Apparently the movie In the Land of Women is playing somewhere in the United States -- it was released on April 20 -- but I can't seem to find it in my area. I want to find it, though, because it stars actress Meg Ryan as Sarah Hardwicke, a woman rediscovering herself as she recovers from breast cancer.

Breast cancer is not the main theme in this movie. It's mostly about a successful writer, played by The O.C.'s Adam Brody, who loses a girl, moves to a new town to care for his grandmother, and finds a new girl. Her mom is Sarah Hardwicke.

I learned about this movie just today while reading an interview with Meg Ryan in the May 2007 issue of Redbook.

To honor and support former 1995 Hooters Calendar Cover Girl, Kelly Jo Dowd, who is battling a recurrence of breast cancer that has spread to her organs and bones -- during the 10th Annual Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant in Las Vegas, Hooters gave her a check for $135,000 and announced a $1 million dollar breast cancer research grant in her name through the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Dowd, who is 40, successfully went into remission the first time she was diagnosed with breast cancer, only to have the cancer return, is the only woman to climb Hooters restaurant chain's corporate ladder from waitress, to manager, and to general manager. She is also the proud mother of golfing teen phenom Dakoda Dowd.

The V Foundation was launched during the last year of NC State basketball coach and ESPN broadcaster Jim Valvano's life, when he was diagnosed with metastatic adenocarcinoma, and told he had a year to live. He spent the last year as an advocate in raising cancer awareness by sharing his personal experience as someone facing life and death with cancer. Valvano's message in the fight against cancer was "Don't Give Up ... Don't Ever Give Up!"

Dowd is fighting for her life, and Hooters has stepped in to help her, and other women facing breast cancer and fighting for their lives, in never giving up in the battle.

The topic of my hair is often the subject of conversation -- and is a constant reminder that this brown curly hair I have covering my head is nothing like the straight blond hair I was born with, grew up with, was known for. Because my little boys have white blond hair, I am consistently asked by strangers, "Where did your boys get that blond hair?" "From me," is what I want to say because it's the truth -- but that would make no sense to anyone who does not know me, anyone who does not know that my hair -- that once looked much like my boys' hair -- was lost to chemotherapy and returned shockingly different. So sometimes I just chuckle in wonder with these strangers who may not expect an answer anyway. Or I tell them the story -- if they seem to really want in on the details of the mystery. Most people are surprised that my hair grew back like it did. I am not surprised -- I was warned that it might happen -- although it is still a startling discovery each time I look in the mirror, each time I look back at photos, each time I see gray hairs emerging through my dark hair -- gray that only slightly showed up in the midst of my blond locks.

The memory of my blond hair keeps popping up. My husband told me the other day that he had a dream about me -- I was in a restaurant, at a table, by myself. He was walking toward me. And I had blond hair. The rest of the dream is insignificant. The blond hair is significant. And the other day, I pulled my brush out of my purse. It hasn't been used in more than a year -- because I don't brush my curls at all -- and at the base of the brush, wound around the bristles, were long blond strands of hair. My blond hair. My old hair. The same hair I showed my friend who visited from Ohio last week -- the hair that was once on my head, was cut off in preparation of the great fallout, and is now kept in a ziplock bag.

I like my brown hair. I like my curls. But I miss my blond hair. I am sad that I no longer match my children, that I don't look like the bride in my wedding photo, that I will attend my 20-year high school reunion in two years and will wear a photo name tag that looks nothing like me. I like the familiar -- which is why I never wanted to show my bald head, why I covered my head with blond wigs and hats to keep my appearance as close to normal as possible. And then in a strange turn of events, my hair grew back in an unfamiliar fashion -- and somehow the question, "I see where your boys get that blond hair" flip-flopped into "Where did your boys get that blond hair?" It is all still new to me. I know one day it will become familiar and normal and not such a big deal. Some day. I hope.

In an earlier post, we told you about one of our favorite organizations, The National Breast Cancer Coalition, NBCC, hosting the first annual Golden Boob Awards. No one likes a group who misrepresents the truth to promote a private agenda, and this year's nominees more than qualify in that regard. When it comes to fighting breast cancer, hidden agendas are particularly heinous. The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is a nominee for threatening the integrity of serious efforts to find ways to prevent, treat, cure, and ultimately end breast cancer. Mark For Life is a nominee for trying to make money from a product with no real impact in the fight against breast cancer.

To date, The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer has received 86 percent of the vote as the biggest boob of the year. Voting ends July 4th, and if you haven't voted, you still have time. If you feel you know of an even bigger boob that deserves this award, the NBCC is also taking nominations at the Golden Boob Awards site. You can vote -- or submit your nomination -- here. Remember, July 4th is the deadline. If you have already voted, send a message, tell a friend.

Update 12.17.2006: The winner of the Golden Boob Awards as the biggest boobs is ....

In woman with fake boobs has real health worries, Busty and bothered wrote to women's medical health expert Dr. Judith Reichman asking if her breast implants will rupture during a mammogram or if there is a possibility that the implants will obscure signs of breast cancer. Dr. Reichman, who is NBC Today show's medical contributor on women's health, responded that both are valid concerns for the over four million women who have had breast augmentation. According the doctor, there were only 41 cases of implant ruptures during mammography reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between June 1992 and October 2002.

As to breast implants obscuring mammography readings, implants can cause a 15 to 50 percent decrease in the mammographically visualized breast tissue and several studies have reported false negative mammograms -- those that missed the cancer -- in 12 to 67 percent of women with breast implants. So, it's a bit of good news and bad news but women with breast implants should not put off having mammograms because of fear that the implants will be damaged or that there is no point in having a mammogram because there is a possibility the implants will obscure the early signs of breast cancer.

We have all heard the theory that a cure for cancer has already been found but it is being concealed by the cancer community who stands to lose money if the status quo shifts from treatment to cure. Most of us have spent at least a few moments contemplating the validity of this allegation. Cancer is big business, and as is the case in all big business, decisions are often made with the bottom line of profit in mind. However, the Daily Record ran a feature about Sue McLaren, a young scientist who accepted a research position with the Leukemia Research Fund to study myeloma -- a blood cancer -- that might put into perspective why the conspiracy theory doesn't have legs.

At the time of her appointment to the job, McLaren admits she knew little about myeloma. A few months into researching this cancer, her father was diagnosed with myeloma. For McLaren, what was an academic pursuit became a personal one, as she raced to find a cure for the cancer that was now killing her father. Ultimately, time was not on her side, and her father lost his life to myeloma. It is a touching story, and you can read the feature It was too late to save her beloved father here. I think McLaren's story illustrates why a cure for cancer could not be concealed for long -- if there was one already in existence. The big business of cancer and the cancer community is made up of people, and people get cancer. Or their loved ones get cancer. You are not going to agree to be part of a conspiracy that shoves you into a position of watching someone you love die from a disease -- if there is a cure. 

The big business of cancer is ... well ... really big business. Right now, in Chicago, academic and business leaders in the life sciences industry are convening at the four-day Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual convention, billed as the red-hot industry's information-packed extravaganza of networking and marketing. At the McCormick Place Convention Center, 33 states and 22 countries and regions are represented during business meetings, 200 panel discussion sessions, networking opportunities, luncheons, gala receptions, parties and 30-minute meetings that are a form of speed dating with potential commercial partners.

According to the reporter covering the event, the convention becomes an international media circus, with politicians showing up looking to gain support during election years, as well as groups of protesters taking issue with the use of biotechnology to alter the genes of humans, plants and animals.

There are pavilions set up with whiskey, wine, beer, and even an oxygen bar to entice a visitor's attention and create buzz during the convention. Actor Richard Roundtree, cancer survivor, spoke at the convention last year. Musical artists Patti LaBelle and Melissa Etheridge and golfer Arnold Palmer have appeared as speakers. This year, former President Bill Clinton and NBA legend Magic Johnson will be featured speakers. Quite a shindig, but there are millions and millions of dollars at stake. Medicine is big business -- very big business indeed. How this translates for the cancer patient can be worrisome, if treatments are motivated primarily by the competitive nature of commerce and big profit. A peek inside the convention is very revealing.