The Lori Arquilla Anderson Foundation for Brain Cancer is promoting awareness of the life threatening effects of brain tumors, advocating on the behalf of cancer patients and raising funds for medical research. LAAF is dedicated to making a difference towards finding a cure.

You can read more about Lori's diagnoses, treatments and cancer journey here. Sadly Lori passed away on July 4, 2005. She was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, one of the most deadly brain cancers.

This organization keeps Lori's memory alive and reminds us also to -- live, love and laaf.

Daniel Sieberg, science and technology correspondent for CBS News and blogger for Tech Talk recently went searching for online sites offering help and hope for those seeking insight into the world of cancer.

Sieberg went about his search by typing into Google the word cancer. Thrown back at him were more than 250 million results. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and misinformation, Sieberg sifted and sorted through everything that faced him -- and he narrowed down the results to his favorite five.

Sieberg is right on with his picks, and while I personally would have included The Cancer Blog as a source loaded with accurate, reliable, and inspiring information, I still commend Sieberg for so effectively hunting down some very good cancer resources. For what it's worth, I happen to highly recommend them myself.

American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute
WebMD
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Leroy Sievers Blog

Simply being female puts all women at risk for breast cancer. That and age, race, family history, personal history, genetic make-up, when they had children, when they reach menopause, and a whole host of other possible factors.

Now U.S. doctors are officially calling body mass index, breast density, and alcohol consumption predictors of the disease, says Therese Bevers, medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center, at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Bevers helped write updated guidelines for the prevention of breast cancer and presented them at the 12th annual National Comprehensive Cancer Network in Hollywood, Florida on Friday.

The guidelines, featuring the revised list of risk factors, also offer treatment options for women -- including bilateral mastectomy for women who have tested positive for the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 as well as possible medical treatments with drugs such as tamoxifen and raloxifene.

Cancer patients who have heart attacks are typically not treated with a course of life-saving aspirin because of the belief that these patients might experience lethal bleeding.

This belief is now under dispute and researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center say that without aspirin, the majority of these patients will die. Their arguments, subject of a recent study, will be published in the February 1 issue of the journal Cancer.

Aspirin has been viewed as harmful because of its tendency to thin blood. Because cancer patients can experience low platelet counts and abnormal clotting, aspirin has been considered a contraindication. But this study found that nine of 10 cancer patients with low platelet counts who experienced heart attacks and who did not receive aspirin died. Only one patient died, however, in a group of 17 cancer patients who received aspirin.

This conclusion -- that aspirin helps people with cancer just as it does for people without cancer -- may help medical professionals determine guidelines for treatment of heart attacks in cancer patients. Because right now, physicians are uncertain about how to balance treatment for both conditions.

There may be another explanation for the recently announced decline in breast cancer rates. And it's not nearly as promising as the first explanation may be.

A day after researchers announced that the significant drop in breast cancer cases is primarily due to fewer women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), some experts suggest breast cancer rates are not dropping at all. Just as many women may have breast cancer, they say. They just aren't being screened for it.

"We have been aware for several years that the number of radiologists who specialize in mammography have been decreasing, and that there are places in the United States where women have difficulty getting access to mammography," Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, wrote on the society's blog just after the public announcement.

"If mammography use has reached a peak and is now decreasing, we may actually be diagnosing fewer cancers when they can be most effectively treated, Lichtenfeld said. "If you don't get a mammogram, you don't diagnose a cancer."

The research linking the decline in HRT to the drop in breast cancer came from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and was discussed at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio on Thursday. The research, based on a report by the National Cancer Institute, showed a seven percent drop in new breast cancer cases between July 2002 and August 2003, corresponding with the results of a 2002 Women's Health Initiative study.

With media reports citing HRT as the direct cause of the drop, some worry the public is getting the wrong message -- specifically women still taking hormones or those who have taken them in the past. While women not taking hormones are breathing a sigh of relief, others are in a panic.

Dr. Katherine Sherif, director of the Drexel Center for Women's Health at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, has spoken already with 15 patients worried about this news.

"What I have told them is that three years is too short of a time to measure the effects of a drug on breast cancer," she said. "Cancers take decades to develop, and conversely, withdrawing hormones could not result in a decrease in breast cancer in three years -- it's actually absurdly short." There are also concerns women will experience anxiety about other therapies using estrogen, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The study on HRT and breast cancer may be raising more questions than answers -- which could be a good thing. More questions prompt more investigation, more study, more research. And this will hopefully help us figure out one facet of the mystery of breast cancer.

Previous posts on the topic of HRT and breast cancer are as follows.

• HRT use drops breast cancer rates drop
• Hooray for HRT!?
• HRT and smoking dramatically increases breast cancer risk
• HRT increases breast cancer risks

Mammograms are offered at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center. They are also offered on M.D. Anderson's self-contained 38-foot van containing a LoRad MIV mammography unit. The van travels to various workplace sites where employees and clients can jump on board the van for a mobile mammogram.

Hartford Hospital's Take the Time mammogram van travels to clinics, churches, senior centers, and other Connecticut locations where women can easily access life-saving screenings. The University Breast Health Center in Augusta, Georgia is home to a mobile mammography program that reaches underserved women unable to report for on-site visits. Lexington Medical Center in South Carolina offers mobile mammograms. Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization affiliates offer their own traveling screening services. And a mobile mammogram service was offered on Kent State University's campus during this October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Mammograms on the go are no different than mammograms at fixed locations. They are high quality, safe, confidential -- and typically speedier than the traditional screening procedure. Often, a woman knows before she departs that her image is technically accurate. She can ask questions and receive information, and she can expect a prompt call from the radiologist or her physician who will discuss results. Sometimes, mobile mammograms take as little as 20 minutes to complete.

Mammograms are recommended for women age 40 and older and for women with a personal or family history of breast cancer. As with all medical services, there are barriers -- such as awareness, cost, transportation, convenience -- that prevent access for some people. Mobile mammograms help drive away barriers. They allow more women more access to the best tool for identifying breast cancer in its earliest form.

Roll on, mammogram vans!

Living Fully with and Beyond Cancer is an annual conference hosted by the Anderson Network. Cancer patients, family members and caregivers can join together to share hope, support and understanding.

The conference will be held on September 7-9, 2006 at the Houston Marriott Westchase.

The Anderson Network is a unique cancer support group of more than 1,300 current and former patients who know what you're going through and can help. The members are living proof that no matter what your diagnosis and treatment, there is always hope, and a chance to live fully each day.

Back in June, when Pamela Anderson stood nude in the window of fashion designer Stella McCartney's London clothes shop to bring attention to PETA, she was making a statement she would rather go nude than wear fur. Anderson chose to deliver that message in a way certain to be heard. It was an outrageous stunt but it worked -- and whether you tsk-tsk or applaud her effort, Pamela Anderson and PETA made headlines around the globe that day.

It worked for the global cosmetics company Avon in Bulgaria this week, when in a continuing effort to raise awareness for breast cancer, they launched an eye-catching public campaign using three well-known sexy celebrities of Bulgaria. Posing in a larger-than-life banner hung outside the National Art Gallery in Sofia, the three beauties stared back at passers-by with a suggestion that when the large pink ribbon covering the women in the banner in just the right places came down, the public would be in for a nude shock.

As it turns out, when the pink ribbon was pulled down, the bare-shouldered bare-legged smiling women in the poster -- television star Natalia Simeonova, pop diva Maria Ilieva and film actress Koyna Rousseva -- were holding up pink tees with a breast cancer message printed on them.

Will the public or the paparazzi ever tire of sexy or the hint of nudity or actual nudity? No -- and I am not suggesting they do. Only that this type of campaign risks becoming cliche. If I were head of a large organization with a goal to raise awareness in eye-popping ways, I would hire the brightest, most innovative and creative minds in the advertising world, and let them create something intelligent and fresh and new. But for now, Pamela Anderson and Avon know what works -- and they work it.

Despite tensions between the United States and the Middle East, Laura Bush announced Monday a plan to raise breast cancer awareness in the Middle East -- first with partnerships with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and later with Morocco and Jordan. Joining forces also with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and Johns Hopkins Medical Center, the First Lady outlined a plan that will allow governments, hospitals, researchers, and survivors to work globally to defeat breast cancer. Campaigns specific to each country will target research, training, and community-outreach programs. The reason for this partnership -- to raise awareness in countries where women are too embarrassed or too uninformed to seek treatment -- stems from compassion and human decency and a desire to form diplomatic friendships too. Laura Bush, whose own mother is a breast cancer survivor, shared that the tragedy of losing a loved one to breast cancer -- and the joy of watching a loved one survive this same disease -- is felt universally. Breast cancer affects all women in all countries. Borders make no difference in this matter. And helping save lives is the right thing to do.

I went to a yoga class once -- it was when I was bald from chemotherapy because I remember wearing my wig and hat and hoping desperately that nothing would topple off my head while I stretched and balanced and folded my body into various positions. My bald head did stay covered and I was able to depart from the class with my dignity intact -- but for some reason, I never went back for another yoga class. Perhaps it was the difficulty I had relaxing while trying to manage the security blanket that masked my bare head. If I ever have to do it again, I think I will leave my hair and hat at home so I can give my undivided attention to the yoga experience -- which is becoming more and more recognized for its healing power.

New findings from a pilot study reveal that women going through treatment for breast cancer feel better, sleep better, and have less fatigue when they practice yoga. Side effects of treatment also seem to fade as a result of this ancient discipline. Lorenzo Cohen, a psychologist, led researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and studied 61 women undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Thirty women were placed in a test group and took yoga twice per week for six weeks. The others did not take yoga. Once the study was complete, the participants completed questionnaires grading their physical abilities -- ability to lift groceries, walk a mile, and complete other physical tasks -- and also their feelings about fatigue, sense of well-being, and quality of life. The yoga group consistently scored higher on almost all physical components. No difference was found between the groups in the areas of depression or anxiety.

There is no doubt that exercise contributes to a healthy lifestyle in general. And it seems yoga is no different. Focused on meditation, imagery, controlled breathing, stretching, and physical movements, yoga is sure to benefit breast cancer patients. And I think I need to give it another try.