Diahann Carroll, an actress who started her career back in the 50s, and Oscar nominee who has starred in such TV shows as Dynasty, will be reaching out to older women in an effort to raise breast cancer awareness and the breast cancer risks they face. Carroll, who was diagnosed at the age of 63, spoke with CBS The Early Show's Julie Chen about the shock of being diagnosed with breast cancer when she had no family history for the disease. At the time, she said she was much more concerned about preventing age-related diabetes and heart disease.

According to recent surveys, so are most postmenopausal women. The results of a new Harris Interactive survey of nearly 20,000 women revealed that only 37 percent of women 55 or older are concerned about developing breast cancer as they age. The findings also show that three out of every four women don't know that being over 50 is the greatest risk for developing breast cancer. In fact, most women believe that the greatest risk factors are having a family member with the disease and inherited genetic mutations.

Carroll has been hired by Eli Lilly as the spokesperson for the launch the Strength in Knowing: The Facts and Fiction of Breast Cancer Risk campaign and website created to educate postmenopausal women about the real breast cancer risk factors. In the new fall TV season, Carroll will become a part of Grey's Anatomy. She would not give Chen any details. You can watch The CBS The Early Show interview with Carroll here.

If you count yourself among the working poor, or one of the vanishing middle-class in a constant struggle to make ends meet, do not read this -- it is not going to cheer you up.

The most significant and unavoidable risk factor that increases the chance of being diagnosed with cancer is the aging process. The older we get, the more susceptible we are to developing cancer. Because of this fact, research into the aging process, how we age, and why we age -- even if the research is not specifically looking at the link between aging and increased cancer risk -- still might one day provide some insight into the potential for reducing cancer risks associated with aging.

MyCancerPlace is a new cancer community website where cancer patients can give and receive support, learn from the experiences of others, and share information. Modeled after the popular MySpace, MyCancerPlace is the first time this social technology has been used to create an online community  where members in their 50's, 60's, 70's and beyond -- whose lives have been touched by cancer -- can create a free web page with text and photos.

Michael Horwin, founder of Cancer Monthly, launched MyCancerPlace. The Horwin's motivation to create quality resources for the cancer community is a strong one. Michael and Rafaele Horwin's 2-year-old son Alexander died of brain cancer in 1999.

According to the Horwin's, "After doctors administered what they said was the best treatment available, and despite the risk of side effects including infection, heart damage, lung damage, deafness, infertility and a second cancer, just to name a few, we trusted the doctors when they said this was the best option. Alexander's cancer quickly spread through his entire body, and he died four months later. We were horrified and angry to later discover studies that showed the same chemotherapy had hastened the deaths of hundreds of other children the same age with the same brain cancer."

The Horwin's say had they found this research earlier, they would have made different treatment choices. MyCancerPlace is another resource for cancer patients to discover information and explore options in cancer treatments and survivorship, and to connect with others facing the same struggles with cancer.

This Father's Day, as part of Major League Baseball's Prostate Cancer Foundation's Home Run Challenge, the seventh-inning stretch will be moved to the sixth inning to symbolize that one out of six men in the country will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. In addition, players, managers, coaches, trainers, umpires and groundskeepers will raise awareness and show support by wearing blue wristbands, blue ribbon uniform decals, blue eye glare and temporary blue ribbon tattoos.

"People are starting to age. We're just trying to make sure that people are aware of how important it is to get the message out and have guys talk about it, because as men, sometimes we're reluctant to talk about health issues," states Home Run Challenge spokesperson Ozzie Smith. "Being part of the baby boomers, this falls right into our lap. It's important to at least make an effort to make people more aware of how important it is to get checked. When we talk to them when they're 40 to 45, by the time they get to 50, they'll be ready to take the plunge to get things done."

See, you could take your dad to a ballgame and he could learn all about the need to be screened for prostate cancer without you trying to find a way to work the subject of your dad's prostate into conversation. For some, that conversation might be an easy one to have with dad. But for others, saying "Happy Father's Day and have you thought about your prostate lately," might seem awkward. Does Hallmark even make a card for that conversation? A day at the ballpark seems a clever solution.

From the Homer Simpson D'oh Research Institute comes the results of a study ... No, wait. I'll start again. Baby boomers are aging. The largest percentage of cancer diagnosis occurs in the older population. When it comes to cancer, it is a true and unavoidable fact that the older one gets, the greater the risk for developing cancer.

One day, with continued advancements in prevention and research, that fact might change. But for now, that is where we are in the reality of cancer risks. The baby boomers, a generation born between 1946 and 1960, are reaching, in mass, people of a certain age. Old age. Don't say that to them. Baby boomers decided, upon reaching 40, that 40 was the new 30, and 50 was the new 40. But you can't fool mother nature, and like it or not, we are all getting older. The first baby boomers turn 60 this year.

Which brings me to the point of the isn't it obvious study from the Homer Simpson D'oh Research Institute.

With the healthcare system in crisis now -- with public and private providers scrambling to figure out how to pay for all the cancer treatments needed for all the patients who have been diagnosed with cancer now -- what is the future of healthcare going to look like, say in ten more years, as significant numbers of baby boomers continue to age and more get sick from age-related life-threatening diseases -- specifically cancer?

When it comes to baby boomers, it is difficult to predict. Since coming of age in the 1960s, they have influenced the cultural landscape as no other generation. They are, as a whole, innovatively affluent, and have in subtle ways, already begun to change the healthcare system. An example is the marketing hospitals do to attract baby boomers as patients with amenities unimagined in previous decades. Some hospitals now serve wine with the hospital meal.

Baby boomers are the premiere paradigm shifters. If there is no change in the current system, we are in terrible trouble in the next ten years. It will be interesting to watch how the baby boomers decide to define and shape the approach to health issues that old age brings. 

Disclaimer: The Homer Simpson D'oh Research Institute is an imaginary facility that does not conduct research because it doesn't exist in real life.