Ever wonder where your money goes when you make a charitable cancer contribution? Well, here's the lowdown on how the Susan G. Komen Foundation spends their donated funds.

For 25 years, this world's largest and most progressive grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists has allocated 33 percent of all dollars for research and awards, and 29 percent for education. Fifteen percent of donations are spent on screening, eight percent on fundraising, and eight percent on administration. Finally, seven percent goes towards treatment.

Komen professionals say they are extremely careful about how they spend the dollars entrusted to their care. And that makes me happy.

There's so much more to life than money. At the same time, the daily grind definitely depends some on this coveted staple. For one man, whose life did depend on money, it could have been everything. But it wasn't.

Think about this:

Wayne Schenk won $1 million in the New York lottery on January 12 after purchasing a $5 scratch-off ticket. His jackpot win came just five weeks after his diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer was delivered. His one wish: to receive a lump sum so he could receive specialized treatment for his advanced disease.

Lottery officials claim they were sympathetic but just couldn't give him a lump sum. The best they could do was issue him $50,000 annual installments for 20 years.

Schenk, 51, only survived for a little more than one year. He died on April 23 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Syracuse. At the time of his death, he had received just $34,000.

So money isn't everything. But could it have been?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has something important to say about the sugar substitute aspartame.

Think about this:

Italian researchers concluded in 2005 that aspartame causes cancer. But Laura Tarantino of the FDA Office of Food Additive Safety concludes after a review of the study data that the low-calorie sweetener is not a carcinogen.

A similar review by the FDA's European counterpart agrees. There is no evidence this substance, used for 25 years to sweeten soda, gum, dairy products, and some medications, causes cancer.

Italian researchers say they will release their latest aspartame study results on Monday.

California Democratic Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald has been diagnosed with cancer and will take a four to six-week leave of absence from the House.

Details about the congresswoman's condition have not been revealed but a statement from her office reports, "The congresswoman has been diagnosed with cancer and is recuperating with her family. The congresswoman wishes to thank everyone for their expressions of love, well wishes and prayers. She will maintain a limited schedule in her district and is requesting respect of her privacy at this time."

Millender-McDonald, 68, has been representing for seven terms a Southern California district that includes Compton, Long Beach, and parts of Los Angeles. She is also chair of the Committee on House Administration and oversees House operations and federal election procedures.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will take an additional three months to review Wyeth's kidney cancer drug Torisel -- the first of five new medications the company plans to introduce this year.

The FDA needs more time to investigate data on tumor growth in patients taking Torisel. If all goes well, the drug will be one of only three to effectively hold off incurable kidney cancer. The other two drugs are Pfizer's Sutent and Bayer AG's Nexavar.

Robert Ruffolo, president of Wyeth Research, says he is encouraged by the review process so far. And he is optimistic about launching the product in late 2007.

Studies show Torisel, which will cost patients about $30,000 per year, prolonged survival by 50 percent in those faring poorly with kidney cancer. The sickest kidney-cancer patients were essentially kept alive for 10.9 months, compared with 7.3 months with interferon drugs. Torisel also postponed tumor growth for 5.5 months. This is 77 percent longer than with interferon.

Sutent and Nexavar, both on the market since last year, also slow tumor growth. All three kidney-cancer medicines are of the variety that block the growth of cancer cells -- different from standard chemotherapy which kills tumors and harms nearby tissues too.

Wyeth is relatively new to the oncology market. And soon, the company hopes to launch three more cancer drugs. One, called CMC-544, treats non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Another, SKI-606, is for chronic myelogenous leukemia. And the third, HKI-272, is for breast cancer.

About 51,000 Americans will be diagnosed with kidney cancer this year.

The Human Papillomaviruses (HPV) vaccine called Gardasil can protect from the infection of four types of the HPV virus. Two of these types cause up to 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer.

Recommendations were released by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding the use of Gardasil. The FDA approved Gardasil in June 2006.

The role of ACIP is to advise the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about vaccine usage and vaccine-preventable diseases.

The recommendations published by the ACIP:

• Recommended age for routine vaccination of girls is 11-12 years.
• The vaccine can be given to girls as young as 9 years.
• Catch-up vaccination is recommended for girls and women between the ages of 13 and 26 years who were not vaccinated previously or who did not complete the full vaccine series (the vaccine is administered in three separate doses).
• Routine cervical cancer screening remains important following vaccination.

The ACIP's recommendations can influence policy and practice, but are not directly linked with school and daycare entry laws. These laws are made by individual states.

Doctors prescribing anemia drugs for patients with kidney disease and cancer were urged by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday to carefully dispense of these drugs due to an increased risk of death and other serious problems, such as blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks in patients with chronic kidney failure and rapid tumor growth in patients with head and neck cancer who receive doses higher than recommended.

The potentially harmful drugs, sold under than brand names Procrit, Epogen, and Aranesp, are genetically engineered versions of a natural protein -- called erythropoietin -- that increases the number of red blood cells. The drugs, with combined 2006 U.S. sales of $10 billion, are commonly used for patients with certain forms of kidney disease and for those receiving chemotherapy for cancer.

The FDA is adding warnings to the drugs' labels that will strongly instruct doctors to use the lowest possible dose needed to help patients avoid blood transfusions.

The FDA will also take a close look at how the drugs are marketed, including claims the drugs can improve the quality of life.

A meeting of FDA officials to further discuss this issue, believed to stem from drug overuse by dialysis centers and oncologists who make more money by using more of the drugs. is scheduled for May 10. Recommendations could lead to additional revisions of the drugs' labels.

There are sometimes silver linings to the darkest of cancer clouds. I know -- because I have the dark cloud of HER2 positive breast cancer hanging over my head. HER2 positive means the tumor removed from my breast was aggressive. It aggressively over-expressed a protein that accelerates tumor growth. And it led to a poor prognosis -- that might be considered a good one too.

You see, research on the whole HER2 issue is turning up some pretty powerful potions. Like Herceptin -- the drug that miraculously cuts recurrence upwards of 50 percent for positive women like me. I was a lucky recipient of this drug. And the pharmacist who mixed the drug for all 17 of my infusions tells me it's really a good thing I have this HER2 problem -- because the drugs created to attack the problem may just cure me of my disease.

So in an odd turnabout -- from bad luck to good fortune -- I am not so sad my tumor was aggressive. It means there are bonus treatments for me. And if my cancer comes back and Herceptin no longer works, there is another drug called Tykerb. And now the Army is leading its own breast cancer vaccination study. The focus -- HER2.

Early study results from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. suggest a 50 percent reduction in disease recurrence for HER2 positive women who receive a vaccination of AE37.

AE37 targets HER2 and boosts the body's immune system so it can battle the protein before it stimulates growth. It's similar to Herceptin, but the activity of AE37 stimulates a patient's own immune system to recognize the cancer target rather than interacting with the target directly.

Should the Food and Drug Administration decide to support this study, it will proceed to Phase 3 testing, which includes a much larger pool of participants.

The breast cancer drug Tykerb may be one of the future wonder drugs available for women left with limited options for treating advanced-stage disease.

Tykerb, manufactured by British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, is currently an experimental drug that delays growth of tumors nearly twice as long as standard chemotherapy in patients who no longer respond to Herceptin -- a targeted drug that significantly decreases chances of recurrence for women with HER2 positive breast cancer. Herceptin blocks the swift growth of an aggressive protein on the cell's surface while Tykerb does its work on the inside of the cell. Herceptin is given intravenously. Tykerb is given in pill form.

Two previous posts -- one in April and one in June -- relfect the progress of Tykerb as reported in the media. With each new report, Tykerb seems to gain momentum and promise. And this past week, new reports revealed new promise as Glaxo began seeking regulatory approval of the Tykerb pill in Europe.

Glaxo has filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration for approval of this drug and is preparing to market the drug for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in women. Glaxo hopes to launch Tykerb -- also known as lapatinib ditosylate -- next year.