The broadcast will air on stations throughout the United States and will be simulcast on the Internet (www.vitaloptions.org) from 4-6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 11, which also marks the fifth anniversary on the air of The Group Room, produced by Vital Options® TeleSupport® Cancer Network—a not-for-profit cancer communications, support and advocacy organization--in association with Premiere Radio Networks, the largest radio network in the U.S.

This Paris show follows The Group Room’s inaugural live European broadcast Jan. 28 from The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, England. Dr. David Khayat, co-founder of the World Summit Against Cancer, was a guest on the Marsden broadcast and will be a featured panelist during the Paris broadcast. He is Director of Medial Oncology at the Salpetiere Hospital, Professor of Oncology at the Pierre and Marie Curie University and President of the French Federation of Medical Oncologists, all in Paris.

Launched in February 2000, the World Summit Against Cancer is a worldwide non-governmental non-profit initiative that aims at renewing the global commitment to the fight against cancer. At the heart of this initiative is a working document entitled the Charter of Paris Against Cancer.

"It is fortuitous that Vital Options' international initiative has coincided with the timing of the World Summit Against Cancer in Paris," said Khayat. “From my recent experience on The Group Room at the Marsden, I now know firsthand how valuable the program is in creating a much needed dialogue about cancer. The objective of the Charter of Paris is to wake up the world concerning the reality of cancer, so we are very pleased that Selma Schimmel and Vital Options are playing a role on behalf of our worldwide efforts against cancer."

Schimmel, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Vital Options and host of The Group Room, who will also be a speaker at the Summit, noted, “It is a great privilege to be a part of the World Summit Against Cancer and to have the opportunity to support the vision of its founders, Prof. David Khayat and Prof. Gabriel Hortobagyi. Vital Options International and The Group Room radio show are committed to the Summit's global mission.”

Joining Schimmel and Khayat during the first hour to discuss clinical issues related to cancer will be Hortobagyi, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Breast Medical Oncology and Director of the Research Group for Breast Cancer at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Dr. Peter George Harper, Consultant Physician and Medical Oncologist at the Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospitals, London; and other cancer experts to be announced.

The second hour of the broadcast will be devoted to advocacy issues. Schimmel will be joined by award-winning entertainer and breast-cancer survivor Diahann Carroll; Ellen Stovall, President and CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship; Nancy Brinker, Founding Chairman of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; Fran Visco, President of the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Founded in 1983 when Schimmel was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28, Vital Options was the first organization to address issues related to young adults with cancer before expanding to include issues and information related to everyone touched by cancer. In 2001, Vital Options was officially renamed Vital Options International to reflect its international expansion.

The Group Room broadcasts live for two hours every Sunday and reaches more than half-a-million listeners a week. Callers in the U.S. dial 1-800-GRP-ROOM (1-800-477-7666) to enter discussions and speak directly with oncology specialists. A book version of the radio show--“Cancer Talk—Voices of Hope and Endurance from ‘The Group Room,’ the World’s Largest Cancer Support Group”--was published in 1999 by Broadway Books, a division of Random House.

The World Summit Against Cancer is supported primarily through educational grants from Ortho Biotech Products, LP / Janssen-Cilag and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Additionally, Ortho Biotech provided an educational grant to Vital Options for the Paris broadcast.

Vital Options International is headquartered in Southern California. The Group Room is supported through educational grants from founding sponsor Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and corporate sponsors Ortho Biotech Products, LP, Pharmacia Oncology and Genentech BioOncology Inc.