Travis Wolflick, Diane Zemanovic and Vickie Villa will be lining up at Huyck Stadium in Lompoc between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, May 17, to give a blood sample, to have their waists measured and to complete a written survey.

They are among those who have already decided to enroll in the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) during this year's Relay For Life event.

Once signed up, they will be committed to a decades-long study that hopes to find the connections between the lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors that cause and prevent cancer.

Though the decision to participate in the CPS-3 is personal for each person, their reasons are often tragically similar.

For Wolflick, the decision to enroll came out of the loss of his mother-in-law, who died from ovarian cancer.

“I want to do whatever I can to prevent anyone having to experience what we did,” Wolflick said.

Because ovarian cancer can be so difficult to diagnose, the disease is often at a late stage of development by the time it is discovered. Consequently, a diagnosis of ovarian cancer is usually considered terminal.

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“They caught it at stage three,” Wolflick said of his mother-in-law's cancer. “That's pretty far into it, but she lasted for five years.”

Since his mother-in-law lived in Oregon, Wolflick, who is in the Air Force, put in a request to come to Vandenberg so they could be closer. And because Wolflick works with missile systems that are found at Vandenberg, the Air Force was happy that he volunteered, he said.

Zemanovic has been a Relay For Life team captain for 10 years now, so for her, participating in the CPS-3 is just one more thing she could do to help fight cancer.

Like Wolflick, Zemanovic lost a mother to ovarian cancer. This, as well as having lost some friends to cancer, is what got her started in Relay For Life and compelled her to join the study.

“I'm doing it for my grandchildren,” Zemanovic said. “I don't want them to have to watch a parent or a good friend suffer and die from cancer.”

Zemanovic's mother was living in New Jersey when she was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. At first, her mother was being treated for back pain, but the treatments weren't working. It wasn't until she went to the hospital because of swelling that the diagnosis was made.

“I slid to the floor with the phone in my hand because the doctor was just so blasé about it,” Zemanovic said.

Her mother went through simultaneous chemo and radiation treatments, and while she was in a brief remission, Zemanovic moved her to Lompoc.

“I took care of her that last year, and I just never felt I could do enough,” she said. “When Relay For Life started, I had a friend who was celebrating five years' survival with breast cancer, so I wanted to celebrate my mom and my friend, so I started a team.”

As far as the CPS-3 goes, Zemanovic has no qualms about the blood draw or the length of the study.

“I've been doing one with USC, a teacher study,” Zemanovic said. She has been with the University of Southern California's study for more than 10 years, answering a yearly survey by mail, similar to what the CPS-3 will require.

“I've been trying to talk it up,” she said, “and get more people to sign up.”

Vickie Villa isn't bothered by the blood draw or the length of the study, either.

“In the last (study) they found a link between smoking and lung cancer, so decades doesn't bother me,” she said.

She's also not bothered by having her waist measured, though she has heard that as a reason given by others for being reluctant to participate.

Because she has a strong family history of cancer, Villa says she's sure she'll get it someday.

“My mom's side of the family has lots of cancer,” she said. “Both my grandparents died of cancer, and I have lots of cousins who have gotten cancer.”

Along with all of this family history as a reason for participating is a desire to promote cancer awareness and education.

Last year, Villa lost her goddaughter to melanoma, a skin cancer.

“She didn't take care of it in time,” Villa said. “It started out looking like a bug bite on her leg. If she had been educated, she could have caught it in time.”

Instead, the cancer spread, first causing a toe to be amputated and eventually claiming her goddaughter's life.

Villa has been involved with Relay For Life for seven years, and sees the CPS-3 as another way to further her involvement and help promote a cure.

“I'm already monitoring things, and I'm on the Relay For Life planning committee so I'm already involved,” Villa said.

The American Cancer Society will be enrolling participants from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Huyck Stadium at Lompoc High School during the Relay For Life event. Study participants must be between the ages of 30 and 65, must never have been diagnosed with cancer, and must be willing to make a long-term commitment to the study.

They will be asked to complete a brief written survey, provide a waist measurement, and give a small blood sample at the enrollment site.

After that, follow-up surveys will be sent to participants' homes on a regular basis over the next few decades to update health behavior information.

Researchers will use the data from CPS-3 to build on evidence from a series of American Cancer Society studies that began in the 1950s and involved hundreds of thousands of volunteer participants.

The Hammond-Horn Study and previous Cancer Prevention Studies (CPS-I, and CPS-II) confirmed the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, showed that obesity increases the risk of several cancers, and linked aspirin use to a lower death rate from colon cancer.

For more information or to learn how to become involved with CPS-3, visit www.cancer

.org/cps3, e-mail cps3@cancer

.org, or call toll-free (888) 604-5888.

Amanda Brooks can be reached at 737-1056.