Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale Cancer Center to hold screening for head and neck cancers April 20
For Immediate Release
Date: 4/4/ 2007
Contact: Mark D’Antonio (203) 688-2493 or mark.dantonio@ynhh.org
New Haven, Conn. – The Yale-New Haven Hospital ear, nose and throat (ENT) department and Yale Cancer Center will hold a free public screening for head and neck cancers on Friday, April 20, 1-4 p.m., at the Yale Physicians Building, 800 Howard Avenue, 4th floor, New Haven.
“We are urging people who may have certain symptoms to make an appointment for this important screening,” said Clarence Sasaki, M.D., chief of otolaryngology at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Charles W. Ohse Professor of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine. “Although the number of people who develop these head and neck cancers is not huge, these diseases are often devastating. This screening is a great way to get a very quick, basic exam by an ENT physician and could be very beneficial. Last year’s event was highly successful and we believe this screening is a tremendous health benefit for the people in our community.”
This is the second annual head and neck cancer screening that YNHH and Yale Cancer Center have offered the public. Last year, over 200 people registered. Fifty patients were referred for follow-up exams and three for immediate evaluation for suspected cancer.
Dr. Sasaki urges people who have a history of these symptoms to be screened:
- Family or personal history of smoking
- Sore throat that persists for more than six weeks
- Hoarseness lasting longer than three weeks
- Presence of blood in their saliva or sputum
The screening is named in honor of Dr. John Joe, an extraordinarily skilled head and neck cancer surgeon here at Yale-New Haven Hospital who died in August 2006. The screening will bear his name to memorialize the compassion and warmth with which Dr. Joe treated his patients.
About 40,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with head and neck cancer, which can attack the nose, sinuses, ears, throat, larynx, thyroid, saliva glands and the lymph nodes in the neck.
To register for the free screening, please call (203) 688-2000. Walk-ins are welcome and parking validation will be available.
-30-
Yale-New Haven Hospital is a 944-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine. Yale-New Haven was founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826 and today, the hospital complex includes Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital and Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, with a combined medical staff of about 2,400 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. See www.ynhh.org for additional information.