St. Louis ? Researchers have informally dubbed the phenomenon “the Katie Couric effect.”

Katie Couric, co-anchor of NBC’s “Today Show” underwent a colonoscopy live on national television in March 2000. Almost immediately, colonoscopy rates jumped more than 20 percent. Since then, Couric, whose husband died of colon cancer, has continued to be a visible advocate for colon cancer awareness and prevention.

With the deaths last week of ABC anchor Peter Jennings and actress Barbara Bel Geddes from lung cancer, and the word that Dana Reeve, widow of actor Christopher Reeve, has lung cancer, it may be happening again. However unwittingly, celebrities are once again raising awareness of a disease.

Calls have poured in to the American Cancer Society’s Quitline nationwide, officials said. Calls Monday and Tuesday were up about 50 percent from the same days last week.

“These high-profile cases have made millions of Americans keenly aware of lung cancer’s continuing toll,” said Dr. Stephen F. Sener, national volunteer president of the American Cancer Society in a written press statement. “We’re just glad that we are here, today and every day, for smokers who want to quit and for anyone who wants information about lung cancer.”

The Couric effect is nothing new, really. Organizations have learned that celebrities can mobilize awareness and bring in money.

“You’re almost at a disadvantage now without celebrities,” said Nancy Litzau, director of communications with the St. Louis Alzheimer’s Assn. chapter. “A celebrity raises awareness of a disease.”

The Alzheimer’s Assn. learned that long ago when President Ronald Reagan announced, in 1994, that he had this disease. When Reagan died in 2004, the association saw a 60-plus percent jump in hits on its Web site, according to Litzau. The Alzheimer Assn.’s board of directors includes a sizable contingent of celebrities: Barbra Streisand, Shelley Fabares, David Hyde Pierce, Leeza Gibbons, Kate Mulgrew and others.

Fierce competition

Litzau says celebrities provide an edge in grabbing the public’s attention – and dollars – in a competitive environment of nonprofit organizations.

The competition for dollars rages between organizations and even within the categories of diseases, she said.

Two decades ago, there was only the Alzheimer’s Assn. Now, there’s an Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, both doing good work, both needing money.

No more shame

In some cases, celebrity attention makes it easier to speak more openly and without embarrassment about diseases once only whispered about. Think of the silence surrounding breast cancer until women like first ladies Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor went public.

Of course, one of the turning points in the AIDS epidemic was the revelation that actor Rock Hudson suffered from the disease.

Celebrities can also focus attention on more obscure diseases.

Dr. Bruce R. Bacon of St. Louis University learned first-hand the value of celebrities speaking out when Naomi Judd became his patient in the mid-1990s, at a time when few knew much at all about hepatitis C.

The disease may have ended Judd’s career, but she spoke out about it, and awareness blossomed, Bacon said. “We were very lucky that she wore it on her sleeve and spoke out.”

Later, Bacon treated Julia Spears, wife of Bee Spears, the bass player for Willie Nelson.

“We’ve had fundraising events every September, and this year Willie Nelson will play (for the second time) because we have this connection,” Bacon said.

For any disease, clarity is important, Bacon said. “There’s still a lot of misinformation, so any opportunity for education is a good thing,” he said.

“In two years, we’ve raised $800,000 to support research, and the name recognition that Willie Nelson and Naomi Judd brought with them helped.”

Researchers pay attention

The Couric effect has attracted attention from researchers. Scientists from the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa published a study that showed increases in awareness of the benefits of colonoscopy after Couric’s on-screen screening:

“The number of colonoscopies performed per … physician per month after Ms. Couric’s campaign increased significantly – 15 per month before her campaign; 18.1 after.

“These findings suggest that a celebrity spokesperson can have a substantial impact on public participation in preventive care programs.”

The downside

Dr. Joel S. Perlmutter is a neurologist and professor at the Washington University School of Medicine. He appreciates when someone wants to bring awareness to a disease by helping others change their behavior or get screened. The public awareness, education and support that a celebrity can muster are valuable, Perlmutter said. “Even the individual with the disease who may not know there are other people out there, all of a sudden he’s aware he’s not alone.”

The down side is that the enthusiasm may lead to goals that he called premature, primarily cures.

In the case of Parkinson’s disease – with Michael J. Fox forming a foundation and the faces of Pope John Paul II and former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno helping along – there was a sudden passion to find a cure within two years.

When actor Christopher Reeve suffered a spinal chord injury in 1995, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation founded by him and spouse Dana Reeve seemed to raise hopes that a cure could be found – not only for spinal cord injuries but other neurological disorders.

The foundation, says the Web site, “has given over $53 million in research grants to the world’s best neuroscientists. … And the research we’re funding has the potential to cure not only paralysis, but other devastating diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke, ALS and heart disease.”

From the time of Reeve’s injury until his death last year, none of those conditions was cured, although some groundbreaking relief arose from the research.

“Science is very incremental. We’re going to ask people for money for a cure, and that can raise people’s expectations way up here, and they’re skipping some of the basic research steps,” Perlmutter said, “What causes the disease, what mechanism in the brain leads to the changes in the death of brain cells – you need all those steps before designing a new medicine that can cure it. You shouldn’t have 100 different drugs and try them all and see which one works.”