Why We're Here and A Little Bit About Us.

Welcome to the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy Relay for Life blog.

To make it easier on all of us, I’ll just use our Relay for Life team nickname, The Pill Pushers, when referring to our team. We are University of Michigan pharmacy students and our Relay for Life team is committed to raising money to advance cancer research. So … What do pharmacists know about cancer? We don’t diagnose it. We don’t run tests for it. We can’t possibly understand how complicated it is, right?

Wrong.

Pharmacists contribute greatly to cancer research and all forms of cancer care. Some of us even specialize in cancer treatment and management. Most large and many medium-sized hospitals have a hematology/oncology pharmacist specialist (or two) on staff to help the oncologist select the best cancer-fighting medications. We remain current with all the new treatments; and special order, prepare, and dispense these medications. But that’s not all. We also help patients manage any side effects of chemotherapy medications.

As the public’s most accessible health care professional, community pharmacists are first line care providers. If a patient fills a prescription at the same pharmacy every month (or more often), chances are very good that the patient and the pharmacist(s) know each other well. So if a pharmacist notices something about the patient — a sudden unexplained loss of weight, a chronic cough, a sore that won’t heal, or many other symptoms — the pharmacist is ideally placed to refer his patient to an oncologist. That’s important, because early detection is key to treatment.

Cancer is a scary disease. It kills individuals, often runs in families, and often inflicts deep emotional and physical trauma on everybody involved with a patient. Even the medications used to treat cancer have toxic side effects due to the nature of them.

But we can beat this complex set of diseases by working together — and that’s what the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life is all about.

There are an estimated 11.7 million people in the U.S. with cancer. If our fundraising efforts can help medical science find a cure or prevention for cancer, or even contribute to the development of better medications, we will have helped some of those 11.7 million people live longer, better lives.

So please join us in the fight against cancer. Donate to our Michigan Pharmacy team. You’ve already taken an important step in that direction by reading this blog. Take the next step: Support the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy Pill Pushers. Whatever you can give. If you can't give money, that's okay, just donate some of your time to learn about the disease for now and continue coming back for more insight and to see how we are doing. Help keep our momentum going.

Every gift counts. Help us put the Big Chill on the Big C.

Matthew Lewis

PharmD Candidate Class of 2012

Related links:

• Relay for Life Homepage (http://college.relayforlife.org/)

• American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/index)

• Livestrong: Established by cancer survivor and seven-time winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong (http://www.livestrong.org/)