2010.09.15 – Board provides info on rare blood cancer

http://standardspeaker.com/news/board-provides-info-on-rare-blood-cancer-1.1012538
Published: September 15, 2010

2010.09.15 – Board provides info on rare blood cancer

SPECIAL TO THE STANDARD-SPEAKER Joseph Murphy, an advisor to the Tri-County Polycythemia Vera Community Advisory Committee, talks about a public display board at Tamaqua Borough Hall was developed by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to provide accurate and easy-to-understand information about polycythemia vera.

By TOM RAGAN

The Tri-County Polycythemia Vera Community Advisory Committee is making an effort to educate the public about this rare but treatable form of blood cancer found at elevated levels in Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties.

The new health outreach board was recently unveiled at a news conference held in Tamaqua, Mayor Christian Morrison said.

“We all believe that we lost people in our area that did not even know they had polycythemia vera,” Morrison said.

A public display board at Tamaqua Borough Hall was developed by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the request of the committee to provide accurate and easy-to-understand information about polycythemia vera, Morrison said.

The display board will be moved to other locations in the future, Morrison said.

The Tri-County Polycythemia Vera Community Advisory Committee will host a public meeting on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at the Tamaqua High School Auditorium, 500 Penn St., Tamaqua.

Morrison said area residents will be able to meet with research teams conducting studies to learn more about the many cases of polycythemia vera in the area and their possible causes.

“Data will be available to the public from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Geisinger and researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York,” Morrison said.

The Tamaqua mayor said they will have handbills available for the public at the Sept. 22 meeting.

The studies were made available through two grants totaling $8 million secured by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, Morrison said.

The committee passed a resolution honoring Specter at its June 30 meeting.

“Each of the agencies will have an overview on the studies taking place,” Morrison said.

He said a lot of the data will also point to a five-year review being conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the McAdoo Associates Superfund site in Kline Township and McAdoo.

The site once was linked to abnormally high cases of cancer but EPA officials say that there is no evidence of site-related cancers.

tragan@standardspeaker.com