Testing for oral cancer just got much easier -- a new method of testing for the disease will soon be available. The testing method can be done in a medical office and uses lab-on-a-chip microfluidic technology to determine a diagnosis. Furthermore, the test is fully automated and can be completed in a mere 10 minutes.

The test was developed at researchers at the University of Texas (Austin) with funding from the NIH. Here's how it works: Cells from the mouth are mixed with fluorescent marker proteins, illuminating any suspicious cells. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me. Now if we could only make other cancer screening as painless and quick ...

My sister has skin cancer -- the basal cell variety. She has two spots, both on her chest, each one scheduled to be surgically removed in a few weeks. If it were me with this new diagnosis, I'm sure I'd be freaking out, maybe because I've already had breast cancer and tend to panic about any cancer or maybe just because I'm a worrier by nature. But my sister is taking her cancer news in stride, and I am too -- because now that I've done a little research, it seems this type of cancer is pretty easy to beat.

Here's a little refresher lesson on the skin: The skin is the largest organ in the body, and is made of three layers -- the epidermis (top layer), dermis (middle layer), and subcutis (deepest layer). For the purpose of this post, let's focus on the epidermis.

The epidermis has three layers -- an upper, middle, and a bottom layer. This bottom layer is comprised of basal cells. This is where basal cell cancer begins.

What is a sentinel lymph node?

www.breastcancer.org explains it well:

The dictionary defines "sentinel" as a guard, watchdog, or protector. Likewise, the sentinel lymph node is the first node "standing guard" for your breast. In sentinel lymph node dissection, the surgeon looks for the very first lymph node that filters fluid draining away from the area of the breast that contained the breast cancer. If cancer cells are breaking away from the tumor and traveling away from your breast via the lymph system, the sentinel lymph node is more likely than other lymph nodes to contain cancer.

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer my head was spinning when my surgeon offered me to participate in a clinical trial. The trial would put women in two groups. One would have just the sentinel node removal and the other group would have a full axillary dissection.

We're still basking in the hot sun, bronzing our bodies in tanning beds, and playing outdoors without slathering on the sunscreen. What will it take, I wonder, for our society to catch on, to take real steps toward preventing skin cancer?

It seems education isn't enough. Most of us know by now all it takes is one bad sunburn to increase our risk of skin cancer, yet we continue to collect burn after burn after burn. Perhaps like all habit-forming behaviors -- think smoking -- it takes something tragic in our lives to inspire change. When someone we know gets lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking or someone we know develops melanoma after years of sunbathing, maybe we get the hint. Maybe

Now, I know you don't personally know this young woman -- she calls herself Miss Melanoma -- but I suggest you read her story. And I recommend you take what happened to her -- she lost part of her foot to melanoma and is currently battling a spread of the disease -- and allow it to really sink in, allow it to motivate you to take cover from the sun, before something like this happens to you. Because it can.

Borderline pathology of a core needle biopsy for breast cancer seems to mean that its in a grey zone between benign diagnosis and a cancer diagnoses.

In an issue of the British Journal of Cancer it states that one-third of breast core needle biopsy (CNB) specimens with borderline pathology prove to be malignant.

Dr. Nehmat Houssami and Dr. Stefano said in an interview with Reuters Health "We want physicians to keep in mind that a CNB diagnosis of a borderline lesion is not 'negative' for cancer, and on the contrary, it is flagged that further management/treatment step is needed."

The article also states that the information to the patient should be balanced. Yes, this could be breast cancer but to reassure a bit ( I don't know if this would actually make me less anxious) but approximately one in three will actually be malignant and the other two will prove to be benign.

Take home message: Read you pathology report, get help understanding your pathology reports and make sure if the results need to be investigated further that you push for it.

And oh yes, I have been in that wonderful position pictured -- wasn't all that bad. That time it came back benign!

A reader posted a comment on one of my blogs and asked "What tests positively determines prostate cancer?" It prompted me to do a little research. 80 percent of men over 70 years old will get prostate cancer. That is a devastating statistic. A lot of times in the medical field diagnosing something requires a multitude of tests to rule out things and to get a better diagnosis. Such is the case for prostate cancer.

There are several tests used to diagnose prostate cancer. Blood tests, rectal exams, rectal ultrasounds, needle biopsy, and cystoscopy. A high level of PSA in the blood can be a sign of prostate cancer. PSA is a protein produced by cancerous prostate cells. With a rectal exam your doctor can feel for lumpy or a hard prostate. If a lump or hardening is found then most often they will do a needle biopsy to examine under a microscope. A cystoscopy is an examination of your bladder and uretha but can help determine several types of cancer and not just bladder cancer.

With all kinds of cancer, it is important to stay up to date with yearly exams for prevention. I hope this information helps.

My gut hasn't always guided me through life's most difficult decisions and dilemmas. It wasn't until I felt a lump in my breast more than two years ago that my gut kicked into gear and told me something very important.

"It's cancer," my insides told me one week before the surgeon who did my biopsy called.

"It's cancer," the surgeon said. I didn't tell him, but I thought it: "I know."

I also knew prior to surgery that my cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes. My gut told me this too. It also told me the chemotherapy drug Taxol was not right for me -- since my cancer had not spread -- despite the urging of one oncologist that I accept this treatment. I would have gone on gut instinct alone in my rejection of this medication but another doctor weighed in and agreed with my gut, so I had solid backing on this decision.

Many have dismissed hunches like these and have written off those who believe in them as screwballs, says writer Chip Brown in the March 2007 issue of The Oprah Magazine. But as Brown shares after peering into the world of gut instinct, there are 100 million nerve cells in the gut. They run on autopilot, regulate digestion, play a critical role in the body's immune system, and control mood-altering neurotransmitters identical to those in the brain.

The gut is essentially a second brain. It was a "gut feeling" that led Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, to begin exploring the possibilities of overnight delivery and Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, to begin mass marketing coffee. Wall Street professionals make millions on their gut feelings, sportscasters make startling predictions based on gut guidance, and entrepreneurs launch thriving businesses because of the inklings that rumble in their tummies.

You may or may not be a gut thinker yourself. But I've stumbled upon a gut exercise -- thanks to psychotherapist Nancy Napier --and I'd like for you to consider it the next time you find yourself stuck at a crossroads, unsure of where to turn. You never know, the direction you seek may be swirling around in your midsection, just waiting for a call to action.

Think about this:

You are wavering between two choices. Find yourself a quiet, serene place where there will be no disruptions. Now sit down. Take a moment to settle and focus on the issue you want to explore. Then choose one side. Think about this side and notice what happens in your gut. Do you feel a tightening and gripping or a softening and warming? Are the sensations pleasant or uncomfortable? Notice your thoughts. Are they positive or negative? Give yourself some time to feel your gut and your mind responding.

Now shift to the other side. Think about the previous questions, and try to chart what your body gut is saying.

While you may not get a gut answer at first, if you come back with the question several times, you'll likely hear just what your gut wants you to know.

A new PSA density test may help identify men at high risk of developing prostate cancer.

The test, used after a biopsy finds no signs of life-threatening prostate cancer, can compare the size of a man's prostate to his levels of a cancer-related protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

Even though both men with high and low PSA densities can have clean biopsies, studies show it's men with very high PSA densities who are at greatest risk of developing prostate cancer. This and the fact that biopsies can miss between 20 and 33 percent of tumors makes this new test a potential breakthrough for the prevention and detection of prostate cancer.

Battling cancer can at times feel like slowly paddling upstream against currents that are both forceful and unforgiving. Sometimes reprieve comes only when we find others in the same boat, others submerged in their own rough waters, others who truly know what it's like to navigate a dreadful disease.

I am lucky -- in an odd sort of cancer way -- because I had breast cancer. Many women have breast cancer. And while this really is a horrible fact, it makes for a great sea of support. At times when I felt I was drowning in cancer, I reached for my lifeguards -- the women who paddled before me, the women paddling alongside me -- and they coached me, guided me, saved me from one the worst side effects of cancer. Isolation.

I have rarely felt isolated in my cancer journey and as a result, I have not thought much about this lonely cancer consequence. But I am thinking about it now -- thanks to a reader who has courageously shared her story with me, in hopes of locating someone in her same boat, in hopes of creating connections with other survivors who share the challenges of her disease.

Tanya has anal cancer. She was diagnosed one year ago -- during a routine colonoscopy -- with squamous cell carcinoma in-situ in her anal canal, on the wall between the anus and vagina. Previous abdominal discomfort, much like dull menstrual pain, preceded Tanya's screening but she was sure it was due to menopause. She was 53 at the time.

But it wasn't menopause. It was cancer. And it was devastating for Tanya who was spared radical surgery in exchange for a combination of radiation and a chemotherapy called the Nigro Protocol. First came a mitomycin push followed by four to five days of 5-Fluorouracil. Radiation came next -- for six weeks -- and then Tanya endured another round of the same chemotherapy regimen.

"The treatment was brutal," Tanya says. "By the end of the sixth week, I was in a lot of pain, especially since the affected area had a lot of traffic and could not exactly be decommissioned and allowed to heal."

Although she was told by her oncologist she tolerated her treatment well, Tanya says it was pure hell.

Tanya's treatment ended in March and an August biopsy revealed she is doing just fine. Her cancer appears to be gone. What is not gone, however, is the discomfort that still plagues her -- both physically and emotionally. And while the physical scars are simply terrible -- she feels pain during urination and bowel movements and is currently unable to have intercourse with her knight-in-shining-armor husband -- the emotional isolation is overwhelming distressing.

"I have not shared this experience with too many people since I feel awkward discussing that part of my anatomy and because the condition is so uncommon," Tanya says. "I would, however, be most grateful to discuss any or all of this with someone who has been through the same experience."

If you have been in Tanya's same cancer boat, have paddled similar waters, or know someone with whom she might connect, please consider contacting this brave survivor at sultana@cyberight.net.

Cancer of the esophagus is one of the fastest rising cancers in the United States -- but the common screening test, both expensive and risky, is not widely used. Thankfully, a newer option, around since the mid-90s, is quicker and easier and is catching on around the country.

Trans-Nasal Esophagoscopy (TNE) is the better option, and it works like this: a doctor numbs the nose, inserts a thin, flexible tube -- no bigger than a pencil -- through the nostril and into the esophagus, removes a bit of tissue for biopsy purposes, takes a few pictures, and pulls the tube back out through the nostril. The patient gets to watch it all on a monitor and gets to depart from the procedure with no ill effects.

Traditional esophagus cancer screening involves a similar tube that is inserted through the mouth. Due to the gag reflex, patients are sedated. While there are often no complications from the procedure itself, the intravenous sedation can cause problems.

"You don't need those risks to see what's going on," says one doctor, who reports that esophageal cancer responds very well when caught early by tools like TNE.

Researchers have pioneered the first technique to biopsy tissue from the living eye in order to predict what tumors possess a high chance of spreading to other parts of the body.

If the eye cancer metastasizes the patient will usually not survive the disease. Ocular melanoma attacks the pigment cells in the retina. Earlier studies discovered that patients who are missing one copy of chromosome 3 in their tumor tissue are more likely to have highly aggressive cancers.

This new procedure could offer huge medical and psychological benefits to the patients. Dr. Tara Young, assistant professor of ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute and a Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher, said "Identifying patients at high risk for metastasis is an important first step toward reducing the death rate of this cancer, which kills nearly half of its patients."

The technique of fine needle aspiration for collecting cancer cells from the living eye has been the standard of care at the Jules Stein Eye Institute since 2004, but adopted by only a handful of other ophthalmic centers in the nation.

Ocular melanoma is the most common eye cancer to strike adults. Some 2,000 cases are newly diagnosed every year in the United States and Canada.

Patients want to know about their prognosis. The patients that have a low chance of metastasis can breathe a sigh of relief and the high risk group can plan arrangements for their family and finances. The high risk group might also want to have more aggressive treatment and join a clinical trial to find better treatments to treat metastatic eye cancer.

Touch imprint cytology (TIC) lymph node assessment during breast cancer surgery could prove to have advantages over the current standard lymph node assessment. TIC can be important to the breast cancer patient because usually the results from the lymph node dissection can take up to a week. It causes a lot of anxiety and stress waiting to find out if the breast cancer has metastasized to the lymph nodes. TIC would provide immediate results during the sentinel node extraction.

An economic assessment that was published in the November 15, 2006 issue of Cancer says TIC is less costly than standard lymph node assessment. They studied the cost effectiveness of the two techniques and found that especially in larger tumors TIC is more effective.

A new urine test can tell the difference between an enlarged prostate or prostate cancer. This test from Gen-Probe is not approved in the United States but is approved in some European countries.

If a man has a noncancerous condition of the prostate a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tumor marker test can rise. This rise in the PSA test can lead to a biopsy of the prostate. This biopsy is the only way to determine if the PSA test is picking up a cancer or an enlarged prostate that is not cancer.

The urine test is different because it detects genetic material--RNA--from prostate cancer gene 3 or PCA3. PCA3 is only found in the prostate and when the cells become cancerous the cells express more PCA3 RNA than normal cells. It is independent of the PSA test and works differently to detect cancer.

This test is not designed to replace the current PSA tumor marker but it can do something that the PSA cannot. It can be a separate tool used to determine if cancer does exist. Its not a perfect test but it can help out a few situations. If a man has a low PSA but wants some extra reassurance without getting a biopsy this test could be added along with the PSA. Also, it can help men that have a negative biopsy but a rising PSA decide whether they would like a second biopsy.

Urine tests are already used to detect bladder cancers and some kidney cancers so this test could provide the patient and the doctors with more information and better decision making tools.

The ultrasound technique called elasticity imaging might be able to reduce the amount breast biopsies given to patients. It works almost like a regular ultrasound examination of the breast except it is much more sensitive. The technique gauges how much tissue moves when pushed to detect how soft or stiff the mass is in the breast.

The study that was done showed that all 17 of the imaging studies thought to be malignant were found to be malignant after a biopsy was done. It also identified 105 out of the 106 benign lumps in the breast. From this study it suggests that elasticity imaging is 100 percent sensitive and 99 percent specific.

This could turn out be another useful tool used along with mammography and breast MRI's to detect a cancerous lesion in the breast. I, however, will always want a lump biopsied since I know that is the only way to know 100 percent whether it is malignant or benign.

(Thanks to Patti Anastasi for the tip)

The doctor who recently read my mammogram films and maneuvered her ultrasound wand over every inch of my breasts could not find one darn thing wrong with anything in her view. I wasn't worried that she would -- but it's still a relief to know that for now, I am fine.

It was two years ago, November 19, when this exact doctor sent me for a biopsy of a mass her same ultrasound wand detected. She did not know at the time the mass was a cancerous tumor, but she did know it was suspicious enough for further investigation. And so she sent me on my worried way, and the result of my biopsy -- cancer -- cemented our life-long relationship as doctor and patient.

Every six months I see this doctor for a mammogram and ultrasound. And when I find myself freaking out about something breast-related, I call her and she fits me into her busy schedule. I know she is there for me when I need her. And she knows I will always be there for her -- every six months and sometimes in between.

While I really like my doctor, I do hope I don't see her until May 15 when I report for my next mammogram appointment -- because with our kind of relationship, less is truly more.