MERCER COUNTY AREA — The American Cancer Society is looking for people willing to go the extra mile with a 20- to 30-year-involvement to help fight cancer.

The group announced its local participation in a third cancer-prevention study and needs upwards of 500,000 volunteers nationwide.

Local organizers are hoping for several hundred volunteers from Mercer County and eastern Ohio.

Cindy Hanna of Community Health Partnership of Mercer County and a breast cancer survivor herself, said she can’t emphasize how important this study is. “Cancer is an epidemic. It really is. People ask what they can do. This is what they can do. Help us stop one more person from hearing that diagnosis.”

The study is looking for people who have never been diagnosed with cancer, are between ages 30 and 65 and are willing to have blood drawn and answer survey questions every couple of years.

The two-step enrollment process involves going to one of four local enrollment centers where participants will sign a consent form, have a small blood sample taken and have a waist measurement taken. The other step can be done at home, where volunteers will complete a more detailed survey asking questions about lifestyle, behavior and other health factors. Similar surveys will be sent every couple of years, Hanna said.

Dr. Alpa V. Patel, the principal researcher involved with the national cancer-prevention study, said, “Many individuals diagnosed with cancer struggle to answer the question ‘What caused my cancer?’ In many cases, we don’t know the answer,” he said. “This study will help us better understand what factors cause cancer and once we know that, we can be better equipped to prevent cancer.

“Our previous cancer-prevention studies have been instrumental in helping us identify some of the major factors that can affect cancer risk. CPS-3 holds the best hope of identifying new and emerging cancer risks, and we can only do this if members of the community are willing to become involved,” Patel said.

According to a news release, researchers will use the information from the study to build on evidence from a series of earlier studies dating back to the 1950s. Those studies have “contributed significantly” to the development of public health guidelines that warned of the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and demonstrated the link between larger waist size and increased death rates from cancer and other causes.

The current study, CPS-2, began in 1982 and is ongoing, but changes in lifestyle and in the understanding of cancer in the last 20 years make it important to begin a new study, Patel said.

Volunteers need to understand they aren’t getting any information back about the blood they donate.

“It isn’t like a doctor’s exam. There won’t be lab results. They won’t do anything with the sample unless later on in a survey you indicate you have been diagnosed with cancer,” Hanna said.

“They will test it and see what factors it might have in common with others who also got cancer,” she said.

To sign up to be part of the CPS-3, call 888-604-5888 for an appointment at one of the four enrollment centers or visit the website mercercountypacps3.org

The enrollment times and locations are:

• 3 to 7 p.m. Oct. 31, St. Michael’s Church, 85 N. High St., Greenville.

• 7 to 11 a.m. Nov. 1, IXL Fitness, 139 N. Erie St., Mercer.

• 3 to 7 p.m. Nov. 2, Church of the Beloved Disciple, 1310 S. Center St., Pine Township.

• 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 3, Grace Chapel Community Church, 4075 Lamor Road, Hermitage.