Filed under: Skin Cancer , Research , Daily news , Thought for the Day Oh no. I think I 'm headed for melanoma. At the very least, I seem to have a very high risk for developing the disease, thanks to my once-stubborn pursuit of a silly tan. Think about this: A review of seven different studies concludes that using a tanning bed under the age of 35 -- I'm so guilty -- can increase the risk of melanoma by 75 percent. Even those who have ever used indoor tanning were 15 percent more likely to develop the disease. We're talking the deadliest form of skin cancer here. So deadly some experts are recommending strong measures to restrict the use of tanning beds by young people. Adults should be discouraged from tanning, some say, but access should be limited for those under the age of 18. New Jersey already has regulations in place -- those under 14 are banned from tanning salons and anyone between 14 and 18 must have parental consent. If I could turn back time, I would listen to my grandma. She told me the sun -- and tanning beds too -- were no good. But I was young. And I didn't care. Now I'm older. And I care. But it may be too late. It seems this could be one lesson I learn the hard way. Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer He an unlikely breast cancer survivor -- because he is a man. But still he developed the disease that roughly 1,700 men will contract this year. And while that statistics pertaining to women and men with breast cancer differ -- women are 100 times more likely to get the disease -- the biology of the disease is exactly the same. Under the microscope, breast cancer is breast cancer. It does not behave any differently in female and male bodies. And detection, treatment, and survival rates are nearly identical for both sexes. Bob Riter, 49, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. Now in remission, he works as the associate director of the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance in New York where he speaks out and educates the public about this widespread disease. He believes his personal story, with its different twist, prompts people to really listen. Riter's audiences learn that breast cancer in men usually presents itself as a lump in the chest, dimpling of the skin, or changes in the nipple. Doctors can perform breast exams, mammography, and biopsy to investigate the possibility of the cancer that typically strikes men between the ages of 60 and 70. Treatment includes mastectomy to remove the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy. It was the presence of blood coming from his nipple that sent Riter to his doctor -- and then to a surgeon who declared a diagnosis of breast cancer. Riter is somewhat of an exception because he reported to his doctor immediately. Most men do not. Many do not even realize they are at risk of breast cancer so they ignore symptoms. They also may go underground with their suspicions of breast cancer because of embarrassment. Both can lead to diagnoses of more advanced diseases. Riter is doing his part to enlighten both men and women that men are not immune to breast cancer, that they should be active in monitoring their breast health. "I really like to go to national breast cancer meetings," he says, "because a lot of people know that men get breast cancer in theory, but until you have a face to associate with it, it's fairly abstract. And so I'm sort of that face." Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Skin Cancer , Melanoma , Celebrity news Usually, when we announce a celebrity is raising awareness for cancer, it is the result of a news release that the celebrity has joined a cancer foundation in an effort to lend a higher visibility to the campaign. In the case of actress Julia Roberts, it appears simply having your photo taken is enough to raise awareness about cancer. At a Hollywood tribute to George Clooney, photographers noticed a mole on her right breast which led to a cancer expert urging Roberts to get it checked out. A dermatologist is suggesting that it looks like a scar resulting from the removal of a mole, according to the movie and entertainment reporting of the incident. Do you think celebrities ever get fish-bowl claustrophobia from such intense scrutiny and unsolicited advice into their private life? Roberts strikes me as an intelligent woman, and I would wager she is aware of her mysterious mole and has sought medical attention for it. However unintended, this latest gossip buzz does raise concern into what might qualify as a suspicious-looking mole likely to warrant medical attention. The warning signs of a mole that can cause cancer concern are: Asymmetry -- One side of the mole does not match the other side of the mole and appears uneven. Border -- The edge of the mole has a ragged or irregular border. Color -- The color of the mole is uneven and varies in shade. Diameter -- A mole bigger than a pencil eraser. There are three main types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are the most common and malignant melanoma can be the most deadly if not caught in its earliest stage. This year in the US, more than one million people will be diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer, and 62,190 will be diagnosed with melanoma, according to the American Cancer Society. For more information on skin cancer related posts, visit Melanoma and Skin Cancer . Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , Cancer Survivors Photographs tell powerful stories. They depict people and objects and landscapes and emotions in deep, meaningful ways. They capture permanent visual representations of moments in life. They paint pictures that even the most well-crafted words could not reproduce. When Mary Ann Nilan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the age of 40, she knew her story must be told -- through pictures. So she asked a photographer to record it all, stating, "I hope the pictures make the road easier for other women." The rest is history. She calls it a photo essay and titles it The Diary of Healing . For 17 frames -- with photographs dominating each space and text kept to a minimum -- Nilan shares her journey that began with the discovery of breast cancer in both breasts and several lymph nodes, the journey that took her through chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and reconstruction with implants. Her photographs document significant stops on her physical and emotional trek. They show her bald head, the wig she wore only once and then let hang on a hook, the scars that crossed her flat chest after surgery, an injection of saline that painfully pierced the skin of her new breasts, her children measuring her hair as it grows in after chemotherapy. The photographs are both hopeful and chilling. They are breast cancer. They are more than words could ever capture. Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

If you live in the northern hemisphere, we are fully into the fall season. In the southern hemisphere, they are enjoying spring, and looking forward to the upcoming summer. To maximize daylight hours, we turn our clocks ahead one hour each spring, and turn the clocks back one hour each fall. However, this has become a bit of a debate in Australia, as Queensland Premier Peter Beattie is digging in his heels, locking his knees, and crossing his arms against his chest in refusing to follow fellow countrymen in Western Australia when it comes to considering the policy of instituting daylight saving time . Beattie is well-intentioned but ill-informed in his concern that the extra hour of light might increase the already high risk of skin cancer in Queensland. Adding an extra hour at the end of the day -- or the beginning of the day -- depending on how you want to view it, will not increase skin cancer risks resulting from excessive exposure to sunlight. The hours of the day when the sun is most damaging, and most dangerous in increasing skin cancer risks, is the middle of the day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. According to The Skin Foundation , to reduce skin cancer risks, we need to protect ourselves year-round by staying out of the sun during peak hours of 10a.m. to 4p.m., by wearing a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a sun protection factor SPF 15 or higher, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and UV-blocking sunglasses, avoiding the use of tanning parlors and artificial tanning devices, keeping newborns out of the sun, teaching children good sun-protective practices, examining skin from head-to-toe once a month, having a professional examination annually, and avoiding sunburn. For more information about skin cancer myths and fact, read Skin cancer myths debunked by dermatologists . Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Prostate Cancer , Colon and Rectal Cancer , Skin Cancer , Prevention , Nutrition , Cancer prevention foods Researchers are not suggesting that people begin consuming grape seed extract because no one is certain at this point in time very much about the potential side effects of taking the extract, but they have found that grape seed extract has the ability to slow the growth of colorectal tumors in both cell cultures and in mice by 44 percent. In the study, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver researchers were also able to determine the molecular mechanism by which grape seed extract works to inhibit cancer growth. As far back as 1999, the same researchers discovered that grape seed extract was effective in cancer prevention relating to skin cancer. Later preclinical work demonstrated that the extract slowed the growth of prostate cancer cells. For an in-depth explanation of the chemoprevention benefits of grape seed extract, read Grape Seed Extract Halts Cell Cycle, Checking Growth Of Colorectal Tumors In Mice . The study is available as a PDF document and can be obtained by emailing Decicco@aacr.org or Ortiz@aacr.org. Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , All Cancers I took my boys yesterday for a tour of the University of Florida's Department of Entomology and Nematology. Translation for these little boys -- ages five and three -- involves one simple word. Bugs. They love bugs, hunt for bugs, capture bugs, and reluctantly set them free because I coax them into allowing these itty bitty creatures to continue living with their "mommies and daddies." I have a soft spot for all living beings -- bugs included. We learned some crazy facts about bugs yesterday -- insects is the proper term really. We learned there is one cockroach that can live for seven days without its head. We learned there are two types of Madagascar cockroaches living in a lab in the very same building we visited that if set free, would reproduce so quickly they would become a major pest problem in the state of Florida. And we learned that of all animals on this planet, most are insects. But not only did we learn some crazy facts, we -- well, Joey -- shared a crazy fact too. Joey is five years old. He is the boy who remembers much of my breast cancer journey. He is the one who helped shave my head, the one who thought a banana would make my sick tummy feel better. He's the one who would blurt out to people we never knew very well, "My mommy is bald," the one who asked me just last night if the metal thing -- my port -- was still in my chest. When I told him it's gone, he jumped up and announced, "Yeah, it's gone!" Cancer is one of many vocabulary words housed in Joey's brain. And sometimes the word comes up unexpectedly, in strange contexts, in surprising ways. Like today. Our bug tour guide told us that in Africa, mosquitoes transmit diseases that kill millions of people. But those with sickle cell anemia are immune to the deadly diseases due to their compromised red blood cells that somehow fend off disease. This fact prompted Joey to share with the guide, "Did you know when people have cancer, there are bugs that can kill the cancer?" Our guide listened to this crazy fact and said in a kid-friendly way, "No, I did not know that. Who told you that?" Joey told her, "I don't remember but someone told me." I am not sure what prompted Joey to make this announcement. Perhaps he was trying to one-up the tour guide, to sound like an expert on one of his favorite subjects. Perhaps his imagination was in overdrive and he blurted out the best story he could offer. Perhaps he jumbled up a story he had heard on the topic of cancer. And perhaps he is just simply hopeful that one day, bugs will help cure cancer. And wouldn't that be nice -- a simple mosquito comes along, pierces the skin, and poof, cancer is gone. My cancer journey would not be nearly as interesting, as enlightening, as tender if Joey was not along with me for the ride. He keeps me busy and keeps my spirits up. He keeps me grounded and keeps life simple. Best of all -- he keeps me laughing. Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , Cancer Survivors , Survivor Spotlight Just two months after her mother lost her battle with gall bladder cancer, Liane was diagnosed with breast cancer. It all happened earlier this year -- and while Liane is still mourning the loss of her mother, she is also still managing the madness of her own disease. Liane is surviving with courage, with determination, with the same powerful spirit that powered her mother's fight. Liane lives in a small city -- population 43,000 -- in northern Alberta Canada. She has been happily married for 18 years and has two daughters, ages 13 and 15, and a golden retriever named Sunny. Liane loves to garden, cook, read, and spend time with family. She normally works full-time in a real estate and property management office but has been blessed with six months off for treatment. Liane is already -- without a doubt -- a survivor. When were you diagnosed with breast cancer? April 21, 2006 How old were you at the time of diagnosis? 45 Do you have a family history of breast cancer? Not really. My mother-in-law survived inflammatory breast cancer 14 years ago, just when I was pregnant with my youngest. That was really a mixed time of emotions. We were welcoming a new baby into our family and at the same time worried to death about the poor prognosis my husband's mother had been handed. She was granted her miracle and is as alive as ever (she never stops!) today. My own mother was diagnosed with gall bladder cancer in February of 2005 and was also given a very poor prognosis. She fooled everyone and responded to her chemo treatments. Unfortunately she lost her fight on Feb 22, 2006, a full year after being told she had only months, maybe weeks, to live. Even so, her death broadsided us. She lived with us for the last eight years and was at home until the morning we had her brought to our only hospital. She passed away that afternoon. How did you find out you had breast cancer? On Easter morning I had an itchy spot on my right breast that just wouldn't go away. Then it was achy but I thought it was just normal achy before-my-period kind of achy. But this time it didn't go away and then my husband brought to my attention that there really was something there that hadn't been before. I knew too but I think I was still in that kind of dreamy, not really conscious state of mind that grieving seems to put you into when it just hurts too much to actually think about what you are feeling. When my husband verbalized what I had feared for the previous two weeks I found myself suddenly needing to run, not walk, to my doctors office. It just all seemed so surreal. How did you tell your family members about your diagnosis? I honestly don't remember. I do remember driving myself to my sister's and blurting it out and then both of us just crying for a long time. Later that day I vaguely remember sitting my girls down with gramma and grampa and telling them. It's all kind of a blur to me now. Everyone was so shocked and disbelieving I think. What types of breast cancer treatment did you receive? I had a mastectomy, sentinel node biopsy, and axillary node dissection. I am currently receiving FEC chemo -- just received my 4th dose of six, spaced three weeks apart. Only two more to go -- Yay! How did you manage through breast cancer treatment? The recovery from surgery was more painful than I had imagined. My dad and his wife drove from 10 hours away and cooked and cleaned while my little family just was. We were all like robots -- functioning but just. Chemo has been gross. I ended up in the hospital after #2 with an infection of unknown origin and extremely low blood counts. My doctor lowered the FEC dosage by 10 percent and the next two treatments went much better. I still get very tired. I swear I have every side effect listed for the chemo drugs as well as the anti nausea drugs. I find that keeping a little food in your tummy at all times helps with the nausea. Nothing tastes better than lemon drops when everything else tastes like kaka, and my daughter's soft blanket that she so willingly shared with me was soothing on my sore skin. What has been your worst breast cancer moment? When I was undergoing a lot of the testing for staging I had to go into the same diagnostic rooms and see the same technicians as I had accompanied my mother on one year before. It was very difficult to relive that. I wasn't even really able to worry about myself or what I was undergoing. When I was hospitalized after my second chemo they put me on the same floor that my mother spent her last day on. My nurse thought my tears were for me but when I told her what was going on in my mind, she told me that this sort of thing actually happened quite a bit, being such a small community with only one hospital. It made me realize that others have been in my shoes before me. When it came time for my first appointment with the cancer clinic I requested the same doctor who had treated first my mother-in-law and then my mother. I trust her implicitly. What has been your best breast cancer moment? Having that same doctor tell me that although there is no cure, I would be fine. That simple statement put me at ease and made me believe and look forward. How do handle anxiety and worry related to breast cancer? I talk to my mother-in-law who is full of experience and shares without reservation. My mom had a way of making me strong with just a few simple words. She taught me to believe in myself and I still talk to her too. My husband has been a rock. He holds me when I am having my moments and that is enough. I hold my girls when they let me (teenagers) and that has been a lot lately. My sister is just always there for me. My 2-year-old niece is also very therapeutic. I highly recommend keeping a few babies around when the going gets tough. How has breast cancer changed your life? I've learned to let the little things go and accept help from others. What lessons have you learned through breast cancer? We can handle a lot more than we may ever have imagined. Are you involved in any breast cancer support groups? Fundraisers? Organizations? We held a multi-family yard sale right after my surgery. My sister, our father and his wife worked for days. My sister made a big sign with a photo on it of my mom, myself, and my sister on my wedding day. My sister wrote that all proceeds that day would go to the Alberta Cancer Society in honor of our mother who had recently passed away. And the people bought and bought and bought. Some gave us money without buying anything. Many told us how they had lost a loved one or survived a diagnosis. It was bitter sweet because some of my mom's things went home with strangers. In the end we had almost $400 to donate. That was pretty amazing considering most items sold around the $1.00 mark! What advice would you give someone newly diagnosed? Let people help you. Now is not the time to try to do it all yourself even if you are that type. Listen to your body and don't push it. Talk to someone who's been there, done that. What advice would you give family members and friends of someone diagnosed with breast cancer? Talk about it! Communication is so important with any cancer diagnosis. There is so much fear associated with the word cancer and silence feeds that fear. Not everyone can handle all the information that is available but I for one, and my sister for another needed and wanted any and all info. with my mother. We found information comforting. Not knowing is not an option. Name any breast cancer related books or other resources you would recommend. The Cancer Blog , of course. I also found reading the blogs of others very comforting. For strictly the facts there are countless reliable sources on the web -- your local cancer society is likely the best starting point. What else would you like to share? None of us know when or how an illness might hit or how numbered our days are. Don't take your health for granted but don't live as though everything is a danger either. We still need to have fun. And appreciate those who love you. Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , Cancer Caregivers , Cancer Survivors Danny became aware of my port just before it was removed. He was only 18 months old when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and my journey went pretty much unnoticed by this small boy who had no idea ports were not standard on every person he met. Now he is three years old and even though he still has no real idea why a port popped up from underneath my skin for two years, he did come to realize it was something akin to a boo-boo that one day goes away. My port went away on September 15. And ever since that day, Danny has been very concerned about the incision that marks the spot once home to a foreign device. For one week after my port removal, my incision was covered. Danny wondered why. I told him I was healing, that I had to keep my boo-boo protected, that I could not take a shower because it could not get wet. Danny was very attentive. He pulled at the neck of my shirt every time I held him to sneak a peak at the site of my surgery. He asked if it hurt, if doctors cut me with a knife, if new skin was growing underneath my bandage. "Yes", "yes", and "yes." I told him. And one day when I decided to take a shower, despite orders to keep the area completely dry, Danny said, "The doctor said you cannot take a shower." I told him, "I know." And he said, "But actually you did take a shower." I told him he was right and hoped he would not pursue my disobedience any further. He did not -- he was just checking up on me, he was just concerned about me, he was just wondering if I may have compromised something. I told him I was fine. I did not do any damage with my rebellious shower, my bandage is off, and Danny only peeks once in a while to monitor the area. He is mostly back to his normal life, free from all nursing duties. And I am mostly back to life, free from my port and happily showered in love by my littlest guy -- the guy who was once oblivious to all things cancer related, the guy who somehow became my caregiver. Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Skin Cancer , Prevention , Research , Products Knowing the skin damage that results from prolonged sun exposure needed to achieve the golden tan, many fair-skinned people are staying out of the sun and turning to spray on or sunless lotion tans. These fake tans are skin dyes that do not change or darken skin pigmentation the way the sun might, but do give a temporary look of a glowing tan complexion. Advances have been made to these products so that the olden days of orange palms and streaky uneven lotion marks from sunless lotions are a mere memory, but still, it's not a real tan. What if you could achieve a real tan, a tan where the skin pigmentation actually changes and darkens the same as it would if you spent hours in the sun, without spending hours in the sun exposing yourself to the premature aging, wrinkling and increased skin cancer risk damages of ultraviolet (UV) radiation? In addition, what if this product, in actually darkening the pigmentation of your skin, provided protection from UV sun damage? Although still in the experimental stages, scientists are working on just such a lotion, using a plant extract called forskolin, that prompts the pigmentation of the skin to darken. While the efforts are said to be focused on the treatment of individuals with medical pigmentation disorders -- if forskolin proves safe -- could a commercial product using the same compounds that safely promote a darkening of skin pigmentation -- a real tan -- and skin cancer prevention -- be far behind? Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments