The American Cancer Society, Joins forces with Detroit, Michigan Rapper and Recording Artist MIKE-E to educate and raise the awareness of smoking and other health issues associated with cancer to college students.

The ACS raised cancer awareness, by writing articles to popular magazines and professional journals, but never before had the ACS used the art of Hip Hop to express their message until recently.

Mike-E has edified the lives of young people, through the means of music, Hip Hop music. He informs students about the health issues that increase their risk of developing cancer including both external and internal dynamics.

Mike-E talked about some common external factors like tobacco, chemicals, radiation and other infectious organisms, as well as some internal factors that include inherited mutations, hormones and immune conditions.

E’s main focal point surrounds the most preventable class of cancer, which involves smoking. Before Mike-E’s public awareness and educational campaign, most students had no idea that cancer stood as the second most common cause of death in the United States.
ACS and Mike-E agree that even though most cancer cases occur in persons that are middle-aged or elder, they believe that now is the time to teach the next generation. With the help and support of The American Cancer Society, MIKE-E, is touring all of the Historical Black Colleges (HBCU), across the country spreading his words of wisdom.

What is the American Cancer Society (ACS)…

The American Cancer Society is not only helping people with cancer, their helping a community of supporters as well. ACS has been in existence since 1913. The American Cancer Society was originally named The American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC).

ASCC was founded in 1913, by 15 prominent physicians and business leaders in New York City. The birth of the ASCS sparked a remarkable spot in history of public health.

The ASCS, was established to raise the awareness of cancer in the United States, after cancer claimed seventy-thousand (75,000) lives. The ASCS, raised awareness by writing articles to popular magazines and professional journals, publishing Campaign Notes (a monthly bulletin of cancer information), as well as, recruiting physicians throughout the country to help educate the public.

The ACS tracks a number of cancer related topics including: cancer occurrence, the number of deaths, cases, and how long people survive after diagnosis. ACS also tracks data regarding behaviors, which influence the risk of developing cancer and the use of screening tests.

ACS becomes the forefront of voluntary health organizations …

In 1936, Marjorie G. Illig, an ASCC field representative and chair of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs Committee on Public Health, made an extraordinary suggestion. Illig, proposed the (Women’s Field Army) a legion of new volunteers whose sole purpose was to wage war on cancer.

More so than anything else, it was lllig and the approximately 30,000 Women’s Field Army volunteers, which helped the Society to the forefront of voluntary health organizations. In 1945, the ASCC was reorganized and given the name the American Cancer Society.

In 1947, the American Cancer Society, began its public education campaign about the signs and symptoms of cancer. They were termed “Cancer’s Danger Signals.”

The signals were retiled and reworded slightly through the years, until the wording was changed in 1969 to the acronym CAUTION. The first letter of each sentence was lined up to spell CAUTION, until they were withdrawn in the early 1980s.

Change in bowel or bladder habits
A sore that does not heal
Unusual bleeding or discharge
Thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere
Indigestion or difficulty in swallowing
Obvious change in wart or mole
Nagging cough or hoarseness

The crusade…

George E. Durant Brooklyn associated the sword, as a symbol for the American Cancer Society in 1928. Brooklyn explained that he selected the sword to express the crusading spirit of the cancer control movement. The twin-serpent caduceus, which forms the handle of the sword, emphasizes the medical and scientific nature of the ASC program.

Classically, twined serpents represent healing of the sick and the creativity of the healthy. Since 1928, the sword has been used as the American Cancer Society symbol, as it continues to wage war on cancer through cancer prevention, eliminating cancer suffering while saving millions of lives.

What is Cancer…

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by unrestrained growth and the spread of irregular cells. If spreading is not controlled death is evident.

Cancer is caused by both external and internal factors. Some common external factors are tobacco, chemicals, radiation and other infectious organisms. It normally, takes ten or more years before exposure to external factors and detectable cancer.

Some common internal factors include inherited mutations, hormones, immune conditions, and mutations that occur from metabolism. These factors may act together or in sequence to initiate or promote carcinogenesis. Cancer is often treated by surgery, radiation, chemo-therapy, hormones and immunotherapy.

Can Cancer be prevented…

All cancers caused by cigarette smoking and alcohol use can be prevented entirely. In 2006, the American Cancer Society estimates, that 170,000 Americans, will die from tobacco use alone.

Scientific evidence estimates that almost one-third of the 564,830 cancer deaths, in 2006 will be related to nutrition, physical inactivity, overweight and obesity, which are all preventable through exercise and diet.

ASC Facts and Figures…

According to the American Cancer Facts and Figures 2006, there were 1,399,790 new cancer cases, in the United States in 2006. National Cancer Institute estimates that approximately, 10.1 million Americans alive in 2002 had a history with cancer, being both survivors and carriers.

About 5% to 10% of all cancers are strong heredity. All cancers are capable of being hereditary genes; often most cancers develop from damaged (mutations) that occurs from one’s lifestyle. According to ACS, mutation damage can occur from internal factors, such as hormones, or the digestion of nutrients, within cells or external factors such as tobacco, chemicals and sunlight (somatic mutations).

In the US, cancer accounts for 1 out of 5 deaths and stands as the second most common cause of death, exceeded only by heart disease in the United States. Scientific evidence estimates, that roughly 1500 Americans will lose their life to cancer every day this year.

Who’s at Risk…

Everyone can develop cancer, but the risk of developing cancer increases as individuals get older. Most cancer cases occur in persons that are middle-aged or elder, about seventy-six percent (76%) of all diagnosed cancer cases are individuals between the ages of fifty-five (55) and older.

What is Lifetime Risk and Relative Risk…

According to the ACS, lifetime risks refer to the probability that an individual, over the course of a lifetime, will develop or die from cancer. In the US, men have slightly less than a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer, while woman risk is a little more than a 1 in 3 chance.

Relative risk is a measure of the strength of the relationship between risk factors and a particular cancer. Relative risk compares the possibility, of developing cancer in persons with a certain exposure or trait to the peril of persons who do not have this characteristic.

For example, male smokers are twenty-three (23) times more likely to develop lung-cancer than non-smokers. Also women with a first-degree relative (sister, mother, or daughter) with breast cancer history have about twice the hazard of developing breast cancer, compared to women who do not have a first-degree relative with the past.

How to help ASC and Mike-E in their crusade…

To help wage the war on cancer visit the American Cancer Society, on-line to support, volunteer and donate. Remember, no amount is either too little or too much join in the fight for lives!