Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers surveyed the parents of 636 children -- parents of 318 children that had been diagnosed with brain tumors and parents of 318 children who were healthy. Based on the knowledge that heat damages sperm, they asked the parents to try to remember the frequency of exposure to excessive heat -- saunas, hot tubs and electric blankets -- in the three months leading up to the conception of their child. If the average age of children diagnosed with the two brain tumors the researchers were focused on, medulloblastoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumors, then the parents were being asked to remember back on average four to ten years.

According to the researchers report, heat exposure among the men in the three months before conception appeared to be linked to brain cancer risk among the children. The researchers do conclude by stating that the idea that paternal heat exposure before a child's conception and increased risk of these childhood brain cancers must be considered speculative until more proof is found.

The last statement made by the researchers might be the most significant. Now that I have told you what BBC News is reporting about this study, which I assume the researchers in some form released to the news media, let me say I believe you could fly a space shuttle through the speculative link between heat-damaged sperm and childhood brain tumors based on a survey. How good is your long-term memory in recalling daily life four to ten years ago? How many ways can a man's sperm become overheated?

I hope in the case of this study, the news will come with a substantial and cautionary warning that it might very well be a connection of dots that do not connect. I can think of nothing more additionally painful for a worried father who is facing his child's cancer diagnosis, than to have it even suggested that his overheated sperm might be the reason for his child's suffering -- when in fact it might have nothing at all to do with his child's brain tumor. The only known fact about childhood brain tumors is that researchers are looking into environmental and genetic factors for clues, and there is little concrete evidence as to what causes childhood brain tumors.

Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher died Saturday of complications from a recent bone marrow transplant. Her health concerns began three years ago when she was diagnosed with polycythemia vera -- a rare disease that causes bone marrow to produce excess blood. Then last winter, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Her subsequent bone marrow transplant on May 16 cleared her system of cancer. But she developed graft-versus-host disease -- where transplanted cells start attacking the digestive system. A fever, a change in her potassium level, and a trip to intensive care prompted her husband to write on his blog Friday of her condition. He reported that if she remained stable, she would return to her previous hospital room and would work on recovering. But sadly, Butcher did not recover.

Butcher dominated the 1,100-mile sled-dog race from Anchorage to Nome in the late 1980s and brought national attention to the grueling competition. She won the 1986 race and became the second female champion -- and then won again in 1987, 1988, and 1990. She finished in the top four through 1993. Butcher also made headlines in 1979 when she helped drive the first sled-dog team to the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley -- the highest peak in North America.

Butcher, who ran her last Iditarod in 1994, grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was married with two daughters -- ages 10 and five. Butcher was 51 years old.

It seems like common sense to me -- that lifestyle choices can affect a person's risk for contracting cancer -- but apparently, many people are not aware of this. Or they are aware but are not heeding the advice that might just save them from this life-threatening disease. According to Carolyn "Bo" Aldige, president of the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation, in Alexandria, Va., it's not undiscovered treatments and therapies that are key to fighting off cancer -- it's likely that the toll cancer takes can be reduced by lifestyle changes and routine screenings. Aldige reports that nearly half of all cancer deaths are preventable. And she urges us to consider these facts.

• Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States and causes nearly one in five deaths, killing about 438,000 Americans each year. Yet 45 million adults still smoke -- 23 percent of them men and 19 percent of them women.
• Poor nutrition, inactivity, and obesity account for one in three of the 564,830 deaths from all cancers. Experts say that excess calories cause mutations that start genes traveling down pathways that cause cells to divide out of control -- and that's what cancer is. According to Aldige, if each person could magically acquire the perfect body mass index, there would be a whole lot less colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers.
• It requires little time and not much discomfort for certain screenings that can detect cancer at an early enough stage that it can be successfully treated. There are already screenings for breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, cervical cancer, and skin cancer. And soon, there may be a simple screening for lung cancer too.
• A diet rich in nutrients and vitamin supplements helps maintain health and prevent cancer.

There are some highly effective defenses against cancer -- but they require some attention and effort on the part of each individual. Not everyone will make health-conscious choices -- some for reasons out of their control (lack of access to screenings, for example) and some for reasons I personally do not understand. But maybe that's because I have already had cancer and I know that I don't ever wish for it to return. So for that reason alone, I plan to adhere to the considerations listed above. It seems like common sense to me.

"It's said that chemotherapy is like skiing in front of an avalanche. You do one thing wrong, and the avalanche is going to get you." -- Harvey Rushfeldt

Using the principles he learned in Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, helped Harvey Rushfeldt, 72, diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma last October, create a strategy for successfully living through the often grueling ordeal of chemotherapy. Rushfeldt sees both cancer and alcoholism as mortal threats and he approached his cancer treatments with the same 12 step attitude and perspectives alcoholics adopt on the one-day-at-a-time road to recovery.