The number of tobacco-related cancers is on the rise. For that reason, Sharon Regional Health System and Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh are holding a symposium on tobacco-related cancers on Jan. 31 at the Radisson Hotel of Sharon in Shenango Township.

Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. and the symposium runs until 5 p.m.

The purpose of the conference is to provide the latest information on tobacco-related cancers to health-care providers.

"We thought this would be a nice opportunity to put together an educational program for the health-care community, particularly with the recent tobacco settlement," said Dr. George Garrow, medical director of medical oncology with the Sharon Regional Cancer Care Center and conference director.

Garrow said the conference committee invited a variety of speakers to talk to health-care professionals about the importance of tobacco cessation.

Speakers include Kimberly Hunchuk, director of the Sharon Regional Health System Lung Center; Dr. Frank Leone, director of the Tobacco Intervention Program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia; Dennis Rubano, coordinator of the speech pathology and audiology departments at Sharon Regional; Dr. Stanley E. Shackney, director of laboratory cancer cell biology at Allegheny General; Dr. Alan Snider, professor in the department of agriculture and extension education at Penn State University; Dr. Gene B. Weinberg, senior epidemiologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Health bureau of epidemiology; and Dr. David Wood, otolaryngologist with Sharon Regional.

Garrow said he will also speak from the standpoint of hospice and palliative care on how to manage shortness of breath in patients who have lung cancer, emphysema or other lung disorders.

"The problems of tobacco stretch across every specialty of medicine," Wood said. "The idea behind it is to present a multi-disciplinary approach."

Educating medical professionals is the best approach to dealing with tobacco and its related disorders, the doctors said. The recent tobacco settlement also pushes the issue to the forefront.

"With all the interest in the recent tobacco settlement, I think a lot of health- care professionals don't quite know what that means," Garrow said. "Who gets funding, how does it affect patient care, what the goals of the settlement are all about ..."

The symposium is the first of its kind in recent hospital history.

The committee began developing it last summer. Health-care professionals who attend will get credit for continuing education hours.

Garrow said he hopes it will attract not just health-care professionals from Sharon Regional but from other hospitals in the community.

"The goal is to improve the health of the whole community," he said.

Any health-care professional interested in attending the symposium is asked to contact Mary Ann Filer at the Cancer Care Center Tumor Registry Office at (724) 983-5915. The $25 fee includes lunch.