OK, women of the world. Grab some paper and a pen and jot down this list of seven check-ups every woman needs. Don't just write them down, though. Make sure you take action on each and every one. They might just save your life.

1. Start with your weight, height, and BMI (body mass index). The scores you get on these simple tests are important because many conditions and diseases are associated with being overweight or underweight.

2. Check your blood pressure, and find out where you stand because hypertension is a disease with no symptoms. High blood pressure puts you at risk for cardiovascular disease -- but there are very effective treatments for this condition.

HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are at a much greater risk of developing 20 different types of cancer than the general population, according to research led by Professor Andrew Grulich from the University of New South Wales' National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) and published in The Lancet.

The research suggests that immune deficiency, which is common to the two types of patients, is responsible for this increased risk of cancer.

HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are more likely to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is associated with the Epstein Barr virus and a number of cancers associated with the human papilloma virus. According to the researchers, for other cancers which are not linked with viruses such as breast and prostate, the HIV/AIDS patients and kidney tranplant patients had rates similar to the general population.

It's not yet clear if the drug Gardasil, the vaccine intended to prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV) in females, is effective for men. But some men are signing up for the chance to take the drug.

Gay and bisexual men in San Francisco are asking their doctors for the vaccine with hopes it will prevent anal and penile cancer, also caused by HPV.

"The prevalence of anal cancer among gay and bisexual men is very high," says Jason Riggs, spokesman for the STOP AIDS Project. "So that's why some people are looking at this as a possible preventive cure for anal cancer and HPV that causes anal cancer."

Anal cancer occurs among gay and bisexual men at a rate 35 times higher than that of the general population. And it occurs more in those infected with HIV.

Antiretroviral drugs, used to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child, are now believed to cause genetic damage in infants. This damage, leading to an increased risk of developing cancer, makes it highly plausible these children may be diagnosed with the disease in mid and late adulthood.

Two new studies indicate there are cancer-causing effects of transplacental exposure to AZT, an antiretroviral drug. These effects -- like increased incidence of tumors and tumors with genetic changes -- have been demonstrated in mice and rats and seem to be cause for concern in humans too.

"The cumulative mutagenesis data suggest that infants exposed transplacentally to AZT may be at increased risk for cancer as they age," said one researcher, whose findings are published in Environment and Molecular Mutagenesis.

Devastating blood born fungal infections that can be lethal for cancer, HIV/AIDS, and organ transplant patients may be treated more successfully, thanks to a new drug delivery method of Amphotericin B developed by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Because the oral form of the drug is easier to administer and cheaper than intravenous delivery more patients would have access to the medicine. Amphotericin B deoxycholate (AmBd) has been the gold standard for the treatment of systemic mycoses for the past 5 decades. The intravenous form of the drug caused severe kidney toxicity as well as serious tissue damage at the intravenous injection site. This research was triggered by clinicians needing a way to kill these fungal infections without risking the patient's kidney. The new form can be can be taken by mouth with minimal side effects boosting effectiveness and dramatically reducing toxicity.

It was effective in treating candida albicans an infection prevalent in HIV/AIDS and cancer patients receiving chemotherapy,and can cause symptoms ranging from cough to brain damage. Research funding for this project was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada's major agency responsible for funding health research. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 10,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada.

Cervical cancer was once the most common cancer in women. But between 1955 and 1992, the number of cervical cancer deaths dropped by 74 percent -- thanks to increased use of the Pap test, a screening tool that can find changes in the cervix before cancer develops and can also detect cancer in its most curable stage. The Pap test is still widely used. And the cervical cancer death rate continues to drop four percent every year.

In 2006, about 9,700 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. About 3,700 women will die from the disease. Non-invasive cervical cancer is believed to be four times more common than the invasive form of the disease. Nearly all of these cases can be cured.

Cervical cancer typically occurs in women between the ages of 35 and 55 and rarely in women under the age of 20. It affects mostly Hispanic women, and African-American women develop the disease 50 percent more often than non-Hispanic white women. Women most as risk for cervical cancer are smokers, those with HIV or chlamydia infections, those with diets low in fruit and vegetable consumption, those who between 1940 and 1971 took the hormonal drug DES, and those who have taken oral contraceptives for extended periods of time. Women who have had multiple pregnancies, have a family history of the disease, and have a low socio-economic status are also at risk. Those most at risk, however, are women with human papilloma virus.

Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most common risk factor for cervical cancer, and some experts believe a woman must have HPV to contract cervical cancer. There are 100 different types of HPV, 13 of which are likely to cause cervical cancer through sexual contact. There are usually no symptoms of HPV, but possible signs of cervical cancer can include vaginal bleeding, unusual discharge, pelvic pain, and pain during sexual intercourse.

There are two ways to stop cervical cancer. First, women can protect themselves against HPV. Protection comes in the form of delaying sexual activity, limiting the amount of sexual partners and their partners, using condoms (thought to be 70 percent effective) and receiving the cervical cancer vaccine, recommended for use in females ages 11-26. The vaccine is most effective for women who have never been sexually active. Second, women can receive regular Pap tests in order to catch pre-cancers. Pap tests are recommended for women three years after their first sexual encounter and before the age of 21 -- and then every year after that.

An abnormal Pap test typically prompts a colposcopy -- a technique that uses a scope to examine the cervix. Diagnosis usually stems from a combination of other scoping methods, pelvic exams, imaging tests, and biopsies used to confirm the presence of cancer and to stage the disease. Stages range from 0-4.

For non-invasive cervical cancer, surgery -- ranging from removal of the cancerous tissue to hysterectomy -- may be the only treatment necessary. For invasive forms of the cancer, surgery is often followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Women interested in preserving their fertility should discuss options with their physicians.

The state of cervical cancer has come a long way over the years. And this year, two critical developments emerged. In June 2006, the FDA approved the first drug for late-stage cervical cancer. The drug, Hycamtin, is recommended for use in combination with chemotherapy. Also is June, the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, was released. Both developments are monumental -- and both will undoubtedly help decrease the already-dropping cervical cancer death rate.

For more information about cervical cancer, visit the following sites:

American Cancer Society
Mayo Clinic
Medline Plus
National Women's Health Information Center

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer. The HIV drug called lopinavir attacks the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer. The University of Manchester team said that a cream can be made to apply directly to the cervix to kill the HPV virus.

There are cervical cancer vaccines being developed but if you already have the HPV virus then the vaccines won't be of any good. Most women that know they have HPV have to get regular Pap smears to test for abnormal cells in their cervix. Since we know that HPV can lead to cervical cancer it is watched closely. This cream if developed can lower the amount of surgeries to be performed on patients with abnormal Pap smears. The doctors would be able to use the cream to kill the HPV virus before it starts to cause malignant changes in the cells of the cervix.

The article also states that since the drug is already approved or treating HIV it might only take a few years for the drug to be available.

The Center for Caregiver Training is developing web based education courses for AIDS/HIV and cancer caregivers that offer practical skills to manage and cope with the responsibilities of being a caregiver. Caregiving 101 has three completed modules of lessons -- Learning About the Disease; Working with Your Medical Team; and Building a Personal Support Team.

To make the most of the time spent visiting with the doctor, one of the lessons in the Working with Your Medical Team module is How to Be Prepared for a Ten Minute Doctor's Visit.

Here are some of the tips included in the lesson:

• Always maintain an up-to-date medication list that includes all prescription and non-prescription items taken.
• Keep a journal of information that the doctor feels is important. This might be weight, temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and level of pain.
• Between visits, make a note of any unusual symptoms experienced in the journal. This might be night sweats, nausea, lack of appetite, insomnia, fatigue, confusion or anxiety.
• In the journal, jot down questions you might have for the doctor as you think of them.
• Bring the journal with you when you take your loved one to visit the doctor.
  

Other modules in development are Finding Help in the Community, Tools for Life as a Caregiver, Daily Care at Home, Managing Medications, Maintaining Nutrition, Managing Symptoms & Side Effects, Managing Pain and Coping With Mental Changes.

While the effectiveness of a seaweed extract acting as a potent inhibitor of human papilloma viruses, HPV, that can lead in some cases to cervical cancer, has not been tested in any human clinical trials -- in the lab it has impressed the National Cancer Institute researchers who have been studying it.

According to researchers, carrageenan extracted from marine red algae (seaweed) showed a thousand-fold greater potency compared with other inhibitors they have tested in halting HPV.

Dr. John Schiller, senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, who was involved in the development of the HPV vaccine, made the carrageenan discovery.

Schiller cautions that the results do not prove that carrageenan will work as a practical HPV topical microbicide. However, the positive results in the lab, together with the fact that carrageenan-based over-the-counter products are already available -- make carrageenan look even more promising to researchers in blocking the sexual transmission of HPV.

The new cervical cancer vaccine is effective for about 70 percent of the HPV viruses that can cause cervical cancer. It is also an expensive vaccine that might prove cost prohibitive for low-income women in economically distressed countries. The researchers think, if carrageenan proves as effective in human clinical trails as it has in the lab, the inexpensive carrageenan could be a significant benefit in the prevention of HPV.

One researcher, Dr. Connie Trimble, an HPV researcher at Johns Hopkins University, feels so positive about the recent advancements and discoveries in relation to cervical cancer that she said, "With all the potential tools now, we could really start to think about the end of cervical cancer. Between the vaccines and some of the prophylactics -- wouldn't that be a medical success story!"

Researchers have discovered that a cancer-causing virus manufactures a protein, called HBZ, that helps the virus not only infect immune cells but also allows the virus to survive and thrive in the infected immune cells. The human T-cell leukemia virus type 1, HTLV-1, is a retrovirus and a distant cousin to HIV, the cause of AIDS.

According to Ohio State University Comprehensive Center and the College of Veterinary Medicine researchers, 15 to 25 million people are infected with HTLV-1 worldwide, and one to four percent of them will eventually develop adult T-cell leukemia or lymphoma, a cancer that does not respond well to treatment and can cause death within six months after diagnosis.

"Our study is the first to show that this novel protein is important for survival of the virus, which suggests that a drug that targets it might disrupt viral replication and provide a new therapy for infected people." I wonder if one day it will be determined that virus is the cause of many cancers? Researchers seem to keep coming up with data suggesting the prevalence of numerous viruses and the link to various different cancers.

Let's say you do not work in the scientific or medical fields but someone told you that you just might be the one to find a cure for cancer -- would you say -- no way! It's possible. From the comfort of your own home, while you are cooking, or sleeping, or taking a shower, a cure for cancer could be found because of you. If you have a computer, Internet access and a willingness to share your unused time online, a project called Rosetta@home, can use it for biomedical research.

Rosetta@home is working to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that might ultimately lead to finding cures for some major human diseases, including cancer. According to Rosetta@home, by running the Rosetta program on your computer while you don't need it you will help them speed up and extend research in ways they cannot possibly attempt without you. In a process called distributed computing, the project takes a massive calculation, break it into chunks, and send the chunks across the Internet to be processed by tens of thousands of personal computers. Then all the bits and pieces are retrieved and the information reconstructed at a central computer. For more information on becoming a part of this innovative project, visit Rosetta@home.

A new study of the leading causes of death to patients who live and cope with HIV, and taking the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), infection and cancer remain the top two. In The Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes of the February 1st, 2006 edition it states that  infection is continually the leading cause of HIV patients. Cancer is the second leading cause of death, and has maintained this ranking since 1997. All cases of  HIV patients taking HAART fell dramatically since the induction in 1996. It must be noted that these studies are compiled from a study population who have access to free HIV medication, open access to medical care, a low rate of drug use and hepatitis C co-infection.