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Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 38
SEPtEMBER24,1976
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Birth Control Devices May Prevent Cancer
DR. WILLIAM T. CREASMAN
By William Erwin
Couples who use condoms or
diaphragms as their birth control
method may be helping prevent
cervical cancer, a specialist at the
Comprehensive Cancer Center said
last week.
Dr. William T. Creasman told a
symposium here that the devices
may protect the cervix — the mouth
of the womb — against a suspected
cancer-causing substance passed
from men to women during
intercourse.
"Unfortunately, we don't know
\what this agent is," the associate
professor said. He directs the
center's division of gynecologic
cancer.
20,000 New Cases
The American Cancer Society
estimates that 20,000 new cases of
cervical cancer will be discovered in
the U.S. this year. Almost 8,000
women will die of the disease, the
society says.
Creasman said researchers have
School of Nursing Includes
R.N. Among 93 Freshmen
When her classmates head back to
their rooms at Hanes House, nursing
freshman Lorraine Mackoviak
Wheeler will drive off-campus to her
husband and two children at home
in Durham.
While her classmates look forward
to the challenge of patient care, Mrs.
Wheeler can review her almost 10
years of nursing experience.
A graduate of the diploma nursing
program at what is now
Northwestern University Memorial,
Hospital, Mrs. Wheeler decided she
needed a B.S. degree to expand her
career beyond hospital staff nursing.
She is the only registered nurse
(R.N.) among the 93 women who just
entered the class of 1980 at the School
of Nursing.
Another freshman, Maria del
Refugio Berumen of Ontario, Calif.,
is an Angier B. Duke Scholar,
selected on the basis of grades and
leadership potential.
"Aside from the fact that the
nursing school is so outstanding, I
love the campus and the people,"
Miss Berumen said. She plans a
double major in nursing and
English, and hopes to become a
nurse practitioner or nurse-midwife.
The freshmen come from 26 states
, and two foreign countries. Ten
students are from North Carolina.
They are Mrs. Wheeler and Wilma
Joyce Wilkins of Durham; Elizabeth
Sharon Adams and Carolyn Ann
Scheil of Lenoir; Marianne Ballenger
of Norwood; Anna Liles Burnette of
Manson; Kathrine Warden Horn,
Katharine Claiboume Johnson and
Nancy Eileen Pemice of Charlotte;
and Mavis Ann Mathis of Warsaw.
From overseas are Susanne Mary
Meghdadpour of Tehran, Iran, and
Mary Wai Ming Yen of Kowloon,
Hong Kong.
Students from other states are:
CALIFORNIA — Maria del Refugio
Berumen of Ontario and Carole Ann
Klove of Los Angeles.
COLORADO - Cynthia Elliott of
Denver.
CONNECTICUT - Sarah Anne Kritz
of Plantsville; Sara Anne Maddem of
Guilford; Margaret Sullivan Murphy of
Stamford; Katherine Taves Ogren of Old
Greenwich; and Amy Virginia Stancs of
Litchfield.
DELAWARE — Nancy Kathleen Fleck
of Wilmington.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - Carmen
Lea Neuberger of Washington.
FLORIDA — Ruth Willard Calvin of
Jacksonville and Linda Gail Schwersky of
Clearwater.
GEORGIA — Amy Jackson of Folkston
and Carol Anne Love of Atlanta.
ILLINOIS — Darcy Lynn Day of
Belvidere; Virginia Laraine Griggs of
Scott Air Force Base; Alison Jean Slezak
of Western Springs; and Caryl Iver
Weinberg of Evanston.
KANSAS — Ann Belle Catlett of
Shawnee Mission.
LOUISIANA — Elizabeth Stuart Dyer
of New Orleans.
MAINE — Mary Joyce Ford of Bryant
Pond and Cynthia Lonsdale Webber of
Cape Elizabeth.
MARYLAND — Nancy Sue Baker of
Bethesda; Myreda Lynn Erickson of
Annapolis; Patricia Louise Bering and
Ellen Starr Welliver of Westminster; and
Ellen Louise Philpot of Oxon Hill.
(Continued on page 3)
studied funguses and Herpesvirus
type II in their search for the
cancer-causing substance. The
studies turned up no clear-cut
answers, he said.
"All we can say," the specialist
reported, "is that Herpesvirus may
be a related factor, but no cause and
effect relationship has been proven."
Whatever the substance is,
scientists suspect that it affects
women at high risk for cervical
cancer, Creasman said.
High Risk Group
Women in this high risk group, he
pointed out, include those who
begin sexual intercourse early in life
or who have many sexual partners.
Other risk factors are marrying
early, having several marriages,
having pre-marital or extra-marital
intercourse or being in the lower
socio-economic group.
Women in the lower
socio-economic group have a higher
risk, Creasman said, not because of
their poverty but "because these
other risk factors are also present."
He gave one clue that could help
explain why sexually active teenage
girls have a high risk for cervical
cancer. During the mid-teens, he
said, a girl's cervix naturally goes
through a change much like that in
pre-cancerous conditions.
Vulnerable To Change
"Anytime you have changes in the
epithelium (surface of the cervix)
taking place, these cells are
vulnerable to the slightest change in
environment," Creasman said.
"Add to this the environmental
haza^rd of the carcinogen
(cancer-causing substance) that the
male transmits, and you can see the
potential for problems."
A man whose wife already has
cervical cancer should be especially
discreet in his sexual relationships,
the specialist warned. "If a male is
married to a female with cancer of
the cervix and he takes on a second
sexual partner," he said, "the second
female has a 12-fold increased risk
for cancer of the cervix."
The Pill, he said, neither raises nor
lowers a woman's chance of getting
cervical cancer.
'.V
BACK TO SCHOOL—Lorraine Wheeler, R.N., hopes to get her B.S. degree in nursing
here. The wife of Kenneth E. Wheeler, assistant administrative director of the
hospital, she is among 93 women in the School of Nursing's freshman class. (Photo
by Jim Wallace)