The official press release is now out for the Cancer Bites initiative that Robert Pattinson spoke about at the Teen Choice Awards.

“CANCER BITES” is a new initiative harnessing pop culture’s obsession with vampires to raise public awareness of blood cancers as the third leading cause of cancer and the most common form of cancer in youth under the age of 18 in the United States. On Sunday, August 7, CANCER BITES took center stage at the FOX Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles, CA with Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, as he invited fans to stay tuned for the campaign’s Halloween launch this October during his acceptance of the “Choice” Celebrity Vampire award presented by CANCER BITES.

Drawing from media properties such as Twilight, HBO’s True Blood, CW’s The Vampire Diaries and MTV’s Teen Wolf — CANCER BITES has assembled a powerful team of partners, experts and spokespeople to educate the public about the prevalence of blood cancers. At launch and throughout the campaign, CANCER BITES will focus on raising awareness around those most impacted by the disease and creating a broad national dialogue on the importance of funding life-saving research.

“When I heard about the Cancer Bites initiative, I knew very little about how prevalent blood cancer is because there have been so few national campaigns about it,” said Pattinson. “The Cancer Bites campaign officially launches on Halloween, but in the meantime you can go to http://www.cancerbites.tv for more information about how you can spread the word to support those who are dealing with this type of cancer.”

Blood cancers — the third leading cause of cancer — are diseases of the blood, bone marrow, and/or lymphatic systems, including leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma. Leukemia is the most common cancer among children and young adults under 20.

CANCER BITES has enlisted The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) to help fuel its mission. As the nation’s leading blood cancer patient advocacy organizations, LLS and LRF will play an integral role in the campaign at every level; funding research to find effective new treatments and cures; connecting patients and their families to free educational information; and, providing support services for patients at every stage of their cancer journey. The awareness campaign will encourage the public to support their efforts to beat cancer.

“Despite its prevalence, there is very little public awareness around blood cancer,” says Dr. Julie Vose, chair of the CANCER BITES expert panel and, chief of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “Our mission with CANCER BITES is to change that by providing information to the public to garner a greater understanding about these cancers and connecting patients and caregivers to the tools, resources and support they need to navigate their journey every step of the way.”

CANCER BITES officially launches on Halloween Day 2011. In the meantime, people can visit www.cancerbites.tv for more information about the campaign or join the conversation on Twitter with @llsusa and @lymphoma with hashtag #cancerbites.