They are called DES daughters, and they are the women who mothers took the anti-miscarriage hormone drug DES during pregnancy. It is estimated that millions of pregnant women were given this drug between the 1940s and 1960s, and it's now been determined that the daughters born to these women have not only an increased risk of a rare vaginal cancer but also nearly double the chance of developing breast cancer.

This sad finding has been addressed before but now more than ever, DES daughters are urged to stick to a strict breast cancer screening schedule.

A news brief published in the February 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping boldly reminds all women to comply with government guidelines that call for mammograms for all women every one to two years starting at age 40 and every year after the age of 50. But it's a different story for women exposed in utero to DES.

"If you were exposed to DES, be sure to let your doctor know and have a mammogram ever year, even in your 40s," says Julie Palmer, lead researcher of the DES study.

Sadly, another cancer death has occurred -- this one caused by leukemia and ending the life of Arthur Lee. Lee, eccentric singer and guitarist with the 1960s rock band Love, died Thursday at the age of 61. His death was shocking to many who knew him because he had the ability to bounce back from just about everything. Leukemia was usually no exception. But recently, Lee, who was diagnosed this year with acute myeloid leukemia, was not faring well after three rounds of chemotherapy failed. And despite a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord -- the first of its kind for an adult in Tennessee -- Lee could not overcome cancer.

Lee, a Memphis native, called himself "the first so-called black hippie." In 1965, he formed Love -- the first multiracial rock band of the psychedelic era -- and his groundbreaking albums featured a blend of folk rock, blues, and early punk. Lee is remembered for his hit singles My Little Red Book and Revelation, for influencing bands like Led Zeppelin and Echo, and for spending six years in prison during the 1990s for firing a pistol into the air.

After his release from prison in 2001, Lee formed a new version of Love and performed in Europe and North America. And then others -- like former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant -- performed for him this June in benefit concerts to raise money to help Lee with his medical bills.

Arthur Lee died in at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis -- with his wife Diane at his side.

During the late 1950s, Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women in many countries around the globe as an antiemetic to combat morning sickness. As it turns out, the drug, which had passed safety tests necessary to gain approval, was a nightmare of unimaginable proportion when it was discovered that babies born to mothers who took the drug suffered extreme birth deformities and missing limbs. Many of the babies did not survive the first year of life. If it were not for Frances Oldham Kelsey, a reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration, who refused to grant approval for a drug she knew was not safe, many babies in the United States would have suffered the same tragic fate. Thalidomide was pulled from the market when it became clear what was causing a sudden epidemic in birth deformities. The drug was later introduced in the treatment for leprosy.

Drug makers have found a new use for thalidomide, being marketed as Thalomid, in the approval for treatment of multiple myeloma -- a blood cancer. It sounds like everyone is being very cautious about this drug, and with good reason, given its history. According to reports, it will be strictly controlled to prevent pregnant women from access to the drug. Thalomid also will carry a black box warning about an increased risk of blood clots for multiple myeloma patients.