Source: CURE Magazine (www.curetoday.com) Author: Kathy LaTour When Julia Rowland, PhD, director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, took the stage in Atlanta at the fourth biennial cancer survivorship research conference in June, she welcomed the more than 450 participants on behalf of the estimated 12 million cancer survivors in the country today. The 12 million, Rowland explained, represent the estimated number of individuals alive as of January 2007 with a history of cancer, “regardless of where they are in the illness trajectory—newly diagnosed, in treatment, post-treatment, suffering a recurrence, living with or dying of progressing illness.” For the next two days, the 12 million would be the central focus as researchers presented the latest results of studies on the unique physical, psychosocial, behavioral, and economic outcomes associated with having cancer to the assembled cancer professionals, researchers, and public health professionals. Also present were 20 patient/survivor advocates, attending as part of the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Survivor-Researcher Mentor Program, which funded their attendance at the meeting so they could interact with researchers with the help of an assigned scientist-mentor. Rowland complimented the range of findings presented by the growing number of researchers in what is still a very new field of research, telling the assembled group that meeting organizers selected 12 abstracts for podium presentations from a record 220 submissions, revealing a wealth of new data and directions for future research. The conference, a collaboration of the NCI, LAF, and American Cancer Society, focused on interventions [...]