OT: Pitt RB James Conner has cancer

Patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma often will have a better prognosis (5 and 10 year survival data) based on stage of disease at presentation than those with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, so this is actually somewhat "relieving".

Bottom line, cancer fucking sucks. Poor kid and his family. Stay strong young man!

Hodgkins used to pretty much be a death sentence - the older set can think of Love Story.  Until the tail end of the 20th Century the prognosis was really bad.

For at least the past 20 years it's been one of the most treatable cancers.  The problem is always that any patient's "sample size" is one.  However, if you were a young adult and picking a cancer (knowing nothing else about staging), Hodgkin's would be a good choice.  Most of us know that cancer isn't a disease, but a bunch of diseases.  We're getting better and better at treating these as time marches on.

This is good evidence that your contributions to cancer research are worthwhile. Keep giving money to reputable cancer research as your conscience dictates!

Best wishes to James Conner - it's a tough road to hoe, and the risks are real ones.  But it really helps to be otherwise healthy and energetic.

That is interesting. There is also a tie in with the Epstein Barr virus as well. My oncologist told me when I was diagnosed that everyone who he has seen with Hodgkins always has the virus but they are not sure why some get mono, some nothing at all, and some get Hodgkins. About a year and a half prior to my diagnosis they had just treated the front lawns in my neighborhood ans my dog and I were stupidly playing in it (parents weren't home). Less than a year later my dog died of brain cancer and then later I got Hodgkins. Definitely environmental so not surprised to see turf might be an issue.

The State of California sued the major manufacturers (FieldTurf et.al.) for knowingly exposing athletes to carcinogens and other known toxins without informing them as required under CA law. They settled, and agreed to reduce the levels of lead in the turf products they produce.

But there are still high levels of VOC's as measured in the air above these fields, and lead and other toxins in the rubber pellets. The problem with identifying cancer clusters possibly associated with usage of these fields is that the cancers are fairly rare to begin with, exposure differs greatly based on sport, position, etc. 

The industry just keeps pushing back, just as they have done on studies trying to determine whether there are increased rates of injury on these fields.