Researcher’s Video Aims to Make Cancer Prevention a Way of Life
A cancer researcher at California State University, Northridge has created a 15-minute videotape in an effort to make cancer prevention a way of life for people who see it.
The tape outlines simple strategies for changing diet and life style that can “dramatically reduce” a person’s chances of developing a wide variety of cancers, said Steven Oppenheimer, director of CSUN’s Center for Cancer and Developmental Biology.
Produced and directed by Michael Hoffberg at CSUN’s Instructional Media Center, the tape was funded by a $25,000 grant from the university’s Office of Continuing Education. It will be sold for about $50--with proceeds going to the school’s cancer research center--or given free to organizations or companies that can show it to a large audience, Oppenheimer said.
Marcella Tyler, a CSUN spokeswoman, said the university has received requests for the tape from two large health maintenance organizations in Los Angeles.
The cancer-prevention strategies mentioned in the tape range from the obvious, such as cutting out smoking, to the subtle--for instance, asking a dentist or physician the age of his X-ray equipment. The tape indicates that machines built in the 1950s can emit excessive, possibly dangerous, radiation.
Hardly a slick Spielberg-type production, the tape attempts to capture attention with sobering facts. At one point, for example, it reels off a list of the dozens of carcinogens--cancer-causing chemicals--in cigarette smoke while the narrator says, “It would take about a year of breathing Los Angeles smog to equal the amount of carcinogens taken into the lungs in one day of smoking.”
Substances ranging from the asbestos dust that accumulates in automobile brakes to many of the pigments in artists’ paints should be handled carefully because they are highly carcinogenic, the narration, written by Oppenheimer, says.
The benefits of a low-fat, high-fiber diet are described, as is the cancer-fighting potential of vitamins contained in many fresh fruits and vegetables.
The tape, which is called “Cancer Prevention: A Way of Life,” also lists the basic warning signs for early detection of cancer.
American Cancer Society officials said they are not aware of any similar videotapes, although the society has a traveling slide and lecture program called “Taking Control” that parallels many of the topics touched on in CSUN’s tape.
“The current trend is to focus on prevention and nutrition,” said Dr. Robert McKenna, a Los Angeles physician who is immediate past president of the American Cancer Society.
It is crucial to stress prevention as attempts to find cures for cancers continue to hit roadblocks, Oppenheimer said. “It’s highly unlikely that there is going to be a major cure for the spread of cancer in the next decade,” he said. “If you show this tape to a million people, even if only 10% absorb 10% of what’s in it, then that will go a long way toward saving some lives.”
