Wouldn't it be great if we could receive full-body scans every year to check for early signs of cancer and other disease? Even if possible and affordable -- right now, scans cost about $900 -- it still wouldn't be such a great idea.

Full-body scans often result in false alarms. People with harmless abnormalities may end up facing more tests, more risks, and more worry in order to rule out illness. The scan itself can present health hazards too. It exposes patients to more radiation than a chest X-ray and could slightly increase the risk of cancer, especially for those scanned every year.

How do we know, then, if something has gone awry in our bodies? Well, we can do our self-exams -- breast exams, testicular exams, skin exams -- and we can report for annual check-ups. We can respond to symptoms we experience -- if headaches are bothersome and persistent, your doctor may prescribe a head scan -- and we can pursue tests and screening that we really need for cancer prevention and early detection. Here are just a few:

I AM THE CURE is the Susan G. Komen new rallying cry. Intended to urge us to take an active role in our own breast health and remind us that we all play an important part in finding a cure, these are words to live by. I think I won't soon forget them -- because I have a new key chain inscribed with all four of them.

My aunt just participated in the Aspen Race for the Cure, and she sent me all the goodies she picked up at the race. She gave me the Ford Warriors in Pink scarf -- I've always wanted one and can't wait to wear it on October 20 when I run in my local Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event. She also passed on to me a race t-shirt, the sign she wore on her back -- in celebration of my beautiful niece Jacki, it read -- and pink ribbon magnets, sunscreen, a Warriors in Pink temporary tattoo, and all sorts of other little trinkets. The key chain was one of them.

My new key chain features four different sized pink metal circles, each one dangling from the key ring. On each circle, there is one word. From the smallest circle to the largest, the words I -- AM -- THE -- CURE appear. All on their own, these circles are pretty powerful. But there's more. On an insert that came with the key chain is an explanation for each circle.

Texas Longhorns running backs coach Ken Rucker will soon take a leave of absence, following his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer. Rucker will have surgery on August 27. He wll keep coaching until this date.

Rucker, a 33-year coaching veteran, fully intends on returning to coaching this season.

"I plan to be back this season," he says. "No doubt about it; 100 percent."

Rucker's prognosis is good -- thanks to early detection.

ABC's Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts is at home resting after a successful surgery for breast cancer. Pathology reports will take some time to pocess, but when more information is available, the public will be updated, says a Good Morning America spokesperson.

Roberts, 46, told her story recently in an e-mail.

I never thought I'd be writing this. ... I have breast cancer," writes Roberts.

Sure Touch is a unique digital sensing device that assists a physician or other health care professional in screening for breast cancer during routine exams. It can increase the chance of early diagnosis of breast cancer.

During the breast exam the device is placed on the breast and an image is then reflected on a computer screen. It produces a visual map of the breast and if a mass is detected it can show its estimated size, shape, hardness, and location.

A clinical trial published in the American Journal of Surgery says that Sure Touch more accurately determines if there is a mass and if the mass is cancerous than manual palpation alone. The study included 110 women who reported a mass in her breast. These women underwent palpation, then testing with Sure Touch, which was followed by ultrasound and mammography. Sure Touch identified the masses 94 percent of the time, while physician just feeling the breast identified masses 86 percent of the time.

Its always nice to hear about another tool that can be used to detect breast cancer! I hope physicians are taking advantage of this new technology.

I keep thinking about my ongoing negative relationship with the sun, how it burns me time and time again, how I keep trying to fine-tune my approach to dealing with this deadly force. Today, I have arrived at two new thoughts.

1. There was a time when I wanted a tan. I'd accept a burn even, in hopes it would turn to the slightest shade of brown on my pasty white skin. I would search high and low for the sun. I would drive in its direction, bask in its glory, give hours of my day to this crazy pursuit. Somehow, though, achieving a tan -- or burn -- wasn't easy. Sometimes, I'd see some color appear; sometimes my efforts seemed for nothing. It took work, effort, endless amounts of time and while my ventures in sunbathing did sometimes prove successful, there were many times I was left with, well, pasty white skin.

Fast forward to now. Not only do I seek shelter from the sun, but I use sunscreen, sit under umbrellas, and cover up whenever I can. Still, I get burned. It seems if I look in the direction of the sun, with my sunscreen-coated face, it will get burned. Long ago, my bare face only occasionally absorbed the sun. Why the change? Why when I worked not at all at protecting myself was it so hard to attract a golden glow? Why now do I protect myself in all ways possible and still sizzle? I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the chemotherapy drugs that poisoned my body for so long. A dermatologist once told me about a phenomenon called UV recall. The sun and the drugs can react, long after treatment has concluded, and can cause skin reactions. Maybe this is what's happening to me. Just in case, this gives me all the more reason to avoid all contact with the sun.

Shorter courses of radiation therapy may be in order for women with early-stage breast cancer. And the largest study to test this suggests the abbreviated treatment time in no way affects risk of recurrence.

Often, the greatest hassle of radiation is getting to and from appointments, every weekday, for many weeks. With less frequent visits, life could get a whole lot easier.

Dr. John Dewar of the University of Dundee in Scotland led a two-part study of nearly 4,500 women in the United Kingdom to test courses of radiation and found five years later that cancer recurrences were low -- about two to five percent -- for women who received both longer and shorter durations of therapy. There were so few recurrences -- 158 -- that doctors believe the treatments are equivalent. They just can't say this with certainty yet.

This is great news for patients traveling great distances to their treatment facilities. Other benefits of shorter radiation timelines are less swelling and shrinkage of breast tissue and less enlargement of blood vessels.

Why are many early-stage pancreatic cancers not treated with life-extending surgery? It seems that one of the reasons might be that physicians in general have pessimistic views toward all patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and are subsequently not being offered surgery.

There are instances where surgery is not an option but it seems that many cases, more often patients over the age of 65, African Americans, patients with lower incomes or those who are on Medicare or Medicade are passed over and not given this life-extending surgery and a chance for cure.

A study published this week by the Annals of Surgery said there is an under-use of curative resection for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatectomy is the primary treatment for early-stage disease. Over the years the survival results from this surgery have improved, giving at this time 19 percent of patients a five-year survival rate.

Women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who have negative lymph nodes can take advantage of a test known as OncotypeDX. This test is used to estimate the risk of cancer recurrence in women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Results presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology said that the test results changed the oncologist's treatment decisions in about 31 percent of cases.

The test is useful in determining which patients are likely to benefit from chemotherapy in addition to hormonal therapy. It can predict the risk of a patient experiencing a recurrence up to ten years following diagnosis. The patient receives a Recurrence Score that ranges from 0 to 100, the higher the score -- the greater risk of recurrence.

This a great way for oncologists to be able to give individualized treatment -- instead of one size fits all. It's important to get chemotherapy if needed but physicians don't want to over-treat and have the unnecessary risk of side effects from chemotherapy treatment if it's not warranted.

Ovarian cancer is hard to detect and is usually found in the advanced stages. It is the most deadly of all gynecological cancers. Transvaginal sonography (TVS) screening has been associated with detecting ovarian cancer at earlier stages of the disease.

TVS is a procedure used to examine the vagina, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, and bladder. An instrument is inserted into the vagina that causes sound waves to bounce off organs inside the pelvis. These sound waves create echoes that are sent to a computer, which creates a picture called a sonogram. The test is also known as a transvaginal ultrasound.

The researchers' findings appear in the May issue of Cancer. In the study, colleagues assessed the value of annual TVS screenings in over 25,000 women. Participants had to be at least 50 years of age with no cancer symptoms or at least 25 years of age with a family history of ovarian cancer.

As Skin Cancer Awareness Month winds down, I find myself hoping you have learned a thing or two about a disease that is far more common than we tend to believe, a diseases that in some cases is downright deadly.

The month of May will soon drift away. Skin cancer will not -- unless of course we make huge, swift strides in prevention. Until this happens, though, the best we can do is be vigilant about early detection. I have an idea. Well, an idea I'm borrowing from The Archives of Dermatology.

The idea: photography. Studies show patients who use photographs of their own skin for reference are better able to detect skin changes while conducting self-examinations.

The researchers don't seem to know why, but there is a decline in the number of women in the United States age 40 or older who have had mammograms over the last two years.

A study published in the journal Cancer says that during the period from 1987 to 2000, there was a steady increase in women receiving mammograms. They believe this to be somewhat responsible for the increase in breast cancer survival that occurred during that period. Supporting the phrase -- early detection saves lives.

They evaluate the trends in mammography use by a survey that is administered to 35,000 adults called the National Health Interview Survey. The current analysis focused on women who had mammograms in the last two years. The survey showed that in the year 2000, 70 percent of women reported they had a mammogram in the previous two years. In the year 2005, the number was down to 66 percent.

UK researchers have developed a 3D laboratory model of human breast cancer, specifically ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The model, complete with normal cells and tumor cells, should help experts understand how the disease develops in its early stages, and it could replace the need for experiments in animals.

About one in five breast cancers in the UK start out as DCIS. Researchers wanted to learn more about how the early cancerous changes in cells develop into larger tumors, and they chose to fashion a 3D test tube model because it is more complex than a layer of cells in a Petri dish.

Once this experiment is proved successful, it could reduce and perhaps replace animal studies.

"With breast cancer, there is an urgent need to move away from animal research models because their similarity to human cancer can be so poor," says one expert who explains this model could help revolutionize breast cancer research -- because unreliable research costs time, money, and lives, both animal and human lives.

Along the pike comes a new product designed to send us an alert when we've had too much sun.

Think about this:

There are some fun and fancy bracelets on the market that change color when it's time to seek shade.

UV Sol Beads, made with UV-detective pony beads and a removable fashion bead, feature off-white beads that remain off-white whenever there is an absence of UV light. When exposed to UV light, the intensity of the beads' color increases as the amount of exposure increases.

On Friday, President Bush re-authorized a federal program designed to help low-income women get screening for both breast and cervical cancer.

While funding has not yet been allocated for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, the President's support for this outreach initiative is considered by many a victory in the fight against cancer.

Bush, whose mother-in-law survived cancer, says "early detection makes treatment more effective. It gives hope to patients and it saves lives."

Currently, the government spends $202 million on this program and has reached three million women who may not have otherwise received screening. With the President's new stamp of approval, the program is authorized to spend up to $275 million.