Good goal, weird place to have the recruiting, IMO

In my opinion (IMO), more people should sign up for long term studies on healthy living. Following humans (usually a set group, like nurses http://www.channing.harvard.edu/nhs/) generally results in observations that others can use to improve their own lives.

So I was excited to see this headline:
 Relay For Life seeks committed research subjects (from The Free Press http://mankatofreepress.com/latestnews/x1692752295/Relay-for-Life-seeks-committed-research-subjects). The American Cancer Society is recruiting 500,000 volunteers for its Cancer Prevention Study 3. Cool - they plan on following up for 20 or 30 years - this cancer warrior will gladly sign up for that. Then I read the following:

"Participants must meet a few requirements. In addition to completing a short survey at the event, participants must be willing to complete periodic follow-up surveys. Also, they must never have been diagnosed with cancer (not including basal or squamous cell skin cancer)."

Ohhhh. They are aiming for the families and supporters of cancer survivors/patients that have died - the ones that have been diagnosed already need not apply. Kind of bloodthirsty, but makes sense (after all, the term "prevention" is in the study of the title). But how about using the Relays and Walkathons to recruit the 12 million or so of us that have been told we have cancer for one or more of the ongoing studies (like at the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/survivorship/what_cdc_is_doing/brfss.htm). Put me on the mailing list - not sure I would answer a phone survey cold, but if I knew questions were coming, I would be forthcoming.

And this goes out to ACCOI and ACCRF- I hear that there are reunions of ACC fighters coming up in the months ahead (you can see the 2010 gatherings here). I sure hope someone is passing around a survey or two to this focused group of people, to the ones that attend and those of us that cheer from the sidelines. We are such a small group, it would hardly make anyone's Excel software breathe hard to gather all of us in one file.