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Thursday, July 26, 2001 --- IMPACT and SELECT,  two
of the biggest prostate cancer grants ever made, were announced recently
and initiated immediately. IMPACT ("IMProving Access Counselling, and
Treatment" for men with prostate cancer) is a $50 million grant from the
State of California, to be managed by the UCLA Urology Department (Mark
Litwin, M.D., project director). SELECT ("SELenium and Vitamin E  Cancer
Prevention Trial") is an even larger grant, funded by the National Cancer
Institute, aiming to determine whether selenium and vitamin E can prevent
prostate cancer in men at risk. The SELECT award is being administered
via the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), Charles Coltman, M.D., director.
The prime beneficiaries of the huge government grants will be indigent
men in California (IMPACT) and men at risk of prostate cancer across the
nation (SELECT). IMPACT will provide prostate cancer treatment for men
who do not have health insurance or  any
other way to pay for prostate cancer treatment. As many as 3.5 million
men in California would fulfill the financial criteria for this aid. According
to Dr. Litwin, this program is the largest of its kind nationwide, and
it may emerge as a model for other states to follow. Information about
IMPACT is available online at http://www.california-impact.org,
or by phone at 1-800-409-UCLA.
The SELECT trial, which is the largest prostate cancer prevention trial
ever organized, will be conducted at participating SWOG institutions throughout
the U.S. and Canada. The study will involve 32,400 healthy volunteer men
at more than 400 sites and will take up to 12 years to complete. The volunteers
will be assigned randomly to one of four groups -- one getting selenium
and a placebo,  one
getting vitamin E and a placebo, one getting both selenium and vitamin
E, and a final group getting only two placebos. Selenium and Vitamin E
are anti-oxidants which, theoretically, could protect cells against oxidative
damage that can lead to malignant degeneration. Information about SELECT
is available online at http://www.crab.org/select
or via the NCI phone hotline 1-800-4CANCER.
 The
above grants are reflective of a growing awareness of 'Men's Health Issues',
prostate cancer being one of the most important. No one has advanced this
cause more than Senator Robert Dole (R-KA), himself a long-term prostate
cancer survivor, who 'went public' early-on with his disease and who
became a leading advocate for increasing government funding of prostate
cancer.
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