Friday night’s Danville Dans 7-4 win over the Johnstown, PA Mill Rats was also a night honoring the city of Covington, as well as Cancer Awareness Night at Danville Stadium. One of the first pitches was thrown by oncologist Dr. Jomel S. Labayog, from the OSF Bobette Steely Hegeler Cancer Center. He mentioned after his moment on the mound that the center has come a long way, and continues to try and make prevention and detection as strong as possible.
AUDIO: Everyone’s been touched by cancer, either personally, or family members, or friends or neighbors. You know the cancer center’s been there since 1982, and we’ve made renovations. And just recently we’ve integrated a new linear accelerator. It has a true beam; which offers better, faster, safer, more efficient radiation.
Another major concern, even more so than before due to updated guidelines, is colon cancer.
AUDIO: We look at Cologuard Testing, you know the box that you can submit if people don’t want to do colonoscopies. You have to remember that the American Cancer Society has changed their screening for colon cancer down to 45 years of age now. Because nowadays we find out that people’s diets and people’s living habits, they’re not really good in terms of the good diet that we should have.
OSF oncologist Dr. Jomel S. Labayog poses by the Danville Dans dugout after throwing out the first pitch prior to Friday evening’s Cancer Awareness Night at Danville Stadium.
Dr. Labayog also emphasized the importance of avoiding smoking. But for those unable to quit, or who did quit after being an active smoker; the important thing is catch the lung cancer as early as possible.
AUDIO: So now we’ve instituted low dose cat scan screening for lung cancer. Because we know that smoking is very common in this community and Vermilion County, so it’s important we try our best to try and catch cancers early.
Dr. Labayog emphasized the importance of both prevention by healthier behaviors; and early detection by constantly improving technology.
