When my father was diagnosed with end-stage esophageal cancer, I'll never forget what a (very) distant acquaintance who lived in the same apartment building said to me. I ran into her in the hallway and she said that she had heard about my dad's illness and she was very sorry. Thank you, I said, so am I. Then she asked the question.

"Did he smoke?" Thud went my heart, as it sank.

I believe there is a difference between policy and people. As a nation we should do all that we can from a public health perspective to reduce the risk of cancer, including encouraging and offering incentives to people to improve their health through lifestyle changes, including quitting smoking.

However, when it comes down to the individual level, to a real-life person, does it really matter if someone who is afflicted with cancer puffed away or ate crummy food or drank themselves silly? Do we still not hope and pray for their recovery? Do we not mourn them if they die?

Back to the question. The one stopped me in my tracks as I acted my way through my day in the fog of anticipatory grief.

"Did he smoke?"

Looking back, maybe she was just curious.

Or maybe she was seeking reassurance.

Reassurance that the monster that is cancer wouldn't happen to her, wouldn't kill someone she loved.

That I couldn't give her, regardless of my answer.

Pizza just might have the power to fight cancer -- not the pizza loaded with cheese and pepperoni and tons of tempting toppings, the kind that may have your mouth watering at this very moment. But a version of pizza as we know it may fend off heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

The secret is in the crust -- the cooking of the crust, that is.

Think about this:

It seems baking pizza faster and at higher temperatures can release disease-fighting antioxidants. And it's this one small change to pizza preparation that has scientists at the University of Maryland claiming there is such a thing as a healthy pizza.

Scientists baked pizza at 500 degrees for six minutes and were able to increase antioxidant levels 100 percent. They used whole wheat dough, already high in antioxidants, and let it rise overnight before using their hotter, quicker cooking approach.

One researcher says this study is more a lab curiosity than anything else and might not really lead to a healthier pizza -- because it's unlikely pizza joints will change cooking methods to turn out healthier products.

If you are tempted to try this technique, be aware that the toxin acrylamide can be released if the pizza is baked too long. And don't forget to cut way back on those tasty toppers.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivered a commencement speech at Stanford University on June 12, 2005. It was about following curiosity and intuition, about looking back and connecting the dots in life, about beginnings and endings, about death. Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, knows a thing or two about facing death. And the words he chose to relate his life-threatening experience to a crowd full of hopeful graduates are powerful and inspiring. I could paraphrase his message -- but surely something would be lost in my translation. So here is a bit of what he said -- word for word.