by Michele Catahay, KUAM News Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Subscribe to Michele's newsfeed   E-mail this article Printable version KUAM Toolbar Web Widgets Get RSS headlines

The University of Guam has been instrumental in conducting cancer research on Guam. So what exactly are some of the projects the team is working on? Since 2003, UOG, in partnership with the University of Hawaii, has worked to create a comprehensive cancer research center on campus.

UOG president and principal investigator Dr. Harold Allen says the center receives approximately $500,000 each year for a span of five years. In fact, the funding is one of the largest single grants the university has received. "What's really important about the project is that it directly addresses health disparities here on Guam focusing on cancer," he said. Allen says the group has continued to work on a number of key components to help assess risk factors associated with various types of cancers locally. A part of their mission is to also help train graduate students and investigators.

The group goes as far as looking to alternative products to help assist them with these local research projects. Continued Allen, "A further project that has been funded in the total program has been to look at natural products that occur in the marine environment that have anti-cancer properties and because of the high diversity of marine environment here around Guam, it's an ideal place to go looking for organisms that produce compounds that may be effective."

Just last year, the center took on a betel nut project, which looks at the usage patterns on Guam. Although little information has been gathered so far, what they've already compiled will continue to help develop intervention programs in order to better understand the cause and effect relationships between betel nut usage and potential cancer risks.

Not only is the center looking to study the effect of chewing this nut, they're also looking into other foods consumed by our local population. "One of the studies completed last year by Dr. Rachel Leon Guerrero and her counterpart from Hawaii, Suzanne Murphy has been to document the fact that there are some issues with rice sold on Guam, which may not be fortified with vitamins and additives as labeled," Allen added.

This grant also helps find a better understanding of what links obesity and cancer to each other, while at the same time comparing statistics to those studied in the mainland overall. Allen says for the future it's very important to get both students and faculty involved in these projects to find a long-term solution to addressing the issue of cancer on Guam.