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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Residents of Lake County have an opportunity to participate in a historic study that has the potential to change the face of cancer for future generations.
Men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 who have never been diagnosed with cancer are needed to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3).
The opportunity for local residents to enroll in CPS-3 will take place at the Lake County Relay for Life at Clear Lake High School on Saturday, May 19, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
CPS-3 is a grassroots effort where local communities from across the country can support cancer research not just through fundraising efforts, but also by participating actively in this historic research study.
CPS-3 will enroll a diverse population of up to half a million people across the United States and Puerto Rico.
Results from previous American Cancer Society long-term followup studies have demonstrated the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer; the significant impact of being overweight or obese on risk of cancer occurrence and death; the impact of hormones, physical activity, diet, various medications and vitamins, and various other factors in relation to cancer risk; the impact of air pollution on cardiopulmonary conditions motivating the Environmental Protection Agency to propose more stringent limits on particulate air pollution; and the link between aspirin use and reduced risk of colon cancer.
Those studies also have shown the link between postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy and various gynecologic cancers (such as breast and ovarian cancer); the link between diabetes and cancers of the pancreas and colon; and the link between physical activity and lower risk of various cancers (including breast, colon and aggressive prostate cancer) .
Because the current study population – for CPS-II – is aging, the American Cancer Society must recruit a new study population for the next generation of research.
Also, the environment and individuals' lifestyles change over time. New follow-up studies like CPS-3 are needed to understand these changes.
The society's researchers will study CPS-3 members for the next 20 to 30 years. This younger study population will have environmental and lifestyle exposures that may be meaningfully different from previous study populations and will help further advance the understanding of the factors that cause or prevent cancer.
Finally, researchers improve their understanding of what causes cancer, CPS-3 will allow them to explore new and emerging hypotheses related to cancer.
For more information about CPS-3 and the selected enrollment locations please email
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A driver escaped injury Tuesday after her vehicle went off Highway 20 and into Widgeon Bay.
The single-vehicle crash occurred just east of Hillside Lane shortly after 5 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
The female driver was headed eastbound on Highway 20 when she lost control of the small SUV, which slid off into the bay, said Northshore Fire Protection District Chief Jay Beristianos.
The vehicle came to rest facing in a westerly direction, its wiper blades still moving and its headlights on. It landed about 20 feet from a nearby dock.
Beristianos said the woman had managed to get out of the car and was uninjured.
The Northshore Dive Team responded to the scene to assist with hooking the vehicle up to the tow cable in order to remove it from the water. CHP also was at the scene.
Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said it was the third vehicle collision district firefighters had responded to on a rainy Tuesday. He said all of the crashes were noninjury.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County's residents continue to face challenges related to smoking, vehicle crashes and the need for more primary care physicians, according to a new assessment of county health rankings nationwide.
For the third year, the overall health and longevity of residents in more than 3,000 counties and the District of Columbia were ranked as part of the County Health Rankings.
The annual rankings are a project of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and can be found online at www.countyhealthrankings.org .
In the 2012 report, Lake County ranked 52 out of the 56 California that were ranked. Once again, Alpine and Sierra were not included.
“The County Health Rankings show us that much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor’s office. In fact, where we live, learn, work and play has a big role in determining how healthy we are and how long we live,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of the annual study's sponsors.
“The good news,” Lavizzo-Mourey added, “is that businesses, health care providers, government, consumers and community leaders are already joining forces in communities across the nation to change some of the gaps that the rankings highlight.”
Based on the latest publicly-available data for each county, the annual rankings consider factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment.
Figuring into the overall calculations are what the institute and foundation term as “critical factors” including education rates, income levels, access to healthy foods and access to medical care.
The 2012 rankings include new features such as how many fast food restaurants are in a county, levels of physical inactivity among residents and graphs illustrating premature death trends over 10 years.
Ranking in the top five statewide were Marin, which returned at No. 1, along with Santa Clara, San Benito, Placer and San Mateo. Trinity County remained in last place.
While ranked near the bottom in 2012, Lake has improved from its 2010 ranking of 54 and its 2011 ranking of 53.
However, Lake County Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait raised concerns about making year-to-year comparisons on the rankings, noting that the data used for each year varies considerably.
“That said, I am somewhat encouraged by some trends toward improvement in some areas,” she told Lake County News.
For example, she pointed out that Lake County's “health outcomes” improved from 55 in 2010 to 52 in 2012. While “overall mortality” remained the same in 2012 as in 2011 – at 54 out of 56 counties rated – it was improved from 2010, when the county was ranked 55th statewide.
Tait pointed to “more substantial improvement” in the ranking for morbidity, or the incidence of disease, which was 45 in 2010, 43 in 2011 and in the newest rankings was 38 out of 56.
Lake County, Tait said, also faces “substantial challenges” in the rankings' “health factors” category, which covers smoking, motor vehicle crashes, high rates of unemployment and children living in poverty.
The rankings state that 20 percent of the county's adult population smokes. In addition, Lake has a motor vehicle collision fatality rate of 28 per 100,000 people; only Trinity, Calaveras and Mariposa counties have higher rates than Lake's in that category.
Another critical factor facing the county is the need for more primary care physicians. Based on her assessment of the rankings, Tait said the ratio of population to primary care physicians is very high – at 1,228 people per physician – compared to an overall state ratio of 847 people per physician.
To meet the national benchmark – 631 people to one physician – “We would need to double the number of primary care physicians,” Tait said.
Tait said a number of community groups, government agencies and citizens are trying to tackle problems such as tobacco use, obesity prevention, promotion of better nutrition, greater physical activity and management of chronic disease, and meet regularly as part of the Health Leadership Network.
“These efforts are taking place throughout the community, which is gratifying because I believe that community-wide awareness and individualized approaches are the keys to success,” she said.
Tait added, “It is difficult to directly or proportionately attribute changes in our rankings to these efforts, but I am really pleased to see the level of interest and effort to improve health in so many arenas throughout the county.”
While the county still faces many challenges, Tait said she's encouraged by the slight improvements in overall health outcomes, which have come despite the economic downturn in recent years, which has hit Lake County particularly hard.
“To me, this demonstrates that economic determinants of health, while significant, are not the sole drivers of health. A community that is determined to address other potentially controllable health risk factors can still make positive strides toward achieving better health,” said Tait, adding that she continues to be impressed with the resilience and creativity of Lake County residents in seeking out approaches that make sense and work for them.
On a regional basis, the rankings for Lake's neighboring counties included Colusa, 11; Yolo, 7; Sonoma, 12; Napa, 14; Glenn, 27; and Mendocino, 39.
Nationally, the rankings found distinct trends across specific regions.
Those trends included the findings that excessive drinking rates are highest in the northern states; rates of teen births, sexually transmitted infections and children in poverty are highest; unemployment rates are lowest in the northeastern, Midwest and central plains states; and motor vehicle crash deaths are lowest in the northeastern and upper Midwest states.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week an Assembly budget committee is set to discuss the governor's proposed cuts for In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) clients in the coming budget year.
Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services will discuss the Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed reduction to the IHSS program as part of a hearing on Wednesday, April 11, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 437 of the Capitol.
The IHSS Program helps more than 425,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities across California live safely in their own homes. By doing so, IHSS prevents clients from being placed in more costly care facilities.
As part of his 2012-13 budget, Brown is proposing to eliminate domestic and related care services – such as laundry, food shopping, cooking, and general housework – for most IHSS participants living with others, a change that is estimated to impact approximately 254,000 people.
The California Budget Project said the governor's proposal would cut state spending on IHSS by $207 million in 2012-13 and result in the loss of $424 million in county and federal funds, for a total reduction of $631 million.
In Lake County, an estimated 1,020 IHSS clients would lose benefits totaling approximately $3,267,000, according to a California Budget Project report on the proposed cuts.
The Legislative Analyst's Office estimated that affected IHSS participants would lose an average of nine to 14 service hours per month, even in cases where they live with an unrelated individual who is not willing or able to do the listed domestic tasks.
The proposal would not apply to households in which an individual lives only with other IHSS participants or where other members of the household are unable to perform the needed tasks due to a medical condition, the California Budget Project reported.
The Legislative Analyst's Office's analysis of the proposed cuts to IHSS also noted that the governor is proposing to make IHSS a Medi-Cal managed care benefit, which “creates an opportunity for the Legislature to consider the future of the program.”
The report continued. “We find that the Governor's proposal for budget–year savings – the elimination of domestic and related care services for most IHSS recipients who live with other people – raises significant policy and legal concerns.”
As a result, the Legislative Analyst's Office is proposing that the Legislature consider two savings alternatives: the extension of the 3.6 percent across–the–board reduction in hours and the reenactment of the reduction in state participation in provider wages, both of which would achieve some state general fund savings in the budget year.
“We think that our alternatives pose less legal risks and implementation challenges than the Governor's proposal to achieve budget–year savings,” the report states.
IHSS already has been subject to cuts in recent years.
Cuts were made in the 2009-10 budget year and all participants had their hours reduced by 3.6 percent in 2010-11.
In addition, an additional 20 percent “trigger” cut resulting from the state being below its revenue target was implemented by state officials last December. A federal court injunction blocked that cut from taking place, according to homecare providers union, UDW, which joined with other advocate organizations to stop the cut.
Death rates from all cancers combined for men, women, and children continued to decline in the United States between 2004 and 2008, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2008.
The overall rate of new cancer diagnoses, also known as incidence, among men decreased by an average of 0.6 percent per year between 2004 and 2008, the report showed, while the overall cancer incidence rates among women declined 0.5 percent per year from 1998 through 2006 with rates leveling off from 2006 through 2008.
The report is co-authored by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Cancer Society.
Esophageal adenocarcinoma, cancers of the colon and rectum, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, endometrial cancer, and breast cancer among postmenopausal women are associated with being overweight or obese, according to the report. Several of these cancers also are associated with not being sufficiently physically active.
“This report demonstrates the value of cancer registry data in identifying the links among physical inactivity, obesity, and cancer,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D. “It also provides an update of how we are progressing in the fight against cancer by identifying populations with unhealthy behaviors and high cancer rates that can benefit from targeted, lifesaving strategies, and interventions to improve lifestyle behaviors and support healthy environments.”
For more than 30 years, excess weight, insufficient physical activity, and an unhealthy diet have been second only to tobacco as preventable causes of disease and death in the United States. However, since the 1960s, tobacco use has declined by a third while obesity rates have doubled, significantly impacting the relative contributions of these factors to the disease burden.
Excess weight and lack of sufficient physical activity have been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and arthritis, as well as many cancers.
“In the United States, two in three adults are overweight or obese and fewer than half get enough physical activity,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society. “Between children and youth, one in three is overweight or obese, and fewer than one in four high school students get recommended levels of physical activity. Obesity and physical inactivity are critical problems facing all states. For people who do not smoke, excess weight and lack of sufficient physical activity may be among the most important risk factors for cancer.”
The Report to the Nation was first issued in 1998. In addition to drops in overall cancer mortality and incidence, this year's report also documents the second consecutive year of decreasing lung cancer mortality rates among women. Lung cancer death rates in men have been decreasing since the early 1990s.
Colorectal cancer incidence rates also decreased among men and women from 1999 through 2008. Breast cancer incidence rates among women declined from 1999 through 2004 and plateaued from 2004 through 2008. The report showed incidence rates of some cancers, including pancreas, kidney, thyroid, liver, and melanoma, increased from 1999 through 2008.
“The continued declines in death rates for all cancers, as well as the overall drop in incidence, is powerful evidence that the nation’s investment in cancer research produces life-saving approaches to cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment,” said NCI Director Harold E. Varmus, M.D. “But, it is also important to note that investments we make today are critical if we hope to see these declines in incidence and death from cancer reflected in future Reports to the Nation.”
Among children aged 19 years or younger, cancer incidence rates increased 0.6 percent per year from 2004 through 2008, continuing trends from 1992, while death rates decreased 1.3 percent per year during the same period. These patterns mirror longer-term trends.
Among racial and ethnic groups, the highest cancer incidence rates between 2004 and 2008 were among black men and white women. Cancer death rates from 2004 through 2008 were highest among black men and black women, but these groups showed the largest declines for the period between 1999 and 2008, compared with other racial groups.
The differences in death rates by racial/ethnic group, sex, and cancer site may reflect differences in risk factors, as well as access to and use of screening and treatment, according to health experts.
“While the sustained decline in cancer mortality rates is good news, the persistence of disparities among racial and ethnic groups continues to concern us,” said Betsy A. Kohler, executive director of NAACCR. “The collection of comprehensive cancer surveillance data on all patients may provide clues to understanding these differences and addressing them.”
The report notes that continued progress against cancer in the United States will require individual and community efforts to promote healthy weight and sufficient physical activity among youth and adults.
To view the full report, visit http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cancer-report2012 .
MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – Mendocino County officials are investigating the death of a man whose body was found near the Pacific Ocean over the weekend.
The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was found on the afternoon of Saturday, April 7, according to a report from Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Smallcomb said that at 1:45 p.m. Saturday Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies and Westport Fire were dispatched to the north side of the Juan Creek coastside where the unidentified decedent had been washed to shore and wedged into the rocks.
Emergency personnel removed the decedent from the rocky terrain – approximately 20 feet from the Pacific Ocean – and the body was transported to Chapel by the Sea Mortuary, Smallcomb said.
Deputy sheriffs examined the decedent and found him to be a male adult. Smallcomb said it appeared the decedent had been in the ocean for several days prior to washing ashore.
An autopsy was conducted Monday morning, Smallcomb said.
The Mendocino County Sheriffs Office is continuing the investigation into the identity of the man and the circumstances around his death, Smallcomb said.
Smallcomb said more information will be released once the identity of the man has been established.