Back in 2002, photographs of a somewhat plump Jamie Lee Curtis appeared in many popular magazines. At the time, Curtis was just two years into pursuing sobriety and had gained upwards of 20 pounds. It appeared Curtis was flaunting her new look, perhaps even giving the public permission to be happy in their own skin. Not a bad thing, right?

It was a bad idea, says Curtis who now regrets communicating to the masses that letting yourself go is OK. Because it's not. Now fit and trim -- not skinny, just trim -- Curtis says in the July 2007 issue of Ladies Home Journal, "So I think what some people took from those photos was: Love yourself, no matter what. And the problem with this is: What if what you're doing is unhealthy?"

"And the problem is that how many of us are killing ourselves every day? Who here has high blood pressure and is still eating salt and French fries? Who has been told that her liver is enlarged and unless she stops drinking she's gonna end up with liver disease and/or need a liver transplant? We create senseless acts of violence against ourselves every day. And we live in this amnesia that we're not."

I've read stories about women whose breast cancer diagnoses were delayed because they explained away certain symptoms. One woman, an athlete, was told by her husband one day that her nipple looked different from the other. "It's probably just the jog bra I've been wearing all day," she assured him. They both moved on.

Some time later, this woman learned that her different nipple was a sign of breast cancer. And she had it. She just didn't know it. And so her diagnosis came late. Eight years later, this young mother of two small children died from a disease she explained away.

This is normal -- the art of explaining away all the odd messages our bodies give us. Perhaps it's the stigma of whining about every little ache and pain that keeps us from pursuing immediate medical attention. It could be the likelihood that our complaints are pretty normal, so we refrain from rushing to judgment.

I'm practicing this well-established art right now. It's odd for me because I've already had breast cancer, and I am usually ultra-sensitive to every twinge of pain I feel. So when I woke this morning, with a tight and aching feeling in my chest, one would have thought I'd be racing out the door, headed for the nearest emergency room. I considered the fact that perhaps I need to be seen, that a chest X-ray might be in order, but I took no action -- because I explained the feeling away. It went something like this:

It must be the way I slept. I slept in a different bed, with one child and one dog, and I don't think I moved an inch all night.

The feeling gets less intense with time. At this moment, I can only feel something -- and it's very mild -- if I inhale deeply.

If I have the same feeling tomorrow morning, I will pursue it -- no, I won't pursue it just yet because I wont' be sleeping in my own bed for a few more nights. I'll wait until I get back to my own bed and see what happens. Maybe this bed is not good for me.

This goes on and on. For me, I think it happens because I suspect nothing really is wrong with me. Perhaps I am dismissing something serious but mostly, I'm chalking this behavior to progress. Because there was a day when I ran to the dentist for a bump on the roof of my mouth -- it was nothing -- and I cried to get myself a next-day mammogram for some lumpy tissue I was convinced was cancer -- it wasn't -- and now, I am happy to feel more like a normal person. I am happy to have perfected my new art, which incidentally I will abandon in an instant if the discomfort persists.

My husband says he's had this feeling before when getting out of bed. I think I'm going to be OK.

There are about 150,000 women in the United States living with advanced breast cancer. Musa Mayer and Susan E Grober, consultants for the study called Silent Voices: Women with Advanced (Metastatic) Breast Cancer Share Their Needs and Preferences for Information, Support and Practical Resources, say that over the years many of the women living with metastatic disease have expressed that they feel isolated, marginalized and alone.

The study found that nearly one-third of the women living with advanced breast cancer do not know where to access programs or medical treatments and emerging research. This study's finding is among several that could impact healthcare professionals and advocates who serve women living with Stage 4 disease.

Women in the study said that many of the support and information networks for breast cancer focus mostly on early-stage disease. The information on metastatic disease is often hard to find. There is not one website dedicated to bringing together the existing resources on advanced breast cancer.

A survey was given to the women in the study. Here are some of the findings:

• 75 percent of the women look for information about advanced breast cancer either daily or weekly.
• 69 percent said they find it helpful to listen or read about the experiences of other women living with advanced disease.
• 44 percent prefer online support groups while 38 percent prefer in-person groups.
• 57 percent of women with the lowest level of knowledge about their advanced breast cancer report feelings of anxiety, whereas only 19 percent of those with the highest level of knowledge report anxiety.

All cells in our body are programmed to die. They have a limited lifespan and they die when they are damaged, worn out or no longer needed by the body. This is a normal process called apoptosis, programmed cell death, that the body depends on to be healthy. When cells die they are replaced by new ones.

In cancer cells the process of apoptosis fails and the damaged cells live on and multiply indefinitely and uncontrollably. Most chemotherapy drugs that are given to cancer patients are aimed at killing fast dividing cells, this is sometimes successful at halting the disease but these drugs damage many normal tissues.

Researchers look to find smarter drugs that do not have severe side effects but target only the cancer cell itself. A new drug being studied in the lab suggests that it may prove to be more effective and less toxic than current chemotherapy drugs. The drug called ABT-737 has a different strategy for attacking cancer. Instead of poisoning the cancer cells, the new drug attempts to reactivate the cell death program that had failed.

The leader of the project, Dr. David Huang says "Much more remains to be done to assess the drug's safety and effectiveness in patients, but early results from the laboratory are promising. Our hope is that the new drug will prove to be more effective while having fewer side effects".

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have demonstrated a new locally applied treatment for the eye cancer retinoblastoma. The new treatment, tested on mice, reduced the size of the tumor and also did not cause the side effects common with chemotherapy.

This targeted therapy uses a customized drug to disable a specific molecule inside a growing cancer cell. It is delivered locally to the site of the disease, rather than using systematic treatment. Dr. Dyer, Ph. D., associate member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology said "The findings suggest that this treatment not only could offer children with retinoblastoma more effective and less toxic treatment, it could also increase the chance that their vision can be preserved by eliminating the tumor and preventing its spread from the eye to the rest of the body".

Retinoblastoma occurs in about 5,000 young children worldwide each year, arising from the immature retina, which is the part of the eye responsible for detecting light and color. A report on this work appears in the November 2nd issue of the journal Nature.

Technology has come a long way over the years -- and now the technology behind digital mammography is allowing life-saving screenings for the toughest patients to diagnose with breast cancer.

This is no small technological breakthough. It is a critical component for lowering the breast cancer death rate the American Cancer Society reports has declined 2.3 percent each year between 1990 and 2002. Since breast cancer is a treatable disease if caught early, digital mammography will up the odds of survival for women with this disease.

Digital mammography operates according to a computer-based technique that allows for digital manipulation of a breast X-ray. It exceeds the capability of film mammography -- and is much like the comparison between digital photography versus film photography. Both work. But one works better.

Studies show digital mammograms have a lot to offer. They detect tumors better in young women with dense breast tissue, for example. They allow for ease of storage and retrieval of images. And they can easily become part of a woman's electronic medical record.

There are still benefits of traditional mammography and women are still urged to use this less expensive option. They are also urged to conduct self-breast exams and to report for clinical exams with physicians. It's the whole package that contributes to comprehensive breast health, not just one isolated test. When used in combination with all other screening methods, digital mammography makes for a more accurate overall picture.

Why do we shy away from the colonoscopy? It just seems like such a fun experience! Well, I'm sure it will never be that but music seems to help with anxiety and the need for higher doses of medication before the procedure. There is a 90% cure rate when colon cancer is caught in its earliest stages.

We know that music can soothe us, lift our spirits, make us sad, give us energy and many other emotional responses. Its seems like a given that it would help patients better tolerate scans and procedures. If the tests are more anxiety free then more of us might actually make those appointments we keep putting off.

A study done by the doctors at Temple University in Philadelphia showed that music played during a colonoscopy procedure made some patients able to relax enough to require less sedation, without sacrificing comfort.

According to Benjamin Krevsky, M.D., M.P.H., "Over all, colonoscopies are very, very safe and while the risk of sedatives are relatively small, in general, less medication is always better. Offering music has no down side, it may prove beneficial, and patients appear to be satisfied with the procedure."

I myself am guilty of putting off the colonoscopy. Since I was diagnosed with breast cancer my oncologist has been recommending the procedure. ok, so ..

What kind of music goes with a colonoscopy? hmmmm...

Melanoma can be deadly once it has spread from its primary site. It is important to catch it in its early stages when the cure rate is high. Light skinned individuals seem to be more susceptible to melanoma and incidence has increased in recent decades, however less is known about the incidence among non-whites.

The Archives of Internal Medicine published a report that said although melanoma is less common in non-white individuals, it tends to be diagnosed at a later stage. They explored the racial and ethnic differences in the frequency, presentation, and outcome of melanoma. They looked at White, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, African American and American Indian races. The study included 50,000 patients. What was found was that the probability of being diagnosed with Stage IV disease was more than two fold higher among Asians than Whites. It was more than three fold higher among Hispanics and American Indians than Whites, and more than four-fold higher among African Americans than Whites.

The researchers noted that "Melanoma is a public health concern for all ethnic populations".

I remember going through the prostate cancer scare with my grandfather. Louis is 86 years young and a few years ago he had a high PSA score of 21. I took him to the doctors since I found out that the test's normal range was much lower. The physician recommended a prostate biopsy and gave us some information. My grandfather was 84 years old and he said about 70 percent of men his age will develop prostate cancer. He also said that with such a high PSA score he was almost sure it was prostate cancer. On a positive note, he did say that prostate cancer usually is a slow growing disease and in my grandfather's case he might be able to just take hormonal therapy to control the disease. ( I already had all this information printed out of course!)

We scheduled the biopsy and I picked Lou up the day of the procedure. The nurses had given him a valium to take before the biopsy. I made sure he took it on the way to the doctors office. After about 15 minutes I asked him if he felt anything from the drug. He replied that he felt nothing yet.

We enter the doctors office and he gets called back quickly. I was in the waiting room eating my bagel and reading a magazine when this other couple came in sat across from me. They smiled and the man said some pretty goofy things and was laughing. I realized that maybe HIS valium was working. My grandfather I guess needed a double dose.

My grandfather gets finished and after we walk out the door I tell him how much that guy was laughing in the waiting room. My grandfather replied (not even trying to be funny) "He isn't going to be laughing when he gets in there." Also, I have to mention that my grandfather told me exactly what they did to him, every detail. It did not seem fun and was painful for him.

Cervical cancer screening in the UK may be changing in our near future. When women have the smear test there is a one in ten chance that the test can be unreadable. When women receive a phone call from their doctors telling them they have to repeat the test it can cause anxiety.

Laboratories using the new method are reporting huge drops in their inadequate slides. Instead of the old method (scraping off some cells from the cervix and smearing them onto a slide) the new method uses a plastic brush to transfer the sample in to a vial of fluid.

Another advantage of having the new test is that they can also test for infections and Chlamydia with the same sample. The new test is called liquid based cytology (LBC).

There are some questions out there regarding if this new test can pick up abnormalities better than the old method. Some say yes and some say it does not. Dr. Anne Szarewski, clinical consultant and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Cancer Research UK Centre for Epidemiology said "Even if LBC is not better at picking up abnormalities, just reducing the number of inadequate smears makes the change worthwhile".

Sometimes drinking alcohol is healthy. And sometimes drinking alcohol is harmful. Studies show that one drink per day -- compared with no drinking at all -- can reduce a woman's risk for heart disease and stroke by 50 percent. And other research indicates that older women who drink moderately have better cognitive skills. But there are also downsides for women who drink even moderate amounts of alcohol.

Even as little as one-half drink per day increases the risk of breast cancer -- possibly because alcohol raises estrogen blood levels which can promote growth of breast tumors. Women are also more likely than men to become dependent on alcohol and to experience other consequences too -- including damage to the brain and other organs. One in 13 adults in the United States has a serious alcohol problem -- and at least six million of these adults are women. And because the risk for alcohol-related health issues increase with age, older women should be especially careful of their alcohol intake for the purpose of maintaining health and limiting the odds of a breast cancer diagnosis.

In the interest of balancing the healthful and harmful effects of alcohol, The Harvard Women's Health Watch suggests that women over the age of 65 limit themselves to one drink per day. Or less.

I realize that you do the best you can with what you have to work with at the time. However, I am pleased to report, the scorched earth era of a chemotherapy drug designed to kill everything in its path in attempting to wipe out cancer -- might finally be coming to an end.

At present, pharmaceutical companies are carrying out clinical trials on approximately 400 cancer drugs, many with a targeted ability to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells in the process. And that my friends, is progress.

It's about time. Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I had little idea about how generalized cancer treatments were, or how medieval I would come to view them when I discovered what the oncology team had to offer. Frankly, I was disappointed and began to understand the disillusionment that motivated cancer patients to seek alternative therapies. I really expected, living in the 21st century, much more in the way of specialized targeted cancer drugs.

It wasn't the fault of the oncology team -- you really can only work with the tools you are given. With 400 cancer drugs now in clinical trials, I am beginning to get the sense we might be headed in the right direction. To a place I imagined we had already arrived.

You have just been told you need surgery. You have questions. Here's one you might not think to ask the surgeon. Do you play video games? Beth Israel Medical Center researchers asked and what they discovered is surgeons who play video games prior to surgery made less mistakes. During a laparoscopic surgical training course, surgeons who played video games before the laparoscopic surgery training exercise completed the procedure an average of 11 seconds faster with less error than the surgeons who did not play video games.

Dr. James Rosser, lead investigator of the study is quoted as saying, "Performing laparoscopic surgery is like trying to tie your shoe laces with three-foot-long chopsticks while watching on a TV screen." Laparoscopic surgical procedures are commonly performed for uterus or colon surgeries. Rosser has been playing video games for over thirty years. He wanted to minimize the number of surgical errors made by surgeons and developed the Top Gun Laparoscopic Surgery Skill and Suturing Program, and took his cue from the flight simulator training pilots use.