To the editor:

We were glad to read (Journal-World, March 24) that state officials intend to put a new cancer prevention plan in place. Over the past decade, we have watched a startling number of young people in Topeka and Lawrence get cancer diagnoses in the prime of life. Of those diagnosed, most had lived healthfully and had no significant family history of the disease. Our hope is that the plan widens the focus of “prevention” beyond genetics and individual lifestyle issues to investigate environmental exposure to carcinogens in Kansas communities with climbing rates of certain cancers. National organizations such as the Breast Cancer Fund (www.breastcancerfund.org) and Breast Cancer Action (www.bcaction.org) provide cutting-edge leadership in this arena.

Harriet Lerner, Steve Lerner and Emily Kofron,

Lawrence