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Gertrude B. Elion Photo © Official Nobel Prize Photo 1988 Women's History Month New York City welcomed Gertrude Elion into the world in 1918 on a freezing January night. She was the child of European immigrants who encouraged her to get a good education. Gertrude attended public school in the Bronx, and when it came time to choose a major for high school, she thought of her beloved grandfather. He had spent lots of time with her and her brother when they were small, and she stayed with him until he passed away of stomach cancer. She decided on chemistry, saying, "I had no specific bent toward science until my grandfather died of cancer. I decided nobody should suffer that much."

Madam Marie Curie Photo © Official 1911 Nobel Prize Photo Women's History Month Maria Skłodowska was born the youngest child of teachers in Warsaw, Poland. Family fortunes were not great, and Maria lost her mother at age twelve. Maria had to work as a tutor and governess to help finance her sister's education. Later, she was able to study in Paris at the Sorbonne with her sister's support. She also took courses in secret from the Floating University, an underground educational institution in politically-turbulent Poland that educated women, and later also men. Determined to work and make progress in her chosen field of science, Maria studied and practiced physics and chemistry - subjects her father had taught.

Treat Her Like A Princess Photo © Bright Sky Press Denise Hazen was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, and made a decision to stay positive. She even got in front a CNN camera for the documentary " Taming the Beast, " made at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Denise got through seventeen chemo treatments, a double mastectomy and six weeks of external breast radiation . You get the idea - she's a true survivor. Nowdays she volunteers with the Pink Ribbons Project in Houston, Texas and has written a book about her experience. But the book isn't just a breast cancer memoir.

Breast Cancer Patients Report Better Quality of Life, Less Side Effects Would you rather have five weeks or three weeks of radiation treatments? How about less total radiation to your breast? Throw in better quality of life, better satisfaction with your body image, and effective prevention of a breast cancer recurrence. That's what researchers found at the START (Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy) Trials. This new schedule of radiation for breast cancer is called hypofractionated radiation. Each dose of radiation was higher than the standard now used for external beam radiation . Patients were given fewer radiation treatments, saving them time, travel, disruption of schedule, and cost. When researchers surveyed the patients in the START Trials, they asked the women about their personal perspective of body image, skin changes, breast texture, arm and shoulder symptoms. The START study covered a five-year period and encompassed 2,208 women in the UK. None of the patients felt just as good as they had before breast cancer treatment, but the women who had the hypofractionated three-week radiation reported lower rates of breast hardness, changes in breast shape, and arm and shoulder pain.

Postmenopausal women who have been diagnosed with HER2 positive , estrogen receptor sensitive breast cancer can now take advantage of a drug combination just approved by the FDA. Tykerb (lapatinib) and Femara (letrozole) are not new drugs for breast cancer, but using the combination of these to treat advanced breast cancer has just been studied. Results of the study showed that women with HER2, ER positive metastatic breast cancer had almost triple the survival rates of women treated with only Femara. When combined, Tykerb and Femara extended the lives of patients by 35 weeks, as compared to 13 weeks on Femara alone.

Jennifer Lyon Photo © Getty Images/Fernando Leon Jennifer Lyon, 37, a contestant on Survivor: Palau, has passed away after a five-year fight with breast cancer . Lyon finished the reality TV show in fourth place, but kept many friends among the other contestants. The show wrapped up in May 2005, and in August of that year, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. She had noticed a breast lump as early as the summer of 2004, when she was just 33, but since she had no health insurance, and the lump wasn't changing, she let it go.

Pomegranate Photo © Brett Moore Phytochemicals In Pomegranates: Helpful for Breast Cancer? Pomegranates are an ancient fruit that's making a comeback as a great anticancer food. Ellagitannins from pomegranates transform into ellagic acid during digestion. Since ellagic acid is a natural aromatase inhibitor, consuming pomegranates or using pomegranate extracts may slow down the growth of estrogen-sensitive breast cancer.

Birth Control Pills Photo © Getty Images/Barr Laboratories In 2003, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) sought to reassure women that using birth control pills would not raise their risk for breast cancer. NCI also told women that having an abortion was not a risk factor for breast cancer. Now it turns out that a study published in April 2009 by Jessica Dolle and other researchers of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center shows just the opposite: oral contraception (OCs) is linked with an increased risk for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in women who are 45 years old and younger. The research paper, "Risk factors for triple-negative breast cancer in women under the age of 45 years," was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. This research paper features a table of risk factors, which includes induced abortion as one of several "known and suspected risk factors".

Breast cancer grows in the dark, low-oxygen, sealed environment of your body. It is usually removed with surgery and treated with chemotherapy and radiation. But medical lasers may be able to shed some targeted light on a new treatment for breast cancer. Scientists at Virginia Tech have been working with researchers at Canadian company Theralase to test a combination of photodynamic compounds (PDCs) and medical lasers on breast cancer cells. Not yet tested on people, the labs test results of the laser and PDC combination looks very exciting. Roger Dumoulin-White, President and CEO of Theralase announced that in-vitro testing of Theralase photodynamic compounds caused the destruction of breast cancer cells. Dr. Lothar Lilge, principal investigator of this study, is very happy with the study results. "Results indicate that these PDCs can destroy cancer cells when light-activated, even in low-oxygen environments. Low-oxygen environments prove challenging for most other cancer therapies, which is why these PDCs are very attractive for solid tumors such as cancers of the lung, breast, prostate and brain."

Teresa Heinz Kerry Photo © Getty Images/Jeff Swensen Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards now have more in common than being part of the 2004 presidential campaign. While John Kerry and John Edwards ran for office, Elizabeth discovered a lump in her breast and was eventually treated for metastatic breast cancer. Nine years later, Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune, has announced that she has breast cancer.