NEW STAMP: CANCER AWARENESS REAL TO POSTMASTER

FROHNA -- The U.S. Postal Service today will issue its new stamp to promote breast cancer awareness.

June Ernst, the postmaster here, probably already has several sheets reserved. Ernst, 44, is one of almost 18,000 women around the U.S. enrolled in the National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Prevention Trial.

"This is not a stamp we want people to collect; this is a stamp we want people to use," she said.

The study is now under way to determine if tamoxifen, a drug widely used to treat breast cancer, will prevent breast cancer in women at high risk of developing the disease.

"The reason that I do it is because I'm at a high risk with my mother having had breast cancer," Ernst said.

Her mother, Viola Yamnitz of Perryville, was diagnosed with breast cancer 19 years ago. She had a mastectomy and underwent radiation treatment, and is fine now, Ernst said.

A family history of breast cancer is a risk factor, according to the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations. But more than 70 percent of breast cancer cases occur in women with no identifiable risk factors.

Ernst said her family history worries her sometimes.

"I'm concerned about it, but I don't lie awake losing sleep over it," she said. "It makes you more aware of it, though."

Women enrolled in the study take either tamoxifen or a placebo for five years. Twice a year they complete questionnaires about their mental and physical health and any side effects they might be experiencing from the medication. They also have mammograms, pap smears and blood tests over the course of the study.

"During the course of the trial, I've had a couple of cysts, but nothing serious," Ernst said.

Nancy Mattingly, coordinator of the cancer program at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, where Ernst enrolled in the tamoxifen study, said Ernst was one of the first women enrolled in the study, which began about four years ago.

Mattingly estimates that about 25 women in the area are taking part. Both Southeast and St. Francis Medical Center are participating in the tamoxifen study.

"Nationally, the study is approaching 18,000 (in enrollment), so it should probably be closed in the next six months or so," Mattingly said.

"It's a little bit extra effort, and I have to take the medicine every day," Ernst said. "But I still feel like the benefits outweigh the aggravation. If this study pans out, and this is a good medicine to take to prevent it, I'm that many years ahead."

She said she was gratified by the Postal Service's decision to issue the breast cancer awareness stamp, which was suggested by a postal worker who survived the disease.

"I think it's terrific," she said. "We've done the AIDS awareness and other awareness issues. This is a good one as far as I'm concerned."