Wednesday, May 16 is this year's LIVESTRONG Day. Spearheaded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), this day is a grassroots initiative intended to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about the disease on a national level and in local communities.

Want to LIVE STRONG on Wednesday?

Think about this:

• Wear yellow. Encourage co-workers, friends, family members, and neighbors to do the same.
• Hold a candlelight vigil in honor of those affected by cancer.
• Say something special at church, a work meeting, a luncheon, a playgroup.
• Volunteer at your local hospital.
• Plant flowers or a garden in honor of cancer survivors.
• Visit this search tool and find official LIVESTRONG Day events in your area. Check here for a listing of all planned events in all cities.
  
• Get to work on next year's LIVESTRONG Day. Stop by the LAF website for more information.

Back in the news: the link between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer. This time, the connection is seemingly more conclusive than before, when some argued that many factors influence the risk of breast cancer, that HRT could not do the job all on its own.

Now, two separate studies offer up powerful evidence that HRT is linked to tumor growth. Case in point: when use of the therapy drops, so do incidences of breast cancer.

New figures in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest there have been 16,000 fewer cases of breast cancer nationwide since mid-2002, when women stopped taking their hormone pills following the federal Women's Health Initiative announcement connecting the therapy with increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, and heart attack.

Many did not want to believe HRT was to blame for so many breast cancer diagnoses. And maybe it's not the actual cause of the disease, but the fuel for tumors trying to grow.

These new findings do not appear to be a statistical fluke, says one doctor. Numbers have been computed and re-computed, and the message is clear: HRT is strongly implicated as the guilty party. There is just no other culprit, says a statistician at the National Cancer Institute.

Wyeth, maker of Premarin and Prempro -- two forms of hormone therapy -- continues to caution women against drawing any conclusions about HRT and breast cancer. There still may be broader explanation for the decline in cases, say their spokespeople.

Patrick Dempsey may play a doctor on television's Grey's Anatomy but in real life, he is much like all of us -- especially when it comes to caring for a loved one with cancer.

Dempsey's mother had cancer, received treatment for the disease, and has been surviving for nine years. Yet memories of the journey, and the overwhelming process of it all, are fresh in his mind.

"It's overwhelming because it's like, there's too many options sometimes," Dempsey said. "It's like, well, why should I believe the doctors? Shouldn't I get a second opinion? Shouldn't I find a specialist?"

Dempsey recalls feeling naive and childlike and powerless in many ways. And now, partnering with Breakaway from Cancer -- a support initiative founded in 2005 -- he is helping others take control of life with cancer.

"You need a support system in to encourage you, to get you up and out of bed in the morning," Dempsey said.

There may be another explanation for the recently announced decline in breast cancer rates. And it's not nearly as promising as the first explanation may be.

A day after researchers announced that the significant drop in breast cancer cases is primarily due to fewer women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), some experts suggest breast cancer rates are not dropping at all. Just as many women may have breast cancer, they say. They just aren't being screened for it.

"We have been aware for several years that the number of radiologists who specialize in mammography have been decreasing, and that there are places in the United States where women have difficulty getting access to mammography," Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, wrote on the society's blog just after the public announcement.

"If mammography use has reached a peak and is now decreasing, we may actually be diagnosing fewer cancers when they can be most effectively treated, Lichtenfeld said. "If you don't get a mammogram, you don't diagnose a cancer."

The research linking the decline in HRT to the drop in breast cancer came from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and was discussed at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio on Thursday. The research, based on a report by the National Cancer Institute, showed a seven percent drop in new breast cancer cases between July 2002 and August 2003, corresponding with the results of a 2002 Women's Health Initiative study.

With media reports citing HRT as the direct cause of the drop, some worry the public is getting the wrong message -- specifically women still taking hormones or those who have taken them in the past. While women not taking hormones are breathing a sigh of relief, others are in a panic.

Dr. Katherine Sherif, director of the Drexel Center for Women's Health at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, has spoken already with 15 patients worried about this news.

"What I have told them is that three years is too short of a time to measure the effects of a drug on breast cancer," she said. "Cancers take decades to develop, and conversely, withdrawing hormones could not result in a decrease in breast cancer in three years -- it's actually absurdly short." There are also concerns women will experience anxiety about other therapies using estrogen, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The study on HRT and breast cancer may be raising more questions than answers -- which could be a good thing. More questions prompt more investigation, more study, more research. And this will hopefully help us figure out one facet of the mystery of breast cancer.

Previous posts on the topic of HRT and breast cancer are as follows.

• HRT use drops breast cancer rates drop
• Hooray for HRT!?
• HRT and smoking dramatically increases breast cancer risk
• HRT increases breast cancer risks

Glenn Close is the 2006 Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador to the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign. Oscar de la Renta is the 2006 designer of the Key to the Cure t-shirt -- available now at Saks Fifth Avenue stores for the price of $35. For each t-shirt purchase, $31 will benefit EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund. T-shirts are available on-line and in retails stores everywhere.

All Saks Fifth Avenue retail stores and Saks.com will contribute to Key to the Cure by donating 2 percent of all profits during October 12-15. Off Fifth stores will donate 1 percent of profits during the same time period to benefit local and national women's cancer charities.

Key to the Cure is a women's cancer initiative founded in partnership with EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund. The program receives on-going support from Mercedes-Benz USA -- set to donate one million dollars to the cause. EIF is the entertainment industry's leading charitable organization and has shared hundreds of millions of dollars in support of critical issues facing our society. Like breast cancer.

This past week saw the launch of a first-ever partnership between Ford and ABC's The View. As part of Ford's Warriors in Pink initiative -- a campaign to get women everywhere to join the battle against breast cancer -- the co-hosts of The View during the month of October will feature Warriors sharing their personal stories of support and commitment in the fight against breast cancer.

On September 12, The View's call out for Warriors began online at abc.com
(keyword: theview) where viewers are asked to submit stories about the breast cancer Warriors in their lives. Then each week in October -- Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- a different Warrior will be selected to appear on the show.

Also part of the show will be an audience give-away, featuring merchandise from Ford's Warrior collection. Beginning October 2, viewers will have the chance to purchase a limited edition The View/Warrior coffee mug -- the same mug The View co-hosts will sip from to remind audience members about the importance of breast cancer awareness and early detection. All proceeds will go directly to the Komen Foundation. And on October 29, co-host Rosie O'Donnell -- who lost her mother to breast cancer and is herself a Warrior -- will attend the Race for the Cure event in Princeton, New Jersey.

Ford's Warriors in Pink campaign raises funds for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation through the sale of clothing and accessories for men, women, and children. One hundred percent of the net proceeds benefit the Komen Foundation. Over the past 12 years, Ford has contributed $87 million in gifts and donations to this life-saving venture.
Warriors in Pink merchandise is available not just during the month of October but year-round at www.fordcares.com.

Saks Fifth Avenue will be joining Mercedes-Benz and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in the campaign to raise money for women's cancer research this October. Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure and EIF has named award-winning actress Glenn Close as the celebrity ambassador as this year's representative who will appear in PSA fashion magazine print ads.

"When I was invited to be the Entertainment Industry Foundation's ambassador for Saks Fifth Avenue's Key to the Cure, I didn't hesitate for one second because I have so many friends who have died from cancer and my grandmother had breast cancer," said Close. "I think it's tremendously important to raise more awareness about the importance of early detection and support promising scientific research."

This is the seventh year Saks Fifth Avenue has participated in raising money for women's cancer research, and in seven years, the campaign has raised over $20 million dollars to benefit such organizations as EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund; The Breast cancer Research Foundation; Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai; Houston's M.D. Anderson; Boston's Gillette Center; and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Photographed by renowned photographer Timothy White, Close will appear in national PSAs wearing a limited edition T-shirt designed by Oscar de la Renta, which will be available exclusively through Saks Fifth Avenue.

Celebrity fashion photographer and co-founder of Dazed and Confused Magazine Rankin has launched a worldwide exhibit of his photographs conveying the special bond between women with breast cancer and the special family member or friend who comforted and accompanied them through the challenging days and nights from diagnosis to survivorship during the breast cancer journey.

Breast Friends is a photographic endeavor to capture the emotions of thirty international celebrities including Marcia Cross, Jerry Hall, Rosanna Arquette and Ronan Keating who have all been touched by breast cancer. Rankin began this campaign six months after he lost his mother Anne to lung cancer. He realized how important the bond between best friend and someone struggling to survive cancer can be when his mother died only weeks after she lost her husband, Rankin's father, to a heart attack.

Rankin is quoted as saying, "I thought my mother would have lasted another six months as she seemed so strong but the minute my dad died she deteriorated within a week." In July, supermodel Elle MacPherson helped Rankin with the initial launch of the Breast Friends campaign at the Oxo Tower Gallery in London. From there the exhibit will travel worldwide.

I recently learned that the CBS website features a whole section of public service announcements about various topics -- such as child abduction, depression, HIV/AIDS, menopause, osteoporosis, and heart disease. But what first caught my eye when I was visiting this site was the topic of breast cancer -- because this is the disease I am fighting. And then I spotted a section about colorectal cancer. I was intrigued about a television network's commitment to public health issues. So I kept reading and learned a thing or two about the CBS Cares initiative -- that is also delivered through television spots.

I learned that hundreds of hours have been spent researching each featured subject. And I learned that experts in each field have been consulted and interviewed for accurate and up-to-date information. I found that the basics of each topic are included on the website as well as detailed information that viewers might not otherwise know. For breast cancer, readers can learn about breast cancer in general, about early detection, and about risk factors. And there are video clips of celebrity spokespeople -- like Marg Helgenberger and Melina Kanakaredes -- who share their voices on the topic. For colorectal cancer, readers can gain insight into the prevalence of the disease by region. They can learn about polyps, about warning signs, about treatment options, and about survival rates. And celebrities Stockard Channing and Charles S. Dutton voice their messages about this disease. Doctor interviews and information from the American Cancer Society are sprinkled into the content of these very thorough, informative, and enlightening pages.

Dr. Jay Winsten, Associate Dean and Director of the Frank Stanton Center at the Harvard School of Public Health says, "It is truly unprecedented for a television network to create a website that draws so extensively and effectively on the expertise of numerous world-leaders in pubic health research." And now, CBS has set the precedent.