS TRENT
rostate cancer may have thrown him the first punch fteen years ago, but in May, the month he turned 90, Hugh McColl came back with a knockout punch that will help future cancer patients around the world. It was when the retired owner of Southpark Motors was at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton for a checkup that he learned about some ground-breaking developments in radiation therapy. Down in the basement at the Cross, a team of medical physicists had created the worlds rst prototype of a machine that could capture an image of a cancerous tumour and treat it with radiation at the same time.
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In the Ring
ULTIMATE FIGHTER: Boxer Hugh McColl, age 90, trains with Benny The Jet Swanson every week.
Radiation therapy is a proven treatment for nearly half of all cancers, but currently it not normally treated with radiation because of organ takes two separate machines to treat a patient one to take a picture of the location of movement. Hugh and his wife Madge, who has faced breast cancer, the tumour and the other to deliver the beam of radiation. But between taking a 2D X-ray image and treating it, the tumours shape and even location can change. To account for knew too well the importance of accuracy in radiation the shift in organs and tissues even breathing means movement during treatment treatments to reduce the risk of serious side eects. We were privileged to meet doctors radiate a small area of healthy tissue Dr. Fallone and felt it was around the cancer to ensure they reach the whole Hugh and Madge McColl felt it was and very tumour. Because damage to the healthy tissue can timely and important to support Dr. very timely support his important to cause unwanted side eects, the dose of radiation is lowered, and multiple treatments are required Gino Fallones prototype development. work. This will make a difference in the future. to kill the cancer cells. This will make a difference in the The McColls have Hugh, who was left with serious side eects future, says Hugh. promised $500,000 to after 36 radiation treatments, asked to meet the the Alberta Cancer Alberta Cancer Foundation researcher and his team of medical physicists who had discovered how to treat cancer with fewer treat- Foundation, with half to go to prostate cancer research and half to the Linac-MR fundraising campaign. Followments and potentially fewer side eects. In December 2008, Dr. Gino Fallone and his team had become the rst in the world to ing an initial donation of $200,000 in May, they will prove their head prototype machine, called a Linac-MR, could successfully take real- give $100,000 toward the projects each year for the next time 3D MR (magnetic resonance) images of a solid tumour while delivering radiation. three years. We are grateful to Hugh and Madge for their gift, Seeing the tumour more clearly, even if it shifts during treatment, meant doctors could which brought our campaign to just over $2 million of our deliver higher, more precise doses of radiation in fewer treatments. Its exciting technology that will revolutionize radiation therapy, says Dr. Fallone, $4 million goal, says Jane Weller, senior development whose team is now creating a prototype machine that will look at the whole body. ocer for the Alberta Cancer Foundation at the Cross Because of this new hybrid system, we can cure the cancer much better and potentially Cancer Institute. These campaign donations will help to with decreased side eects. He says the discovery could also make radiation therapy build the human or whole-body prototype and begin clinmore accessible for tumours in the liver, stomach and pancreas, areas which are ical trials to test on patients. 18
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I opened a door at the gym and found some guys hitting bags. I thought that must be one great method to get in shape, and decided I wanted to train with guys who are fighters.
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In the Ring
The McColls didnt always have this much money to give, but they always gave. From the time they arrived from Toronto and took over the General Motors dealership on Whyte Avenue in 1953, the McColls took an active role in their new city, supporting Edmontons sick and disadvantaged children, youth, men and women. Madge has volunteered tirelessly for her church and, for 30 years, has helped raise funds for the Grandview Continuing Care Centre. While president of the South Kiwanis Club in the early 1950s, Hugh was involved in the start of Camp He Ho Ha for handicapped children. He helped start the citys rst crisis intervention line and the organization now known as Goodwill. The year he was awarded $5,000 from an auto industry association, he and Madge gave half to the Youth Emergency Shelter and the other half to Win House. Hugh explains they always felt it was important to recognize the needs of others and donate to charities every year. We enjoyed a great deal of success in business and made many friends including people who were ill and handicapped, he says, and we wanted to support all kinds of organizations annually throughout our career. These days, Hugh works out at Edmontons Panther Gym under personal trainer and gym owner Benny The Jet Swanson every week. But he was Johnny-come-lately in boxing, discovering his new sport in Hawaii at the age of 75. I opened a door at the gym and found some guys hitting bags. I thought that must be one great method to get in shape, and decided I wanted to train with guys who are ghters. Now 15 years past cancer treatments and into retirement, Hugh and Madge McColl enjoy their various activities, and their four kids, 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren in good health.
DREAM MACHINE
Dr. Gino Fallones challenge has been to get an MRI machine and a linear accelerator to work in concert. The radio frequency and magnetic elds from each were not compatible with the other, says Fallone. We have completely redesigned the system from the bottom-up and have resolved these issues. The Alberta Cancer Foundation has contributed more than $3 million to Dr. Fallones research into image-guided adaptive radiotherapy, and committed in 2010 to providing $4 million to the Linac-MR Project over the next three years to develop a whole-body prototype to test on patients at the Cross Cancer Institute. Regulatory clearance will then be obtained to allow for use on research patients.
For more information about the Linac-MR Project go to www.linacmr.ca. From there, you can navigate to the Alberta Cancer Foundation to make an online donation.
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WALKING SHOP
BY CAILYNN KLINGBEIL
Shoppers Drug Mart backs the Weekend to End Womens Cancers from head ofce to the front lines. Its a natural t
Yasmin Kanji, the pharmacist-owner for the Kingsland
location of Shoppers Drug Mart in Calgary, used a simple strategy to encourage her co-workers to join her in supporting the Weekend to End Womens Cancers. I asked them if they know anyone who has, or has had, cancer, says Kanji, and nine out of 10 times, they know someone. Then I asked, what are you doing to help? Kanjis own involvement in the Shoppers Drug Mart Weekend to End Womens Cancers beneting the Alberta Cancer Foundation began last year when a close friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. As Kanji watched her friend start treatment, she thought, what can I do to help? She joined Team Shoppers Drug Mart last year and was one of almost 100 employees walking in Alberta. More than 1,000 employees from various levels of Shoppers Drug Mart walked across Canada, collectively raising more than $1.17 million at the weekend event. Shoppers Drug Mart is the national title sponsor for the weekend, which includes a 60-kilometre walk over two days (walkers camp overnight) or a 30-kilometre walk in one day. We participate in terms of nancially helping with the walk but also in terms of all our volunteers and walkers, says Lisa Gibson, the director of communications and corporate affairs for Shoppers. Gibson says Shoppers has a mandate specic to womens health that emphasizes the three key pillars of body, mind and spirit. That makes the companys support for the Weekend to End Womens Cancers a natural t. The 2011 events, which were amalgamated into a single walk in Calgary in July, saw 1,250 participants raise $2.6 million for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. That sum brought the total for the past six years to more than $24 million, money that supports breast and gynecological cancer research and programming. The extensive involvement of Shoppers Drug Mart in the event benets many. Employees who participate in the weekend gain health benets from training for the long walk. Customers learn about the important cause and have the opportunity to donate. And patients and their families ultimately benet from funds raised. Theres just so much enthusiasm at all levels, says Gibson. Lots of people are very passionate.
Back at the Kingsland Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy, Kanji prepared for her second event. Her customers were involved too, donating money and frequently checking in on Kanji and her training routine. Kanji described this years event to be just as impressive as last years. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm, she says, noting that seeing people who had gone through cancer treatments on the walk and cheering for the walkers from the sidelines was especially encouraging. It showed the end result, what were all achieving, she says. This year, Kanjis friend who initially spurred her involvement has completed treatment. She walked a few blocks with Kanji and cheered for her and the thousands of other walkers.
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Prevention: REDUCE YOUR RISK
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Obesity is a leading cause of preventable cancer. But weve handled a similar widespread health threat before. What can we take from the anti-tobacco eorts?
BY CRAILLE MAGUIRE GILLIES / ILLUSTRATION BY RAYMOND REID
excess weight contributed to nine per cent of deaths in 2000. In 1952, the year he starred in The Quiet Man with Health-care costs are rising with weight-related illnesses in Maureen OHara, actor John Wayne took on another role: Alberta these costs are not much lower than those of tobacco and himself. Wayne appeared in ads for Camel, languidly cradling these gures have made obesity the new tobacco. As Ken Kyle, a cigarette between his ngers. The images accompanied the who was also a contributor to the World Health Organizations actor saying things like, I tried many dierent cigarettes. I chose International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, notes, Camel for their avour and the way they agree with my throat. approximately one-third of cancer deaths are caused by poor Those smokes, however, did not agree with his lungs. Wayne nutrition and inactivity, the same percentage as caused by tobacco was diagnosed with lung cancer 12 years later. He went on to lm a products. Tobacco control is not done, says Kyle, who has spent public service announcement for the American Cancer Society that a career in policy and cancer prevention. But eorts now need also urged people to seek regular medical check-ups. He was never able to be made in obesity control. to give up tobacco, and died from stomach cancer in 1979. Law-makers and public health researchers believe that tobacco That John Wayne shilled for Camel is hardly surprising. control provides lessons for obesity and are applying similar Hollywood stars of that era who pued on screen were not so strategies to regulate healthy weights. Its not the rst time antimuch promoting an ideal as portraying a social norm. What is smoking strategies have been applied to other public health issues. surprising is how much that social norm has changed since 1952. In the U.S., for instance, Congress pointed to tobacco labelling Tobacco continues to be a leading cause of preventable death, but when putting forward legislation about alcohol. But obesity has sustained anti-smoking campaigns and policy changes have led drawn more parallels and broader action. A buet of laws from to signicant decreases in the numbers of smokers in Canada, the soda taxes on sugary U.S. and elsewhere. Kenneth E. beverages to bans on Warner, a professor of public Health care costs are rising with in health at the University of weight-related illnesses.These figures junk food by schools inspired tobacco Michigan, estimated that in the have made obesity the new tobacco. policy are on the books. United States alone, legislation In Canada, the Standing for the marketing, licensing, Committee on Health recommended legislating labels on pretaxing and education of tobacco has prevented an estimated 100 packaged foods, setting regulations about levels of trans fats million people from lighting up. A similar approach in Canada has and establishing food and physical activity programs in schools. led to equally impressive reductions. In the 1960s, roughly half of Provinces, meanwhile, have their own initiatives, such as a physical Canadians over the age of 15 smoked; today it is 18 per cent. activity tax credit in Alberta and a ban on trans fats in schools The success of tobacco control has provided some lessons in Ontario. for other areas of public health, but especially in one area now The rst step to reduce the waistlines of a nation and help considered an epidemic: obesity. Roughly a quarter of Canadians prevent cancers linked to obesity (such as breast, endometrium, are now overweight and obese double the 1985 gure. Last year, colon and kidney cancers) is to determine which strategies are federal, provincial and territorial health ministers said Canada is in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic. Excess weight most eective. As public health researchers are discovering, contributes to diabetes, other chronic illnesses and some cancers. changing a social norm isnt as simple as nutritional labelling Morbidity rates linked to obesity are also rising, according to a at fast-food restaurants or banning pop from schools it involves recent study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information changing our attitudes. and the Public Health Agency of Canada. It found that obesity and Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Its the message that
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resonates with readers of Michael Pollans book environment was tobaccogenic. Though for children. The federal government has In Defense of Food. In it, he urges people to adopt some public health professionals might disagree implemented a childrens tness tax credit and a diet of healthful, unprocessed food in moderate on this point, noting how an entire cultural has said it will expand the program to include norm had to change before smoking rates adults. Meanwhile, a federal private members proportions. Pollans modern dictum is wise, if prosaic. dropped, most agree that modern society is, as bill amending the Competition Act and the Food But its easier said than done. The feast-and- the American author Kelly D. Brownell dubbed it and Drugs Act is aimed at protecting children famine cycle ancient humans experienced is built in Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, from food advertising. Multiple levels of government and numerous into the bodies of modern humans. It doesnt a toxic food environment. Only public policy, proponents believe, will ideas from proposed snack taxes to fruit make sense in an age of automobiles and desk subsidies have been introduced. However, little jobs and prepackaged food. Yet there remains help change that environment. Food is necessary for life and, though some has happened on the legislative front. Ries and a biological urge to stu ourselves, and its aided by convenient access to food. (When foods are better than others, no single meal or von Tigerstrom wrote about roadblocks to laws was the last time you foraged for your single food has the same impact as a pu on a on physical activity and healthy eating in a 2010 supper? And rooting around in the freezer cigarette. Breakfast at a greasy spoon, a candy article for the Canadian Medical Association bar, a venti mocha frappuccino will not alone Journal: legal measures are spare, they note, doesnt count.) Historically, educating the public about cause a chronic illness. Should governments with little consistency across the country. This is where the history of tobacco a health risk has not single-handedly control comes in. For decades, lobbyists reversed outcomes. After epidemiological Anti-obesity and physical activity struggled to change the social norm; to research on the links between smoking advocates face a tangled web make a cool-looking John Wayne, posing and cancer were released, health advisors with a Camel cigarette, look uncool. It was believed that smokers would see the of ideological opposition and only through sustained, aggressive and error of their ways and quit, as Kenneth jurisdictional wrangling. sweeping changes that a social shift came E. Warner, a professor of public health about. Forty years ago, Canada had the at the University of Michigan wrote in an essay in the book Policy Challenges in Modern apply snack taxes to your bag of chips, even if highest tobacco use rate in the world, says Kyle. Health. And indeed, the consumption of tobacco youre not overweight? Should the 75 per cent We are now among the lowest in the OECA dropped for a while. But rates picked up and of the population that maintains a healthy body [Organization for the Economic Co-operation more comprehensive, aggressive campaigns mass index subsidize the health care costs of and Development]. The timeline also mirrors were needed. Likely, the most important the 25 per cent who do not? Can you legislate tobacco. Tobacco consumption was at its peak in message from the anti-smoking campaign, good health? These are questions being batted the early 1960s. Today, many health researchers Warner wrote, is that tackling the obesity back and forward on the editorial pages of and policy analysts say that the obesity issue is problem requires a sustained, thoughtful, well- newspapers. The common refrain of naysayers is at the point tobacco was when John Wayne was that there is no place for the state in the kitchens doing those public service announcements. resourced, multi-dimensional eort. Advocacy for obesity control, Kyle says, is Obesity is a more complex social issue than of a nation. The nanny state complaint has been a minor where tobacco was 30 years ago. tobacco in some basic, but important, ways. The message is patience, persistence, funding Preventing tobacco-related illness requires voice in the debate on policy. I think what we people stop using tobacco, even if the methods can draw from tobacco control is the importance and leadership. Tremblay, for one, has spent to achieve cessation are broad. There is a clear of multi-sectoral, multi-jurisdictional, multi- his career calling for action and leadership; causal link between the particular behaviour of level sustained intervention, says Dr. Mark hes thought about what leadership should smoking and bad health outcome, says Nola Tremblay, director of Healthy Active Living and look like. It starts with a plan. We dont even Ries, an associate researcher with the Health Law Obesity Research at the Childrens Hospital have a national physical activity act. Canada Institute at the University of Alberta. Its easier of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. Thats was once a leader in exercise science and to show that if you have fewer people smoking why eorts at smoking cessation succeeded. physiology, he says, exasperated, but has fallen that you will reduce overall a populations Thats a huge lesson. Thats the only way you can behind. The U.S. has dedicated funding and a national plan with comprehensive, large sector transform a social norm. incidences of cancer related to smoking. Canadian researchers like Tremblay have themes devoted to individual action items. Preventing obesity-related illness is not as clear-cut. Cessation is not an option and the called for greater national leadership, increased Transforming an obesogenic environment into correlation between a particular intervention funding and more partnerships between federal, a healthy one, Tremblay says, will not be cheap: can be more dicult to track. Its easier to show provincial and municipal governments each of The cost will be in the billions, not in the tens of that interventions like cycling lanes lead to more which regulates dierent arenas such as taxation, thousands. Whether any of these initiatives will work physical activity, Ries notes. That itself is a marketing and schools. The question for most healthy thing, but whether it translates to lower is not whether government intervention is is another matter. Anti-smoking activists only necessary, but what it will look like. Anti-obesity managed to make smoking socially unappealing obesity rates is a longer-term measure. The matter is further complicated by the and physical activity advocates face, according after experimenting with dierent policies. issue of blame. This is not, experts say, solely to Nola Ries and her University of Saskatchewan You can only nd out how populations will the fault of an individual. We live in what health research colleague Barbara von Tigerstrom, respond to changes in policy or legislation that researchers call an obesogenic world. Our a tangled web of ideological opposition and encourage or discourage certain behaviours, whole environment is set up in a way to promote jurisdictional wrangling. Provinces regulate Ries says, by trying certain initiatives and obesity, Ries says. Even when tobacco use schools and therefore have control over school measuring outcomes. Preventing obesity will was more prevalent, you couldnt say the nutrition and physical activity programs not, everyone agrees, be a piece of cake. 24
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Survive to
BY RICK OVERWATER
From
Thrive
L
ike many people proactively involved in cancer prevention and treatment, Susan Flowers has witnessed the eects of the disease in her own life. I lost two friends at young ages from cancer one was 50 and the other 56, she says. Thats just way too young. Today, Flowers is involved in a new chronic disease prevention program called Thrive on Wellness. As manager of Family and Community Support Services and Social Planning in Cochrane, Alberta shes in the early stages of the programs implementation. Cochrane is one of several communities serving as pilot project areas for the program.
A research initiative blossoms into a preventative health plan that helps Albertans live longer and healthier lives
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And when its rmly in place, Flowers and colleagues hope that cancer rates here (and eventually in more than 140 Alberta communities) will drop as much as 60 per cent over two decades. Its not farfetched. In 2002, the World Health Organization released a fact sheet summarizing primary
We wanted to create linkages with people in the communities and not just helicopter in some resources and leave, Raine says. We worked sustainability right into the plan.
health-care initiatives in three countries that indicated dollars spent on prevention were an investment against treating some costly health conditions later. Strategies for reducing onset and complications, the report states, include early detection, increasing physical activity, reducing tobacco use, and limiting prolonged, unhealthy nutrition. The report concludes: Small steps are as important as system overhaul. Those who initiate change, large or small, are experiencing benets today and creating the foundation for success in the future. It reads like a pitch for Thrive on Wellness. Cancer reduction is a lofty goal, says Sandra Delon, who serves as the Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Oral Health at Alberta Health Services. But its one thats built on a solid foundation of research with proven examples of success. The rst step, says Delon, is for society to begin thinking in terms of prevention instead of treatment. We need to begin addressing the root causes 26
of chronic disease, she says. Thrive on Wellness is geared to exactly that. A joint initiative of Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the Thrive program is a province-wide eort aimed at reducing the occurrences of cancer, its causes and a host of other leading health problems. One of the things that was discovered in the years of research that led to this project is that by tackling core health issues we could see a long-term reduction in not just one chronic disease but several, says Delon. Kim Raine is a professor in the Centre for Health Promotion Studies in the University of Albertas School of Public Health and holds a CIHR Applied Public Health Chair. Her own six-year research program, called Healthy Alberta Communities (HAC), is the model for Thrive on Wellness. When we talk about common risk factors among chronic diseases, its diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use, says Raine. We consume more calories than we did 20 years ago. We live in an environment where you can get 2,000 calories delivered to your car. Looking for ways to address these issues in 2005, Raine and her team concentrated on identifying local resources and reducing the barriers to healthy eating and physical activity. HAC focussed on Medicine Hat, Bonnyville, St. Paul and Norwood, an inner city area of Edmonton. The next step was to develop interventions in concert with community members to address local needs. We wanted to create linkages with people and not just helicopter in some resources and leave, Raine say. We worked sustainability into the plan. Each community came up with a set of ideas. In Medicine Hat, an area where greenhouses and local
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agriculture are prevalent, teams developed community gardens on plots donated by the city to grow healthy food and increase the physical activity that gardening entails. In Bonnyville, a program called Moms in Motion was created in partnership with the local recreational facility. The program purchased jogging strollers which the facility then loaned to low-income women for use in and around the facility. So low-income women who were challenged with getting enough physical activity now had resources and didnt require child care, Raine explains. In Norwood, an area with high transience and low incomes, access to aordable nutritious food was identied as a barrier to health. At the same time, people there didnt see themselves as needing charity; the local food bank wasnt an attractive option. With seed money from HAC, a social enterprise called the Good Food Box was created (see side bar). It was an excellent way for people to get access to nutritious food, says Raine. Flowers and a number of community volunteers hope to replicate those results in Cochrane. Construction of a community kitchen is underway, soon to be the nucleus of social programs to educate on healthy eating, allow community groups to gather and prepare healthy food, and serve as a conduit for good food boxes. As one group of volunteers focuses on food, another is working on plans for a health fair to help promote active, healthy living. Ideas include a blood pressure clinic and areas where the public can try new sports. New commuter paths are in the works. We have beautiful bike paths for recreation, but theyre not really set up for true commuting, Flowers says. In the new districts theyre putting in paths that are rideable and walkable.
Once Cochrane plans are eshed-out, Flowers and her team will apply for grants through Thrive on Wellness, in amounts up to $20,000 in total. With the bulk of pilot programs and research behind Thrive, and the commitment of Alberta Health and Wellness, shes condent that Cochrane can expect lower chronic disease rates in the years to come. Raine feels the same way, and is pleased with what she sees. This exceeds my expectations, she says. Its a researchers dream to have a project you work on be picked up and implemented into what will hopefully become standard practice everywhere.
GOOD FOOD BOXES

When Susan Flowers put forward the idea of creating boxes of fruit, vegetables and extras, such as healthy recipes, for distribution to Cochranearea residents, we received 30 letters of support from different agricultural groups, she says. Jessie Radies, the founder of Edmonton-based Live Local Alberta, isnt surprised. Her experience with good food boxes dates back to the Healthy Alberta Communities project, where she helped unveil the concept in Edmontons Norwood community. Today Live Local Alberta delivers custom orders of fresh, healthy food to 150 families per week. Radies not-for-prot program injects about $500,000 per year into the local economy. One per cent of the revenue goes toward reducing costs for low-income families and 75 per cent goes to local farmers. If theyre eating food from us, Radies says, theyre eating less processed food and eating locally with less environmental impact.
Read the WHO factsheet No. 172 about some global studies indicating the importance of integrating prevention into health care: www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs172/en/index.html
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Weve downed a lot of merlot reassured that red wine may be healthful. But whats the relationship between happy hour and cancer?
BY KELLEY STARK
he very same thing that can make you feel like youre the best karaoke singer in the room can, unfortunately, cause cancer. Studies of alcohol and cancer have been extensive, involving decades of research by scientists all over the world. Alcohol wont cause every kind or case of cancer, but the evidence is convincing that alcohol has a causal role in many cancers of the digestive tract as well as breast cancer. Dr. Christine Friedenreich, Senior Research Scientist and Epidemiologist with Alberta Health Services, points to a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). They reviewed all of the world literature on this topic by cancer sites and concluded that there is now sucient evidence that alcohol is related to an increased risk of several cancers, she says. And the association between alcohol and cancer is not new. They did a review in 1988 and already concluded then that alcohol increases cancer risk but now the list of cancers aected by alcohol has increased as more studies have been done. The ingredient in alcohol responsible for the increase in risk is ethanol. Ethanol is created in the fermentation process: yeast breaks down the sugar in plant and grain into ethanol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is removed leaving ethanol and water. One drink contains about 10 to 15 grams of ethanol. And fermentation creates the ethanol thats in your afterwork drink, no matter whats being processed: grapes into wine, barley into beer or cane sugar into rum. Scientists have
compared dierent alcoholic beverages to see which raises the risk of cancer. According to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR)s publication, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective, [studies] show that it is alcoholic drinks in general which is to say, the amount of ethanol consumed that are or may be a cause of some cancers. Cancers most strongly associated to alcohol consumption include mouth, pharynx and larynx, oesophagus, colorectal in men and breast (both pre- and post-menopausal). There is also a probable eect on the liver and colorectal in women. WCRF and AICR looked at thousands of dierent reports and studies before publishing their ndings. For mouth, pharynx, and larynx alone they found ve cohort studies, 89 case-control studies, and four ecological studies investigating alcoholic drinks. All reported an increased risk for cancer. The risk increases with the use of tobacco and the publication also points out, high consumers of alcohol may also have diets low in essential nutrients, making tissues susceptible to carcinogenesis. As with a lot of cancer its complicated and teetotallers can also suer the same cancers. The risk of cancer that alcohol puts on your liver is harder to dene. Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective reports, It is biologically highly plausible that alcoholic drinks are a cause of liver cancer. In addition, regular high levels of alcohol consumption are known to cause liver damage. Tumour promotion has been linked to inammation in the liver through alcohol-associated brosis and hepatitis. Among carriers of the hepatitis C virus, even moderate alcohol consumption can worsen the infection. Hepatits C is prevalent among alcoholics with chronic liver disease and appears to accelerate the course of alcoholic liver disease.
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The studies show increased risk of cancer with increased ethanol intake; in other words, the more you drink, the higher your risk. None of the studies reported a statistically signicant decreased risk.
If there is benet to cardiovascular health in drinking moderately, you may be negating it by increasing your cancer risk. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT and Nunavut advises people who want to DOUBLE TROUBLE positively impact their heart health to quit smoking, eat Social smokers, those people who only smoke when theyre drinking, might be doing a healthy diet and do moderate- to vigorous-intensity more harm than they think. We often think that not being a regular smoker should give aerobic activity for 150 minutes a week. us less of a chance of cancer risk, but the mixture of the tobacco with alcohol actually Drinking alcohol, like other decisions in life, comes causes a double whammy. down to personal choice. A Cancers most affected by alcohol include Its sobering how many cancers glass of champagne at your are aected, Dr. Friedenreich says of daughters wedding or even mouth, pharynx and larynx, oesophagus, the synergistic relationship between Vegas coloretum in men, and breast (both pre- and a drunken weekend incancer, alcohol and tobacco. If youre exposed wont doom you to post-menopausal). There is also a probable but cancer experts say there to alcohol and smoking you have an even higher risk of some cancers. And effect on the liver and colorectum in women. is no safe level of alcohol. those would be aerodigestive cancers, in other words, things like pharyngeal, laryngeal, oral cancers, esophageal, and colorectal cancers. The WCRF and AICR report says that tobacco may induce specic mutations in DNA making them less eciently repaired in the presence of alcohol. And alcohol can When you think about your daily limit for beer, wine or function as a solvent making it easier for the cancer-causing ingredients in smoking to spirits, its important to know what constitutes a drink. penetrate our mucosal cells, damaging our bodies. According to the Canadian Public Health Association, one drink contains 13.6g of alcohol. HEART-HEALTHY WINE? A standard drink is: Wait it gets confusing didnt we all raise a glass to studies that said we would have
HOW MUCH IS ONE DRINK?
healthier hearts if we drank a little red wine? Christine Friedenreich says some sources recommend that, if you drink at all, to limit your consumption to one or two drinks per day for women and one to three drinks daily for men. But to be honest, she says seven to 14 drinks in a week is still pretty high.
one 355 mL (12 oz) bottle of beer (5% alcohol) one 146 mL (5oz) glass of wine (12% alcohol) one 44 mL (1.5 oz) shot of spirits (40% alcohol)
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CAN CANCER BE
PREVENTED?
BY OMAR MOUALLEM
DISEASE HAPPENS AT THE COMPLICATED INTERSECTION OF GENES, LIFESTYLE, INFECTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE. BUT WERE LEARNING MORE ALL THE TIME
Every other Saturday, chef Gail Hall leads her cooking class from her condo where she instructs them to the downtown Edmonton farmers market just outside her front steps. From there, she leads them from canopy to canopy to purchase fresh, whole foods. Thirty minutes later they return to her kitchen with those ingredients to cook a healthful four-course meal, including dessert. Since before organic food was in vogue, the 60-yearold food activist has supported local and sustainable agriculture and educated others about it, advocating a return to local, natural and unprocessed foods. Shes been a label-reader for 10 years, since rst noticing that fat-free whipping cream wasnt whipping the way it ought to, but shes a voracious reader now, always on the hunt for hidden soy and other estrogen-producing ingredients. 30
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Three years ago Hall was diagnosed with early stage II estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, meaning the mutated cancer cells bind to estrogen in her body, which can encourage the cancers growth. One way to keep her estrogen levels down, her dietician advised, is to avoid estrogenic foods like soy. But thats not easy. Perched on a stool alongside the island in her country-style kitchen, she says, I cant believe what theyre putting in food. She spins around to a cabinet and rummages inside, nally pulling out a box of tea bags. She rotates it in her hands like a Rubiks Cube until she nds the ingredients panel and points to the last two words: soy lecithin. Its a freshening agent like, what? Its so ludicrous! For her, the only mystery greater than what a freshening agent is doing in tea is why she got cancer in the rst place. Though she doesnt like to, Hall has spent a lot of time wondering about that. Shes lived the healthiest life she could. Sure, it wasnt stress-free, but shes been exercising regularly since her 20s, quit smoking several decades ago and never abused alcohol. And if anyone can cook a nutritious meal its Gail Hall. There are still a lot of unknowns, says Dr. Heather Bryant, vice president of Cancer Control at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC), a federally funded organization that combines the knowledge of experts, health organizations, survivors and more to implement a national cancer control strategy. Ten years ago Bryant helped launch Albertas Tomorrow Project, a study that follows 30,000 healthy Albertans over three decades, and turns their diets, lifestyle habits, postal codes, places of employment and more into data that will allow for long-term comparisons between those who get cancer and those who dont. Its considered gold-standard research, and in 2008 it was repeated on a national scale with 10 times more Canadians. According to the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control, improving Canadians health could save the government $73 billion dollars over 30 years. By and large, the things that we know predispose people to cancer are environmental, Bryant says. Most of the cancers that we have prevention tools for relate to tobacco, nutrition and physical activity, and other causes over which people have some control. CPAC estimates that half of all cancer cases are preventable, and they are usually cancers of the lung, breast, colon and prostate, which account for almost 50 per cent of all cancer deaths. But, Bryant points out, there is no magic armour. Living and work conditions play a role. Genetics do too. And, just like Hall, thousands of people do everything right and still get the diagnosis because
somewhere along the way a cell multiplied differently and, instead of dying off after division, the switch is left on and the cells proliferate, forming a tumour. Hall, now healthy again post-treatment, continues to follow the advice of her doctors, not just shunning estrogen-mimicking foods but also maintaining her healthy diet and physical exercise. Occasionally why? still crosses her mind. Was it her Eastern European genes that made her susceptible? Her age? The fact that when she was a teen she was having abnormal periods and so her doctor prescribed an early generation of birth control pills? Or was it bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogenic organic compound commonly used as a softening agent in plastic bottles? While its next to impossible to point to any one cause of cancer in any individual, we can talk about mitigating risk across groups. And more environmental risks are identied all the time. Hall calls BPA the big one. Dr. Paul Demers, scientific director of Carex Canada, a B.C. team creating public proles on 60 carcinogens, says the state of knowledge in his eld is relatively sparse. We joke that we have more gaps than things in between because theres so much data that we dont have in regards to environmental exposure. Carexs goal is to ll those gaps by gathering numbers on how many Canadians are exposed to known, probable and possible carcinogens and how intense their exposure is. For this, they rely on classications developed by the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer. But, as Demers says, its complicated and there are many unknowns. BPA, he notes, is still a substance listed by the WHO as category three or not classifiable, meaning theres insufficient evidence that its carcinogenic. Combined estrogen-progesterone oral contraceptives, however, are category one, carcinogenic to humans. The classification means that the substance increases the risk of cancer in at least one population. In this case, the rise is slight for women currently on the pill. In groups of women like Hall with a history of oral contraceptive use, 10 years and more after they have stopped their risk rates for developing cancer are no different than in women who never took the pill. Further, among those diagnosed, the disease may be less advanced in the group that has taken the pill in the past. Theres little we can do to protect ourselves from most carcinogens, but Demers, a former environmental activist, says individuals and especially physicians should educate themselves to push for more regulations where needed, or to encourage industries to use fewer known or suspected toxic chemicals. But, he says, be critical of alarming headlines about the carcinogen of the week that do more harm than good. Im concerned people are going to burn out, not believe when things really are hazardous, or get overloaded and feel helpless in terms of wanting to take action. Bryant also fears that mysteries in her field of prevention lead to ambivalence. One of the common beliefs is that cancer is a disease of aging, and if you live long enough youre going to get it. That leads to the kind of thinking where youre less likely to think you can control the diseases, and you become less likely to take the effort to do so, she says. In treatment and prevention, we sometimes feel like were just making baby steps, Bryant says. But when you add them up, we actually are making great strides in controlling cancer.
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TIME TO INTERVENE
HOW YOU CAN BEAT THE ODDS AGAINST CANCER
Cancer is the result of a set of biological and chemical processes. Genes, toxins, infection and lifestyle are all involved and none of us is immune. Rather than letting worry paralyze you, educate yourself and take steps to a healthier life. By knowing the risks around you, and inside you, you can reduce your chances of cancer.
BY OMAR MOUALLEM
LIFESTYLE
You know smoking is a leading cause of cancer, but you might be surprised to nd that as many as ve per cent more cancer cases are related to poor diets and lack of exercise. Cancer risks also increase with the amount of alcohol you drink, and indoor tanning nearly doubles your chances of developing melanoma.
INTERVENE
You dont have to become a monk or log every calorie. Just eat better, move more 150 minutes a week minimum and cut back on your indulgences. Most importantly, dont accept certain vices just because others have and lived to 100. We cant all be George Burns.
CARCINOGENS
Its not that the jury is still out, its just that theyve got a lot to get through. As of June 2011, The World Health Organization had listed 107 known carcinogens to humans, 59 probably and 267 possibly. Number of probably nots listed? One. Yet six per cent of cancers in the United States are linked to occupational or community exposures, such as non-Hodgkins lymphoma linked to asbestos.
INTERVENE
Educate yourself about toxins in your environment. Lower your toxin exposure at home by making your own household cleaners and buy products from companies and industries practising toxic use reduction. But beware of misinformation. Visit the Occupational Cancer Research Centres website for credible information and understand the laws that allow you to refuse work that exposes you to known or suspected carcinogens. 32
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INFECTIONS
About 18 per cent of cancers worldwide are caused by infectious agents. Thats much higher than in developed countries. Still, nobody is immune to cancer-related viruses like the human papillomavirus, which accounts for 70 per cent of cervical cancers and chronic types of viral hepatitis have been linked to liver cancer.
INTERVENE
You can only be immunized against the two above mentioned cancercausing viruses. The good news is several preventive vaccines are in clinical trials, and recently Health Canada approved an HPV vaccine for young males.
GENETICS
Technically all cancer is genetic that is, caused by genetic mutations but hereditary cases (usually breast, ovarian, colon and prostate) make up no more than 10 per cent. Genes play a larger role, not by causing disease but by increasing susceptibility. Pay attention to your family history.
INTERVENE
Mitigate your risks with healthy habits. Talk to your doctor about screening tests for breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. In rare cases, (for example, if youre a woman with a lot of breast cancer in the family) discuss the potential risks and benets to genetic testing and counselling. But dont just look inside yourself; moles, freckles and skin tags should be regularly examined by a dermatologist because early skin cancer symptoms can resemble harmless pigmentation.
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Screen TIME
The idea of being screened for disease is scary, but most tests are quick and painless, especially given the alternative: not nding a cancer early enough
BY DEBBIE OLSEN
hen Garth Hamptons family doctor retired, he quit going for regular checkups. He gured that since he was feeling well, there was really no point. Even when his sister was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, he was condent that it wouldnt happen to him. I didnt visit the doctor after my sister was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, because I gured it wouldnt happen to me and if it did Id rather not know about it, said Hampton. Looking back on it, it was a foolish way to think. After encouragement from his family, Hampton found a new doctor and made an appointment for a checkup. The doctor encouraged him to take a fecal occult blood test (FOBT). The test was abnormal and a follow-up colonoscopy found cancer. Since treatment, Hampton has been cancer free for more than three years and is enjoying spending time with family, shing, hunting, and playing golf. This was a close call, he says. I didnt have symptoms and I didnt think it was necessary to go for regular check-ups. I realize how important it is now. That screening test saved my life. Waiting until youre sick to see a doctor is a little like waiting until youre in the water before putting on your life jacket. Regular checkups help prevent serious illness by helping you work with your doctor to establish a lifestyle that promotes healthy living. Screening procedures can detect some cancers before the rst symptoms appear. In some cases, cancer can be prevented if the procedure reveals precancerous changes. Early detection allows for the use of less invasive treatment protocols and dramatically increases the survival rate for many types of cancer.
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There are many things you should do to maintain a healthy lifestyle including eating well, quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy body weight and being physically active, says Dr. Huiming Yang, Director of Screening Programs for Alberta Health Services. Regular preventative check-ups that include routine cancer screening appropriate to your age and sex should also be part of healthy living. These basic screening procedures are designed for people at average risk of cancer. Talk to your doctor if a particular type of cancer runs in your family, as you may need to be screened more often or may require dierent screening tests. Heres a rundown of the basic recommendations for the four cancers commonly detected during screening. Breast Tests Progress has been made in breast cancer survival thanks to improved screening and treatment. Current guidelines suggest that most women under the age of 40 dont require regular screening mammograms. Physicians should discuss mammography with female patients between the ages of 40 and 49. If a patient chooses to participate in screening mammography, these tests should be performed annually. Women between the ages of 50 and 69 should have a mammogram at least every two years. Women over 69 should consider mammography every two years, taking into account personal health factors and preferences. Mammography takes place in a specialized screening centre. A mammography technician or technologist asks you to stand close to a mammography machine, positioning your breast and compressing it in the machine to enable the machine to take an image. The test is uncomfortable, but brief. It can identify unusual tissue before you can feel it. Cervical Checks Cervical cancer usually develops slowly and Pap screening can detect changes before cancer develops. Its estimated that 90 per cent of cervical cancer cases could be prevented by regular screening and follow up care for any abnormalities detected, says Dr. Laura McDougall, Medical Lead of the Alberta Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Programs. Abnormalities can be detected through screening and treated before cancer even develops. Albertas Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines advise that women should have Pap tests annually for three years and if all three tests are normal, women can switch to a test every three years. Women should start having tests regularly at age 21 (or three years after becoming sexually active, whichever is later) and continue regular testing at least until age 70.
A Pap test takes place in your doctors exam room or clinic. The doctor asks you to undress from the waist down and takes a sample of cells from the inside of your cervix, which are then sent to the lab for testing. It takes minutes and theres little discomfort. Colorectal Correction Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths and the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Alberta, but many of these cases could be prevented by appropriate screening. Screening procedures vary depending upon your level of risk for this type of cancer something that can be assessed by your family doctor. For those at an average risk, its recommended that a fecal occult blood test (FOBT) be performed every one or two years after they reach the age of 50. This involves collecting a small sample of stool at home and taking it to the lab, where they test it for the presence of blood. If FOBT is positive, colonoscopy is recommended as a follow-up test. Colonoscopy is sometimes recommended for people who have a parent, sibling or child who has had colon cancer or polyps. A colonoscopy takes place in the day ward of the hospital. You are lightly sedated and a specialist threads a thin tube into your bowel and examines the inside of the bowel with a tiny camera. He may nd a polyp, or protruding bit of esh in your intestine. Most polyps are benign, but hell remove it on the spot, ensuring that it doesnt get the chance to grow and become cancer. The test is not painful, but youll be sleepy and need to rest at home for the balance of the day. Prostate Pros Theres no formal screening program in Alberta for prostate cancer, but according to the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Alberta physicians, a Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) and Prostate Specic Antigen testing (PSA) can be used together to make an earlier diagnosis. The guidelines suggest that doctors discuss the risks and benets of PSA testing with men over 50, men with a higher risk for the development of prostate cancer (family history of the disease or of African Canadian descent), as well as men with an abnormal digital rectal exam (DRE) or lower urinary tract symptoms. Dr. Huiming Yang, Director of Screening Programs for Alberta Health Services says that the reason theres no established screening program at this time in Alberta is because evidence is insucient to determine the benets of prostate cancer screening. Medical experts agree that every man needs balanced information on the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening to make an informed decision, he says. The decision to use PSA testing for prostate cancer screening should be individual.
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Breathe Deeply
BY MIFI PURVIS / ILLUSTRATION BY HEFF 0REILLY
Lung cancer patients face a diagnosis that is not just devastating, its isolating. Are new treatments starting to turn attitudes around?
areld Scheie (pronounced shay) had his rst cigarette at age 14. The guy I was with told me I needed to inhale it, Scheie recalls. Then he gave Scheie another one. After that, I was three shades of green. Scheie is reminiscing from a meeting room at Edmontons Cross Cancer Institute; hes just nished his fourth weekly treatment on a clinical trial drug to treat his non-small cell lung cancer. You think you know how this story goes, but youre wrong. Those two smokes nearly ve decades ago represent Scheies lifetime intake hes a non-smoker. Now in his mid60s, the Rimbey, Alberta resident is among the 15 per cent of lung cancer patients who were never habitual or even occasional smokers. Scheie is an upbeat semi-retired heavy equipment operator. Three years ago he went to see a doctor for what he thought was pneumonia. He was admitted to hospital in Red Deer, where doctors drained 1,500 cc of
uid from his right lung. A similar procedure took place the following week in Edmonton. A specialist took a biopsy and sent Scheie home with a broad-spectrum antibiotic. The cancer diagnosis came at a follow-up appointment. Since then, Scheie has been through a number of treatments, and is currently taking an intravenous trial drug once a week at the Cross under the supervision of Dr. Quincy Chu. My daughter calls me a lab rat, Scheie says and one of his frequent, quick grins ashes across his face. White-haired and ball-capped, he looks well its the ready smile. In a hallway at the Cross he speaks to a woman recently diagnosed with the same kind of cancer. His message to her is dont quit, dont give up hope. Notably, he doesnt ask her the question that most lung cancer patients get: Did you smoke? Thats the rst thing people ask me, Judith Winer says. Winer, a Calgary resident, is a fundraiser for lung cancer research and was diagnosed with stage IV nonsmall cell adenocarcinoma six years ago, at 49. And yes, she says, she was a smoker. It begs the questions: Does it really matter if a lung cancer patient is a former smoker? Are we over that yet? No, were not over it, Winer says. People are put o. I would love to get rid of the black cloud, the stigma of being a smoker with cancer.
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Winer was diagnosed after an MRI for pelvic pain revealed a mass on her right lung. Surgery to remove the mass zzled surgeons cancelled the procedure when they opened her chest and found multiple tumours on both lungs. Shes had mixed success with chemotherapy, including a serious adverse reaction that landed her in hospital for a couple of weeks in 2009. Its been a tough road for Winer. Theres little of the public outpouring of support that accompanies other cancers. Fortunately she and others in southern Alberta have benetted from regular support at a group for lung cancer patients and families at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. Angie Gschaid, (pronounced shade) now 62, has also elded the did you smoke? questions since her diagnosis with lung cancer in 2006. Its the rst thing everyone asks. (In her case the answer is yes, decades ago, socially.) She doesnt let it get to her and she knows she has nothing to apologize for. You have to be your own advocate, she says. Im still on this side of the ground. Gschaid says that lung cancer patients can feel shunned, as though they dont deserve the best standard of care. Now in remission, she says that her advocacy for her own illness and her search for expertise led her to Dr. Gwynn Bebb at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. When he started his specialty training in cancer care in 2000, Bebb had thought that, from a research standpoint, he might like to treat lymphoma patients. With lymphoma, he says, there are a number of known subtypes of disease and clinicians arrive at a treatment plan according to these characteristics. With lung cancer, Bebb says, patients were all lumped together.
Its possible that the later arrival of targeted, research-intensive therapy to lung cancer is the result of negative attitudes that many lung cancer patients deal with, that the illness is self-induced.
Bebb saw that the clinical need lay in lung cancer. It was perfect timing for a researcher to get involved; the one-sizets-all treatment was starting to change. In 2004, a new picture emerged, Bebb says. Researchers found subtypes of lung cancer sensitive to a new class of drugs. Specically, he points to a small percentage of patients whose cancer has a specic growth factor receptor, called EGFR, targeted by a drug called Iressa (gettinib). Bebbs patient Carol Olson is one of them. A Calgary resident, Olson has a long experience with
cancer that includes three dierent primary cancers: breast (1995), endocervical (2004) and lung (2007). The lung cancer was primary, meaning that it was not the result of her earlier cancers that had spread; those cancers were cured. And enough time had passed that Olson and her family were justiably optimistic that the lung cancer was cured, too. Then, at her family cabin last year, Olson got up and took a step to cross the living room. Her femur snapped the lung cancer had metastasized. It was devastating, she says. An MRI revealed cancer in her brain, liver, adrenal gland, spine, and the fracture site on her leg. A radiation oncologist treated spots on her brain and bones, and Bebb had her cancer tested for EGFR sensitivity a test that has been available for less than two years. Only about seven to 10 per cent of non-small cell lung cancer patients have this mutation, although that number may approach 30 per cent or more in South East Asians, Bebb says. Olsons cancer fell into the small group. Carols medicine is covered by the drug company who also paid for the test. This is a bit contentious politically. Drug companies that pay for studies have an obvious conict of interest, but it speeds the studies. Thats of little concern to Olson. Her cancer has receded and some of the spots have disappeared. She takes the Iressa once a day in pill form and has had few side eects hardly what youd imagine a course of chemotherapy would look like in a patient with stage IV lung cancer. Olson, no stranger to cancer treatment, calls it a blessing. Its possible that targeted, research-intensive therapy arrived later to lung cancer because of the attitudes that many lung cancer patients deal with, that the illness is self-induced. The concordant stereotype, Bebb says, is that lung cancer patients all suer poor outcomes. But the picture of lung cancer treatment is changing. Clearly we would like more such predictive tests and tailored treatments, Bebb says, and mentions that there is a second such treatment emerging that will hopefully widen the circle of patients who will benet. And hopefully new treatments will engender a better public face for the disease. The goal of anti-smoking advocates is prevention, not to vilify people with the disease. Nobody asks for cancer. For that matter, nobody asks for an addiction, but both are personal and public health issues that require the best research and treatment available.
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Dont know where to start in planning healthful meals? Its important, whether you are healthy or dealing with illness. Help is here
BY LIZ CROMPTON
e all know that eating well gives us energy, makes us feel better, and keeps our bodies strong to deal with whatever life throws at us. We also know that to reap these benets, we need to eat healthfully on a consistent basis. But a heavy load at work and evening activities can derail our best intentions to stick to a healthy eating plan, and we see more processed-food wrappers in the garbage than wed like to. But, whether youre in cancer prevention or treatment mode, eating healthful meals made without much fuss can become second nature. It takes a little elbow grease at the beginning to plan meals and shop but it does get easier, says Jennifer Black, registered dietician, at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary. Whats the key? Creating a menu plan for four weeks and then tweaking and recycling that plan as many times as you want. Black says that when it comes to planning and preparing meals, there are two dierent diet streams: one for cancer prevention and one for during cancer treatment. Getting enough calories and protein is paramount for those in the latter category, Black says, explaining people undergoing cancer treatment need about 20 per cent more calories than usual in order to maintain muscle mass and repair damage to tissue. It can be tough because some treatments leave your appetite at. My biggest motto during cancer treatment is make every mouthful count, says Black. Heres our plan to get your September o to a strong, delicious start. Revise and repeat every month, and if you stick with it, by Christmas you may be feeling a whole lot better.
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SAMPLE ONE-DAY MENU While the rule of thumb for healthy eating remains standard eat fruit and vegetables, lean protein, dairy, whole grains there are some things a person undergoing cancer treatment needs to do dierently: add calories and protein, says Black. The easiest way, she adds, is to include high-fat dairy products. The whole family can benet from the same healthful meal. The person needing more calories and protein can ramp up nutrition with a boost of protein and fat in his or her serving. This said, the National Cancer Institute in the U.S. cautions that nutrition thats good for cancer patients can dier from the usual guidelines for healthy eating. Notably, breast cancer patients with estrogensensitive tumours are often advised to forgo soy-based or enhanced foods. Consult with a specialized dietitian for an eating plan that is appropriate for you. Breakfast Whole wheat French toast with mixed fruit, strong on berries Milk The Boost: Add a few tablespoons of full-fat yogurt and cashews to your fruit. If you have coee, make it a latte with whole milk. Snack Fruit, any kind Cheese cubes The Boost: Choose a buttery soft cheese with a mild taste. Spread it on low-sodium crackers. Lunch Turkey on whole wheat bread Green salad and dressing or lightly steamed crunchy vegetables The Boost: Add some extra canola oil and a handful of sunower seeds to your dressing. Dip veggies in hummus or add a spoonful of chick peas to your salad. Snack Hard-boiled egg Carrots (or other vegetable) and dip The Boost: Choose a dip high in unprocessed plant oils or make some guacamole or hummus. Dinner Roast chicken Mixed vegetables (e.g., green beans, steamed leafy greens, asparagus, roasted tomatoes) Mashed potatoes Fruit in yogurt The Boost: Add cream cheese and sour cream to your potatoes and ice cream or whipped cream to your fruit. SUPER FOODS The following foods contain anti-cancer properties, such as antioxidants, which may protect your cells from damage caused by unstable molecules called free radicals. Enjoy these as food, Black says; supplements (pills) dont oer the anti-cancer benets of whole foods. In no particular order, they are: 1. The cabbage (or brassica) family: including kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli 2. Turmeric: add a teaspoon a day to soup or pasta 3. Berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc. The darker the better 4. Omegas: sources include salmon, axseeds, nuts, hemp (hearts) 5. The allium family: including garlic and onions 6. Tomatoes 7. Beans and legumes: including black beans, lentils, chickpeas, and red kidney beans 8. Citrus fruits: including oranges, lemons and limes
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TOP 10 TIME-SAVING TIPS Menu planning might look like a drag at rst but imagine: you have a roadmap for precisely where you need to be. Pre-planned menus are an eective way to stay on track, and it gets easier to shop for and substitute ingredients as you get familiar with your plan. 1. Create a meal plan for four weeks, Black recommends. At the end of every fourth week, start again at Week One. Keep workday meals simple. 2. Save your plan and shopping list in a binder or on your computer. Review the menu every cycle, deleting the recipes you didnt care for and adding recipes youd like to try. 3. Cook extra at dinner, and save it to eat for lunch the next day. All you need to do is add a piece of fruit and some snacks and youre set until dinner. 4. Give everyone a task: nding new recipes, grocery shopping, cooking, setting the table, cleaning up. 5. Tape a weeks worth of meals to the fridge or a kitchen cupboard for a lightning-fast reminder of upcoming meals. 6. Post a shopping list nearby, to which you can add items as you run out of them. Encourage everyone to contribute. 7. Stock up on supplies: Shop for a months worth or more of healthy staples such as black beans, rice and canned tomatoes for the pantry, and twice a week for fresh produce, picking up dairy as you need it. 8. Prep snacks: make sure you have granola bars, pudding and yogurt on hand as healthy go-to bites. Hard-boil eggs, too, and chop up fruit and vegetables for fast access. 9. Ask for help/accept oers to help. If you dont have the wherewithal to shop or cook, ask for help. Someone may also oer to make a casserole you can freeze for another day. 10. Treatment or no treatment, there are days you dont want to cook. Its okay to eat a pre-made meal at those times, Black says, because its still better than nothing. Drop by a frozen meats specialty store, or sign up with a meal service in your city. COOKING TECHNIQUES: THE BEST AND THE WORST Maximize: Cook tomatoes in a little vegetable oil to optimize nutrients. Lightly steam vegetables to break down the bre a bit. Choose to eat whole fruit and vegetables, which contain all their nutrients plus bre. Eat food without bar codes or crinkly wrappers for maximum nutritional benets. Minimize: Dont overcook vegetables. It can boil away nutrients, such as vitamin C, and taste. Avoid juice, both fruit and veggie. Juice lacks the bre and some of the fruits nutrient content. Say sayonara to char-grilled foods. Those black grill lines on a steak are carcinogenic, the chemical reaction of high heat and fat. If you want to barbecue, use lean meat with all visible fat removed and dont char it.
ON THE WEB AND ELSEWHERE

Healthy U: the Government of Albertas healthyliving website. Check out the Healthy Eating Toolkit at healthyalberta.com National Cancer Institute (U.S.): type nutrition in cancer care into the search eld EatRight Ontario: features an interactive meal-planner to target a variety of needs. Go to eatrightontario.ca, choose menu-planning from the browse by topic menu. Goes Down Easy: Recipes to Help You Cope with the Challenge of Eating Treatment. During Cancer Treatment Elise Mecklinger and Daniela Fierini, Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, 2006 Great Food Fast: Dietitians of Canada Bev Callaghan and Lynn Roblin, Canada. Robert Rose, 2000
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Research MEETS Community

BY CAITLIN CRAWSHAW
The largest cohort study ever conducted in Alberta, the Tomorrow Project will ultimately involve 50,000 volunteers in an effort to pinpoint the causes of cancer
n 1948, researchers recruited more than 5,200 men and women between 40 and 62 years of age from a tiny Massachusetts town. The idea was to track participants over many decades to see whether dierent aspects of their lives (from health conditions to lifestyle choices) inuenced their chances of developing heart disease. The Framingham Heart Study was revolutionary. By tracking many participants over decades, researchers were able to identify dierent risk factors a term they coined for heart disease. Among the many discoveries to come out of the study was the link between high blood pressure and stroke. Doctors can now treat their patients for high blood pressure, advise at-risk patients to adopt healthier habits and potentially save lives. This approach to research is invaluable for understanding and preventing cancer, too. Thats why the Alberta Cancer Foundation supports The Tomorrow Project, a long-term study that will ultimately follow 50,000 people from across the province. We know that one in two people in Alberta will develop cancer sometime in their lifetime and we need to keep that gure from getting any higher, explains Dr. Paula Robson, the projects principal investigator. She explains that large numbers of participants are critical for getting an accurate picture of the causes
of cancer. Because we have many sorts of cancer, we need to recruit many people to ensure we have enough information to tell us, with statistical signicance, whats going on, says Robson. The study began in 2001 and asked 30,000 Albertans to answer questionnaires about their lifestyles and health histories. In 2008, The Tomorrow Project joined with several other provinces to create a national study on cancer risk factors. Eventually, about 300,000 volunteers and 50 researchers will partake in this pan-Canadian research eort. Now, researchers have to ask the initial respondents to consent to being in a national study and must attract almost twice as many people as originally planned. Fortunately, a number of volunteer ambassadors are helping get the word out in urban and rural communities across the province. These people have generally been touched by cancer in some way and feel passionate about research and prevention, explains Robson. We love our volunteer ambassadors because they believe in what the project is doing, she says. That real personal belief and passion really speaks to people. Jeannette Vatter, a full-time volunteer in Drayton Valley who lost many close friends to cancer, happily registered for the study in 2001 after her doctor
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COMMUNITY CONNECTOR: Volunteer ambassador Jeannette Vatter (right), pictured with Courtney Allen, communications advisor encourages others to join The Tomorrow Project.
mentioned it. This spring, she signed up as a volunteer a chance to participate in the project, says Robson. With some help from volunteer ambassador to encourage others in her small town ambassadors in these communities, shes condent the visits will continue to draw southwest of Edmonton to partake. Word of mouth is crowds. Robson notes that over the course of just four days, 250 people registered with The Tomorrow Project during its Red Deer stop in June. always the best advertising, she says. Just as The Tomorrow Project As an active member of several When you say, This could help your requires community support to organizations in town, Vatter is produce the data, it will support an well connected in her community. future children, grandchildren and your entire community of researchers from Ive had a very positive response own quality of life down the road, says around Alberta and beyond. It will also everywhere Ive talked about it, volunteer ambassador Jeannette Vatter, be useful to researchers working on a she says. When you say, This that builds enthusiasm. host of other diseases, since the study could help your future children, has been designed to examine many grandchildren and your own facets of participants health. quality of life down the road, that builds enthusiasm. While the data have already supported university research, the value of this kind Its an easy sell, she says, since The Tomorrow Project requires such a small investment of time. At minimum, of study increases dramatically over time. Robson points to the Framingham study, participants can ll out a questionnaire. Those willing which fueled just 15 academic papers between 1950 and 1960, and a whopping 902 to go one step further need only spend an hour at a between 2000 and 2010. This kind of study takes a lot of people, time and eort, says Robson, but the study centre, where blood and urine samples, or saliva and measurements (including height, weight and value of it is absolutely phenomenal. blood pressure) are taken. Edmonton and Calgary have permanent study centres and the research team set up The Tomorrow Project is Funded by the Alberta Cancer Foundation, mobile centres in places like Drayton Valley, Lethbridge Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions, Alberta Health Services and, at and Red Deer, among others. the national level, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. To learn The Tomorrow Projects mobile study centres will more about The Tomorrow Project, visit www.in4tomorrow.ca. continue to make their rounds across the province. We think its important to give as many Albertans as possible
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Research Rockstar
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myleapmagazine.ca
Field ofBeams o
BY ANNALISE KLINGBEIL
Charles Kirkby solves cancer treatment problems with physics and the business end of a linear accelerator
/ PHOTOS BY ROB OLSON
harlie Kirkby has always loved to solve problems. As a young boy, he dreamed of driving a Buick Grand National as a private investigator, hed help people solve problems big and small. Maybe it was a P.I.s gadgets that appealed to him. Kirkby and his friends played with radiocontrolled cars and solved mechanical problems. Theyd sit down and examine their cars, trying to gure out which one had a better suspension system. In high school, Kirkby loved physics class. When youre a high-school kid, Kirkby says, you think youre going to be the next Einstein and solve all the great mysteries of the universe. Kirkby may not be the next Einstein, but the 36-year-old has translated a lifelong love for solving problems into a fullling career as a medical physicist. Its a demanding job that often involves long hours and a career where no two days are alike. Medical physicists are masters degree or PhD-level physicists who are involved in the radiation therapy treatment of patients, Kirkby says. He is one of two medical physicists at the Jack Ady Cancer Centre in Lethbridge, and one of an estimated 40 medical physicists in Alberta.
It was during his masters degree in physics at the University of Alberta that Kirkby realized he didnt want to be an astrophysicist. I felt essentially locked in a closet solving equations and not really having an impact on anything immediately practical, Kirkby says. Medical physics is a eld where you have the opportunity to make a dierence in peoples lives every day. Kirkby and his partner Dr. Esmaeel Ghasroddashti, or Dr. Essie as hes known by colleagues, spend their days solving problems, often working in concert. Ghasroddashti, who has worked alongside Kirkby for two years, describes him as incredibly knowledgeable in the eld of medical physics and exceptionally easy to get along with. Charlie, to me, is the best colleague that I could ask for, says Ghasroddashti. Treating patients with radiation is an extremely precise process that involves careful physics and calculations. Thats where medical physicists such as Ghasroddashti and Kirkby come in. They are involved in end-to-end treatment planning and the job includes clinical support and making sure that a patients radiation treatment goes as planned. Its complicated work that has an immediate application to cancer patients. And while his childhood dream of driving a Buick Grand National has not yet come true, Kirkby does get to work inside a radiation therapy vault. Its a place that seems
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GET TO KNOW DR. KIRKBY

When youre at a party and someone asks you about your job, how do you explain it? I have a phrase, it goes: Im a medical physicist, you know like radiation therapy for cancer. I dont know if they actually know that at all. Ill tell people that rst and foremost Im a physicist and that I work with radiation treatments particularly for cancer patients and then you wait and see if there is any interest. Some people just nod and smile as soon as they hear the word physicist. What excites you about your job? The different challenges that I can be faced with on any given day. Its a different problem every day and its really exciting when you do actually get to solve those problems. What is your favourite part about your job? The people that I get to work with. Esmaeel Ghasroddashti, the one other medical physicist in this centre, is a partner in the way that cops would have partners. Weve got a really good rapport and good working professional relationship. Its not just him. The other people that are here are really a pleasure to work with. What do you like to do in your spare time? Lots of things. I enjoy writing as a hobby. I like writing novels and short stories and what not. My wife and I really enjoy the outdoors with our son. We love camping and hiking. Whats the best advice that you have ever received? Thats a tough one. Probably just to follow your dreams. over several years. It involves studying how the magnetic eld from an MRI unit mounted on a linear accelerator changes where radiation goes. Now a married father with a young son, Kirkby was inuenced by his grandfather, a printer. He hated going to work and he did it because it was what he had to do to raise his family and support himself, says Kirkby. Kirkby knew early on he wanted more out of a job. I do something that I enjoy, but Im also in a spot where Im helping people and making a dierence, Kirkby says, I make other people live out their lives in a longer and happier way. Neither a gumshoe with gadgets nor the next Einstein, today its a love of solving problems that have practical impacts on patients that keeps Kirkby engaged. Its demanding but the rewards are worth it, says Kirkby, who knows that almost everyone has a connection to someone whos been aected by cancer. Kirkbys grandmother is a breast cancer survivor, and one of his aunts died from liver cancer. Cancer research is an area where all of the strengths that I have and the interests that I have in physics can be applied in a way that really helps people.
more like a lair for a super sleuth than a clinical setting in Southern Alberta. (Kirkby moved to Lethbridge in the summer of 2009 to work at the Jack Ady Cancer Centre.) Imagine a room thats surrounded by concrete, that in some cases could be over one metre thick, Kirkby says. The thickness is to block radiation from getting out. You have to wind through a bit of a maze in order to get inside. Thats where we do a fair amount of our work. Kirkby works in the radiation therapy vault as well as in a physics lab, and he spends part of his time in front of a computer in a decidedly more ordinary oce using a treatment planning software system. An Oshawa, Ontario native and PhD graduate, Kirkby holds an adjunct assistant professor position with the University of Calgary and teaches graduate students, medical physics residents and radiation therapists and radiation oncology residents. Hes currently working on two dierent research projects that study how radiation is delivered to cancer patients. In radiation therapy, your goal is to place a very precise amount of radiation into the cancerous area, but limit the side eects that result from irradiating healthy tissues, he says, noting its a dicult task because patients change over time. The cancer can grow or shrink, patients can lose weight, and even factors like how much one eats the day before can shift things around. The rst research project, which will be implemented over the next year or so at the Jack Ady Cancer Centre, is specic to prostate cancer patients. The project uses new cone beam computed tomography technology that allows researchers to calculate how much radiation actually went into the targeted cancerous area on treatment day. To improve the treatment process, Kirkby hopes to identify systematic dierences between what radiation was planned and what was delivered to the site. The second research project supports work being done at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton and will evolve 46
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myleapmagazine.ca
A GENEROUS SPIRIT
BY MIFI PURVIS
An Edmonton doctor creates a lasting legacy in his eld

John Wolfaardt knew Murray Mickleborough
personally and professionally Mickleborough was a maxillofacial surgeon, after all, and Wolfaardt was director of clinics and international relations at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine (iRSM), an Edmonton organization involved in cuttingedge biomechanics, reconstructing parts of peoples faces after surgery for cancer or trauma. And Wolfaardt knew that, in a twist of fate, Mickleborough had visited the iRSM as a patient after his 2010 diagnosis of cancer of the throat, which had spread to his mandible. But Mickleboroughs unexpected visit to the iRSM that day was neither professional nor medical. Murray arrived and asked to speak to me, Wolfaardt says. We sat down and he started asking what the opportunities were to fund research at the iRSM. Wolfaardt found out what Mickleborough had in mind and I was staggered, he says. Mickleborough was proposing to donate $1 million. The gift is the genesis of The Dr. Murray E. Mickleborough Research Chair in Interfacial Biomechanics. Murray had a professional understanding and a fascination for interfacial biomechanics, Wolfaardt says, which includes such things as bone integration and robotic prostheses. The endowment will allow Wolfaardt to beef up the engineering side of his team. Having a senior person in place the chair will also direct research, avoid redundancy and increase the capacity of the iRSM. Weve been relying on serendipity to catch and maintain funding, he says. The research chair provides stability that will attract top researchers. When Murray got sick, he toured the iRSM and was so impressed with it, says wife and partner of 25 years, Janice Mickleborough. He developed a real enthusiasm for it and it bothered him that it didnt get the attention it deserved. As a patient at the iRSM, specialists performed numerous tests on Murray, studied his swallowing and speech, among other things. Unfortunately, Mickleboroughs cancer returned and he never had a chance to access some of the reconstructive work that he otherwise would have. Their work is remarkable, Janice says. The iRSM lets people get back to their lives.
With head-and-neck cancer patients, treatment can leave them with functional deficits, says Myka Osinchuk, former executive director of the iRSM. Once peoples cancer is gone, we think weve done our jobs, but there are survivorship challenges and rehabilitation challenges. There was an existing $500,000 gift from Caritas Hospitals Foundation and, in addition to Mickleboroughs million-dollar gift, funds were matched by the Alberta Cancer Foundation dollar for dollar, bringing the total to $3 million of a targeted $5 million towards The Dr. Murray Mickleborough Research Chair in Interfacial Biomechanics. Already one of the top such centres in the world according to Osinchuk, the Mickleborough chair further advances the institute. It puts us at the leading edge, agrees Janice, and its a legacy that Murray would be proud of. Mickleborough was famous for his generosity, keen intellect and active nature. The man never stopped, says Janice. With several business interests on the go since retirement, Mickleborough was also a woodworker, stained glass maker, boater and a foodie who loved to entertain. His endowment will keep research moving forward. Dr. Murray Mickleborough died in Victoria, B.C. on June 13, leaving behind his wife Janice, their loving family and many friends.
Find out more about Dr. Murray Mickleborough at www.albertacancer.ca. Check out some of the groundbreaking work at iRSM www.irsm-canada.com.
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Top Job
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Events organizer Charissa Spencer raises funds and builds relationships, often on the green
BY CAILYNN KLINGBEIL / PHOTO BY 3TEN
harissa Spencer is on the sixth hole of Blackhawk Golf Club in Spruce Grove. Todays shining sun, gentle breeze and clear blue sky is a stark contrast to Spencers previous weekend on the golf course. There, at the ninth annual Bryan Mudryk Golf Classic in Boyle, Alberta, the fairways were covered with puddles and golfers faced heavy rain, like a monsoon, says Spencer. Despite the weather, both days were successful, raising more than $100,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Its a treat to be out on days like this, says Spencer, who is a fundraising event specialist with the Alberta Cancer Foundation. At the golf course, its easy to think shes one of the players, but Spencer is on the job. She greets each group of golfers in the Bennett Jones LLP Edmonton Golf Classic as they arrive at the sixth hole. She asks the golfers how their day is going and then introduces them to Ryan Haskins, a golf pro who can be hired for this hole for a minimum donation of $20. Im the fth member of your team on this hole, Haskins explains to the golfers. Spencer interacts with each new team of golfers with the same enthusiasm as the rst group. By the days end, the eorts of Spencer and Haskins will have raised $800 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. With two hire a pro holes, mulligan sales and a putting contest, the Bennett Jones LLP Edmonton Golf Classic raised close to $4,000, a number that Spencer attributes directly to the generosity of the 124 players. Her behind-the-scenes work played a role too, as Spencer spent many hours planning the event before it even began. She met with the volunteer organizer months in advance and continued to co-ordinate the logistics of the event from her oce, in order to ensure todays day on the green runs smoothly. Spencer, who has a business degree, uses that background on the job. Each event, she says, becomes a valuable platform to share information and resources about cancer with the people who attend. The money raised from the golf classic will support a new PET/ CT scanner for Edmontons Cross Cancer Institute, a machine that allows sta to detect cancers in their earliest stages and identify much smaller masses than current equipment allows. The money raised from the previous weekends Bryan Mudryk Golf Classic, a record-setting $100,000, will also support the Cross Cancer Institute.
Events such as todays golf classic are about much more than just dollars raised, though. The best part of the fundraising events is the relationships that we get to build with the participants, volunteers, and donors who come and support these events, Spencer says. Usually, when someone throws a fundraising event they have a close connection to cancer, a relative thats been aected or a friend. The event gives them an opportunity to share their story, and theres nothing more powerful than hearing their experiences rsthand. Todays golf course banter is typical for Spencer, who works long hours planning, preparing for, and attending 10 to 15 charity golf tournaments in the summer months. Shes also the friendly face from the Alberta Cancer Foundation at 20 head shaves a year (The little ones are fearless, she says.) and a variety of other fundraising events, from sports like the Worlds Longest Hockey Game to charity auctions, runs and walks. Every day of my job is dierent, says Spencer. With 450 fundraising events beneting the Alberta Cancer Foundation in Alberta every year, Spencer, along with counterparts working across the province, stays very busy. The job also involves many hours of behind-the-scenes planning with the volunteer organizers who put on each event. Our role is almost like a coach, Spencer says. For the majority of the events, someone has the idea and will call us and tell us their idea and well chat about it. We know what works and can make suggestions to them and oer our assistance that way. Those volunteers, says Spencer, are a dream to work with. They have such a passion and heart for the cause. I feel very honoured that they would invite me to share the day with them. Another part of Spencers job is organizing signature events, which are planned internally by the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Spencer is the lead sta at the Cross Cancer Institute Golf Classic, a summer tournament that raises close to $1 million each year. Back on the sixth hole at the Blackhawk Golf Club, Spencer and Haskins continue to talk with the players. For Spencer, the result of her many hours of event planning and preparation are realized in such interactions. The most important thing to me is meeting with people, engaging them, hearing their stories and building relationships with them, says Spencer.
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myleap /
INSPIRING INDIVIDUALS
For more information about the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, visit www.conquercancer.ca Check out myleapmagazine.ca for a Rosies Team gallery
Rx: Laughter
PHOTO BY DREW MYERS

it would be just the two of us, Stan says. Albert called Don Ward, whose wife had died of ovarian cancer. And he called somebody it was a daisy chain. That year Rosies Team was born, with 10 cyclists. Now in its third year, Rosies Team has 24 riders and has raised a quarter of a million dollars for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. One notable donation came from Calgary Stampeder Henry Burris. He directed a $10,000 donation sponsored by Gibsons Finest Whiskey to Rosies Team after meeting Stan. Stan Ball is coping with the loss of his soul mate but counts himself lucky for the decade they had together. Hes looking forward to his fourth year as captain of Rosies Team in 2012. Ive seen rsthand the great work done at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and Alberta Cancer Foundation, he says, and it tells me were making progress.
myleapmagazine.ca
A few years ago, Rosie Hisey-Ball was standing in the hallway of the Calgary home she shared with her husband Stan Ball. Dressed in rumpled pyjamas, she caught sight of herself in a hallway mirror. The image she saw was at odds with the t, honey-brown-haired woman with the ready laugh whom Stan had married just a few years earlier. Instead, she saw a gaunt frame, topped by a head that was bald, save for a few wiry grey hairs. She was just nishing a round of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, a diagnosis she received at age 36. Uncharacteristically, Rosie was crying. Stan joined her in front of the mirror, encircling her with his arms. I look like a little old woman, Stan, she said. No honey, he answered, you look like a little old man. Instantly, the tears turned to laughter and Rosie, though still bald and thin, was herself again. We promised wed make each other laugh every day, Stan says. Rosie died on May 11, 2011, seven years of life post-diagnosis, where the median is just two years for women with metastatic ovarian cancer. She took the approach that shed attack the cancer with happiness and a positive attitude, he says. Stan, for all his support, felt pretty helpless. In 2009, Rosie had been coping with the disease for four years when Stan heard about the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. Not wanting to go it alone, he called a friend, Albert Hulzebos. I thought 50
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Thank you
Thank you to hundreds of thousands of Albertans who joined the movement for cancerfree lives by donating, hosting fundraising events or participating in a challenge event. You made it possible to invest $25.8 million this year in cancer research, prevention and care, right here in Alberta. Thank you for being part of Albertas cancer-free movement. See how you drive progress in our Report to Donors: albertacancer.ca/ report2011

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ORANGE YOU HUNGRY?

CHOOSE HEALTHY HARVEST VEGGIES

SCREEN TIME: LEARN ABOUT SOME COMMON CANCER TESTS

PREVENTION: REDUCE YOUR RISK

Hugh McColls lifelong passion for tness and philanthropy

CAN CANCER BE PREVENTED?

The case for obesity legislation

MEET RADIATION MAN

The Tomorrow Project

Join today and make a difference tomorrow.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO JOIN THE STUDY

and complete the on-line form CALL: 1 877 919-9292

FALL 2011 VOL 2 No. 2

22 THE NEW TOBACCO

25 FROM SURVIVE TO THRIVE 28 ALCOHOL + CANCER 30 32

A research initiative blossoms into a plan

Is happy hour helping or hurting your health?

CAN WE PREVENT CANCER?

DEPARTMENTS 4 OUR LEAP 6

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A message from the new CEO of the Alberta Cancer Foundation

FEATURES 16 WHY I DONATE: IN THE RING WITH

BEST FOOD FORWARD

ASK THE EXPERTS

42 RESEARCH MEETS COMMUNITY 44 RESEARCH ROCKSTAR 47

ALBERTA CANCER FOUNDATION

Another Leap Forward

John Osler, Chair Alberta Cancer Foundation 4

Myka Osinchuk, CEO Alberta Cancer Foundation

FALL VOL 2 No. 2

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BY CAILYNN KLINGBEIL, LEWIS KELLY AND MIFI PURVIS

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Reading List: AUGUST FAREWELL by David Hallman

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