Cancer Society Invites Community To Fight AK's #1 Killer

The countdown is on to what Alaska's American Cancer Society hopes will be its' biggest Relay For Life in the organization's history.  

The life saving cervical cancer screening awareness campaign became confusing for many women when the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, or ACOG, came out with new recommendations in November.  

CBS 11's Cancer Connection is continuing the community service promise made nearly three years ago, to make defeating cancer every Alaskan's priority, with the inception of "Alaska's Cancer Blog."  

Lance Armstong's LIVESTRONG Army has started invading Alaska, slowly turning Anchorage a little more yellow. It is all thanks to the hard work of an Anchorage woman. Rachelle Alger is using the LIVESTRONG platform to fight Alaska's number one killer.  

Breast cancer awareness month makes many Alaskans think about woman in their lives who have battled the disease. One percent of breast cancer patients, however, are in fact men.  

When you mention the American Cancer Society a lot of us know they do great things for the community. It's a fair bet, however, it would be hard for most of us to give specific examples of those great things. We'll start this series with the area ACS officials call patient services. They are emphasized by an Aniak man's story, who says if it was not for the American Cancer Society, right now, he would be dead.  

The American Cancer Society is full of advocates, folks who fight the political fight on a local, state and national level. While Alaskans are used to hearing Assembly Member Mike Gutierrez speak about those sorts of public policy issues, it might surprise you to hear cancer took his mom's life.  

Let the statistic, cancer is Alaska's number one killer, really sink in. Just think about what that means to so many of our neighbors faced with a diagnosis. When they, or their loved ones, first learn the devastating news the first thing they want is information. Alaska's American Cancer Society is actually the number one information source.  

On World Cancer Day, February 4, the International Union Against Cancer launched its new cancer campaign 'Cancer can be prevented too' and releases a new report on cancer prevention.