Jimmy Walker, former Providence College basketball star and first pick in the 1967 NBA draft, died Monday of lung cancer. He was 63.

Walker played three seasons at Providence and held a school record with a total of 2,045 scored points. His record stood for 38 years. Ryan Gomes surpassed his total in 2005.

"He was an amazing phenomenon," says Jim Cox, who played with Walker in 1964. "That he ended up at Providence College was a remarkable development. He was so good, so blessed. He was ahead of his time."

Walker, father of NBA player Jalen Rose -- part of Michigan's Fab Five of the 1990s -- was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and averaged 16.7 points a game in nine NBA seasons. At one time, Walker and Rose held the NCAA Division I record for most career points by a father-son duo.

Of 1,500 foods tested in a University of Oslo study, blackberries were identified as nature's top cancer fighter.

Blackberries apparently have the highest antioxidant content per serving of any food tested. And a compound found in fresh blackberries appears to stop the development of skin tumors and lung cancer cells.

Think about this:

This sweet and juicy fruit, available year-round but plentiful and perfectly potent in April and May, was promoted in a television commercial that aired during the recent Michigan-Ohio State football game.

Ohio State University is a recipient of federal grants to study the health effects of blackberries, and the student who appeared in the TV ad plugged the school's research into the cancer fighting effects of blackberries. Now that's some good press.

Researchers have made a stem cell discovery that may help treat pancreatic cancer -- one of the deadliest forms of the disease.

University of Michigan scientists have found cancer stem cells in pancreatic tumors that appear to drive cell tumor growth and could lead to the development of drugs to target and kill these cells.

Pancreatic cancer kills 97 percent of people diagnosed with the disease within five years. Half of all diagnosed patients die within six months of diagnosis, and this cancer -- that spreads quickly and is rarely detected at an early state -- kills 33,000 each year in the United States alone. So any improvement in the study of this disease is a true gift.

"The clinical implications of this work are significant," said Dr. Diane Simeone, director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Centre and lead author of the study, published in the journal Cancer Research.

"We've made baby steps in improving the survival in these patients -- on the order of a few months (longer to live) -- over the past decade or so. But we really haven't had a major breakthrough in coming up with something that has the potential to provide a cure," she said.

Simeone says killing these cancer stem cells is like pulling out the root of a weed. And she says the best way to pull out the root is to target these stem cells instead of the traditional approach of shrinking tumors by killing as many cells as possible -- an approach that may be flawed because cancer stem cells tend to resist standard therapies.

A clinical study involving 1,000 prostate cancer patients was stopped this week by Southwest Oncology Group in Michigan due to concerns the treatment may have caused leukemia in three of the participants.

The men in the study received the chemotherapy drug mitoxantrone, thought to possibly improve survival rates for those with poor prognoses following prostate surgery. But before results could be measured, leukemia struck and researchers halted the study, declaring the leukemia findings "an unacceptable risk to patients."

While the assumption is that the drug caused the leukemia -- a disease commonly associated with children and the elderly -- it's still unproved at this point.

Mitoxantrone is not a worthless drug, say some experts. Since its release a decade ago, it has been used to decrease bone pain for men with advanced prostate cancer and to treat multiple sclerosis and, ironically, adult leukemia.

I started my breast cancer treatment under the care of one oncologist. And then in a search for more warmth and compassion, I landed in a new relationship with a new oncologist. He offered me just what I was seeking. Plus something I didn't expect.

My new oncologist offered me a new treatment plan -- a new course of action that better suited my specific disease.

U.S. researchers reported yesterday that breast cancer patients were urged to change their treatment plan more than half the time when they received a second opinion from a multidisciplinary panel of surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, radiologists, and pathologists.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center believe second-opinion changes are a result of different interpretations of breast imaging and pathology results, consideration of new techniques and treatments, discovery of undiagnosed second cancers, and emerging medical research.

It wasn't a formal multidisciplinary team that delivered me a new, better opinion for my own cancer care. It was one man, who merged instinct and science and then consulted a well-know oncologist friend who agreed with the approach I ended up following.

I am thankful for everything I gained from my second opinion -- the warmth, the compassion, the treatment plan that has served me well for two years.

Hayes Green Beach Memorial Hospital in Michigan is forming a new group for breast cancer survivors in Eaton County. The new group that has a slogan of Survive is an action verb! will launch with a focus on several projects.

The Chemo Cab project helps with transportation for patients going to chemotherapy treatments. The Progressive Journal project will include a special handcrafted book that will pass from person to person throughout the year and be brought to meetings. The pages will be filled with individual stories that provide encouragement, while also being humorous and hopeful. The Hope Chest project is similar to the journal. The chest will be filled with stories, artwork, poems and various other items that patients can take or leave to offer inspiration, hope and support to each other.

The kick-off meeting on June 19 at 6:30 p.m. in room A of HGB's Trumley Education Center, an explanation of how the message Survive is an action verb! will be realized. Breast cancer survivors and their guests are encouraged to become a part of a growing and influential group.

For more information, contact Barbara Fulton at bfulton@hgbhealth.com or (517) 543-1050, ext. 1208.