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Show It" . K j By MARION WELLS Copley News Service Fighting cancer phobias with facts could help save people's livings as well as . their lives. , ; .J.v ! ROBERT McKenna, M.D., director for regional activities activi-ties at the University of Southern California Cancer Center, tells of a man with two college degrees who was turned down for work by over 20 agencies. The reason? Eight years before he'd been treated for acute lymphatic leukemia. "Here's a person who had been totally free of any recurrence," McKenna pointed point-ed out. "He was physically fit. If he didn't give a history of having leukemia, there would be no way of ever knowing. He was qualified. He wanted to support himself. But he was being deprived of that chance." EVERYONE'S apt to lose in such situations, not just job applicants, McKenna adds. He estimates our economy loses some $500 million per year because of such "anticancer "anti-cancer job bias." And employers lose the services of qualified people. Why does it happen? McKenna blames fears wiirfh aren't bora out by facts. Take worry over what with a history of cancer iy cost their employers. Available Avail-able evidence indicates this adds up to no more, on the whole, than for other employees. Nor do such workers seem to average more absenteeism. "SOME people have the phobia that cancer is contagious," con-tagious," McKenna continued. con-tinued. "It never has been and it never will be, But time, and again you bear somune say, 'You mustn't touch uit individual's plate or utensils. He (or she) has cancer." McKenna says people who get or keep a job may still have job prospects affected if they've had cancer. "The boss may wonder, 'Jane is really due for a promotion, but should I give her more responsibility? re-sponsibility? What if she doesn't survive this illness'?" SOME people think of cancer as a death sentence just because everyone doesn't get well, he explained. "Not sol Today more than one out of three cancer patients are cured. The vast majority have their lives extended with treatment and their quality of life improved. Some of these live on for years. "But an attitude that cancer is always fatal can have fatal effects," McKenna warned. "A person who has symptoms of cancer and knows it may fail to see a doctor early, when chances for cure are best. He may figure, 'If I have cancer, 1 don't want to know'." , i,.,., .. .,t |