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64 Results for search "Cancer: Misc.".

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What's a Pap test? A Pap test -- named for its inventor, George Papanicolaou -- is a medical test that can detect a potential case of cervical cancer before it even starts. The test is undoubtedly a life saver. By some estimates, widespread use of the Pap test has cut cervical cancer deaths by 70 percent. What happens during a Pap test? The test is very simple. You will lie back on a table with y...

What's the disease that women fear the most? The answer is most likely to be breast cancer. And if you ask them the disease they're most likely to get, their answer would be breast cancer as well. But they would be wrong. Among the most lethal diseases of women in the United States, breast cancer lags behind heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and Alzheimer's...

Just by coincidence, I usually see my breast surgeon in October, National Breast Cancer Awareness month, but I saw her early this year because she's on maternity leave again. After my visit, I ran into a friend. When I told her where I was, she suddenly looked alarmed. "I didn't know you had breast ... problems," she said, concerned. "I don't!" I jumped to reassure her. Then I was suddenly tongue...

Louis Benton, Jr. has nine brothers and sisters. But when his mother had a breast cancer recurrence and his father was diagnosed with bone cancer a few months later, Benton was the one who came to his parents' aid. "I had retired three years ago, so it fell into my hands," says Benton. "I can't describe what it's like to have both parents sick at the same time." Cancer is in large part a disease...

In the Jewish Scriptures, it is written that every 49th year there is to be a Jubilee Year. In the Jubilee Year, all debts are forgiven and everyone is given a fresh start. As I approached my 49th birthday, I knew that something big was going to happen that was going to change my life forever. I never imagined that the vehicle would be breast cancer. While my 49th year was not always as joyful as ...

Anne Hofstadter is a breast cancer survivor. Her sister and mother have also had breast cancer. So Anne worries that her 46-year-old daughter may eventually be diagnosed with the disease -- especially since her daughter's paternal grandmother also suffered from it. But it never occurred to her to fret about her 44-year-old son. "I guess I knew men could get breast cancer, but it seemed more like a...

Judy* needed my medical clearance to keep walking. It was a beautiful fall morning in southern California, and more than 2,500 walkers were setting off for the final leg of a 75-mile, three-day walk from Santa Barbara to Malibu to raise money for breast cancer prevention. Judy was suited up in shorts and cross-training sneakers. Pinned to her pink t-shirt was a laminated picture of a young, vibran...

It used to be thought that the more the surgeon cut from a woman's breast, the more likely she was to survive breast cancer. By the time surgery was over, a woman with a small tumor in one breast would have lost her breast, the chest muscles underneath and a trail of the lymph nodes up to her collarbone. It's an image that still holds great power for many women who are newly diagnosed, but it's an...

If you find a lump in your breast, don't delay -- see your doctor as soon as possible. Anything you notice that's different from your normal breast tissue should be investigated. The good news is that more than 80 percent of breast lumps turn out to be benign tumors or cysts. How can my doctor tell whether a lump is cancerous? If a breast exam, mammogram, or follow-up ultrasound turns up a suspic...

Can a mammogram save my life? Mammograms -- X-ray pictures of the breasts -- are a valuable but imperfect tool for detecting breast cancer. The death rate from breast cancer has dropped dramatically in the last 20 or 30 years, but most of that progress is due to better treatments, not mammograms. While a mammogram can definitely uncover hidden cancers, recent research suggests that the X-rays don'...

Most people are in denial about the possibility of getting any form of cancer. If they think about it at all, they're more likely to worry about lung or breast cancer than they are about cancer of the colon. Colon cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer after lung cancer. But it's one of the easiest diseases to detect, and in its earliest stages, it's also one of the most curable. If you'...

How does depression affect cancer patients? For cancer patients, depression means much more than just a dark mood. The illness, which strikes about up to 25 percent of all cancer patients (compared with about 7 percent of the general public), can sap a person's immune system, weakening the body's ability to cope with disease. Patients fighting both depression and cancer feel distressed, tend to ha...

The irony was as inescapable as the smoke. Here was Taku Ronsman choking on secondhand smoke at work every day in a city health department, where she gave advice on how to create a smoke-free workplace. Hard at work for the Brown County Tobacco-Free Coalition in Green Bay, Wisconsin, she developed chronic bronchitis from the cigarette smoke down the hall. The building -- which also housed the Ame...

What's the difference between chewing and spit (or snuff) tobacco? Chewing tobacco ("chaw") is usually sold as leaf tobacco, and users place a large wad of it inside their cheek. Users, who tend to be older men, keep chewing tobacco in their mouths for several hours (the tell-tale bulge often gives them away). Snuff, which is much more common today, is a powdered tobacco that's usually sold in ca...

Rick Bender was 12 when he stuck the first pinch of snuff between his cheek and gum. He was 26 when doctors diagnosed him with oral cancer and removed half of his jaw, a third of his tongue, and part of his neck. "I always thought smokeless tobacco was the safer alternative to cigarettes," says Bender, now 38. "'Smokeless' sounds so harmless. You know, no smoke, no fire." An estimated 7.6 milli...

Linking cigarettes and cancer In the early 1960s, researchers at Brown and Williamson, one of the world's largest tobacco companies, made a sickening discovery: Smoking could cause lung cancer. In public, the company claimed cigarettes were perfectly safe. Behind closed doors, their scientists searched for ways to remove cancer-causing compounds from cigarettes. As their own internal documents sho...

Albert Einstein once remarked that pipe smoking "contributed to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs." Whether the observation is true or not, pipe smoking has had many other famous devotees, among them Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the fictional Sherlock Homes, who often disappeared into a haze of pipe smoke while solving his cases. Today, pipes are still a symbol...

Like any other business, tobacco companies are always looking for ways to make their products stand out. Some claim to offer superior flavor, while others try to make their brands seem rugged or sexy. But one strategy is conspicuous for sheer boldness and effectiveness: As concerns about the health effects of smoking mount, many brands are scrambling to appear safer than the typical smoke. "Light"...

Most cigarette smokers know the dangers of tobacco. After all, the Surgeon General stamps a warning right on the pack. But what about the people sitting next to the smoker? What about his friends and coworkers? His children? Secondhand smoke doesn't come with a warning label. If it did, more smokers might try harder to kick their addiction. According to the best current estimates, secondhand smoke...

In the Jazz Age, flappers wielded foot-long cigarette holders as emblems of panache and independence. During World War II, monthly ads with Chesterfield cigarette girls featured such stars as Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. Twenty years later, the U.S. Surgeon General linked smoking and death, but images of cigarettes as symbols of feminine freedom, mystery, and sex appeal were by no means extingu...

It was eye-catching news in 2002 when researchers called a halt to a major government-run study of a hormone therapy used by millions of older women. Researchers stopped the study, one of a series of clinical trials under the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), after they found that long-term use of estrogen and progestin raised the risk of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, and invasive breast canc...

What is the prostate, and how common is the cancer? It's a walnut-size gland that lies at the base of the bladder and surrounds the urethra. In the United States prostate cancer is one of the two most frequently diagnosed cancers in men (the other is skin cancer), accounting for 10 percent of cancer-related deaths in men. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that one man in six will be diag...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

What's a breast biopsy? A breast biopsy is a procedure in which a doctor removes a small amount of tissue or fluid from your breast in order to examine it under a microscope for signs of cancer. Your doctor will usually recommend a biopsy if there's a lump in your breast or something suspicious on your mammogram or ultrasound scan. About 80 percent of biopsies show that no cancer is present. If t...

You may have heard that some genes put women at extra risk for breast cancer. If your mother, grandmother, aunt, or sister has had the disease, you may very well wonder if a breast cancer gene runs in your family. The first thing you should know is that only a small minority of breast cancers -- about 5 to 10 percent -- can be traced to specific mutations, and even having family members with bre...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, h...

Why do I need to examine my breasts? Finding a tumor before the cancer has spread to other parts of your body can mean the difference between life and death. Many breast cancers are first detected by women themselves -- and according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), women who are attuned to changes in their bodies are more likely to spot a suspicious lump. New guidelines issued by the ACS sa...

"Take a walk. Earn big money, up to 1.7 cents per step!" If I saw an ad making that claim, I certainly would find it hard to believe. But in the last few years I have learned that in the fight against breast cancer, small steps can indeed lead to substantial cash. More than 20,000 people know the power of walking and understand that the meager per-step earnings add up to a healthy sum that helps ...

Responsible breast cancer specialists advise their new patients to weigh their options carefully before rushing into treatment. If you have breast cancer, you're likely to need a combination of therapies. These will depend on the type and size of the tumor, your age, and the degree to which the cancer has spread. Take your time as you think over each option, and consider taking your partner, a fri...

Elizabeth Churchill began writing her blog in 2006 after a grapefruit-sized tumor wedged between her lungs was diagnosed as a malignant highly aggressive stage IV lymphoma. Before her cancer diagnosis, she was the author of a horticultural column, an avid weightlifter, and a homeowner with a beautiful garden north-east of New Orleans, Louisiana. Once she started treatment, she couldn't work, her ...

You've made it through many of the hard choices in your breast cancer treatment only to confront another major one: whether -- and when -- to have your breast (or breasts) reconstructed after your mastectomy. Some women want a fully reconstructed breast that looks as much as possible like the original. Others want a new breast that simply helps them look the way they like in a bathing suit. Still ...

What is radiation therapy? Radiation therapy, or radiotherapy, is the use of high-energy x-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. If you have external radiotherapy, the most common radiation approach, the radiation will be aimed directly at your tumor or, if it's after surgery, at the whole breast. Isn't the radiation dangerous? Radiation kills healthy cells along with cancer cells, so it...

When you or someone you care about has or is facing the possibility of breast cancer, it is natural to feel many bewildering and frightening emotions. No one wants to get sick at all. Certainly no one wants to get cancer. And there are kinds of cancers that seem particularly terrible, not only because of their death-dealing potential, but because they or their treatment hits us "where we live." B...

How are drugs used to fight breast cancer? Doctors use certain medications to help prevent breast cancer or, in combination with other therapies, to fight it and treat it. The kinds of drugs you'll take depend on what stage your cancer has reached, whether it responds to hormones like estrogen, whether you're resistant to any medications or treatments, and how well you tolerate the ones prescribe...

Cancer can happen to anyone. Still, a healthy lifestyle can definitely help push the odds in your favor. According to the Institute for Cancer Research, between 30 to 40 percent of all cancers are linked to poor diet and a lack of physical activity. If you've already made a pledge to avoid cigarettes, getting the right blend of nutrition and exercise is the next best thing you can do to avoid canc...

What is cervical cancer? The cervix is the opening of the uterus, and cervical cancer means malignant cells are found in tissues there. In the United States, it's one of the most common cancers, with around 11,270 new cases a year; it's also one of the most detectable cancers. This is because the pap smear, which gynecologists urge women to get regularly, checks the cervix for abnormal cells that ...

What is endometrial cancer? It's cancer of the lining of the uterus, a hollow pear-shaped organ in women in which a fetus can develop. (This lining is known as the endometrium.) Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer of the female reproductive tract, with an estimated 40,000 women diagnosed each year. Fortunately, it has a high cure rate. According to the American Cancer Society, the 5-year ...

What is ovarian cancer? It's a cancer that strikes a woman's ovaries, the small almond-shaped organs that produce and release eggs. Unfortunately, the disease is characterized by symptoms so subtle that they often go unnoticed until the cancer has spread elsewhere. Most women who develop it, in fact, get a diagnosis only when the disease is far advanced. About 15 to 20 percent of ovarian cancer pa...

To many people, the word "cancer" represents their worst nightmare. For Ken Lloyd, a 65-year-old former firefighter, the nightmare began with his father, who had prostate cancer, and a sister who had breast cancer. Lloyd knew his risk of getting cancer was elevated, because his job as a firefighter in Napa, California, had often exposed him to toxic materials. "Cancer rates in firefighters are fai...

A few days after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, Lynne Greabell got another surprise: She was also pregnant. Carrying a baby can be stressful business, especially when you're 38, hold down a full-time job, and already have a toddler at home. But carrying a baby while fighting cancer -- that's a challenge not everyone can handle. At least one doctor encouraged her to terminate the preg...

Do I have to wear sunscreen every day? You do, if you spend time outside and don't want to end up looking like a prune. Every day you go unprotected now may mean another tiny wrinkle later. Most sunscreens these days shield you from both ultraviolet A and B radiation. While UVB rays are the ones that cause sunburn, UVA rays penetrate deep into the base layer of the skin, where they break down the ...

Smoking is a dangerous habit -- and not just for people who light up. Secondhand smoke contains many of the same irritants, toxins, and cancer-causing compounds that plague smokers. If you spend any time in smoke-filled bars, restaurants, homes, or offices, you should know the facts about this health hazard. Take this short quiz to test your secondhand smoke IQ. 1. According to the best current ...

Health experts have warned for years that too much sun exposure can cause skin cancer, age spots, and wrinkles. With the rising rates of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, experts caution against sunbathing without protection against ultraviolet rays. But how much do you really know about protecting yourself and your family from the harmful effects of the sun? Take our quiz to find out...