The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will take an additional three months to review Wyeth's kidney cancer drug Torisel -- the first of five new medications the company plans to introduce this year.

The FDA needs more time to investigate data on tumor growth in patients taking Torisel. If all goes well, the drug will be one of only three to effectively hold off incurable kidney cancer. The other two drugs are Pfizer's Sutent and Bayer AG's Nexavar.

Robert Ruffolo, president of Wyeth Research, says he is encouraged by the review process so far. And he is optimistic about launching the product in late 2007.

Studies show Torisel, which will cost patients about $30,000 per year, prolonged survival by 50 percent in those faring poorly with kidney cancer. The sickest kidney-cancer patients were essentially kept alive for 10.9 months, compared with 7.3 months with interferon drugs. Torisel also postponed tumor growth for 5.5 months. This is 77 percent longer than with interferon.

Sutent and Nexavar, both on the market since last year, also slow tumor growth. All three kidney-cancer medicines are of the variety that block the growth of cancer cells -- different from standard chemotherapy which kills tumors and harms nearby tissues too.

Wyeth is relatively new to the oncology market. And soon, the company hopes to launch three more cancer drugs. One, called CMC-544, treats non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Another, SKI-606, is for chronic myelogenous leukemia. And the third, HKI-272, is for breast cancer.

About 51,000 Americans will be diagnosed with kidney cancer this year.

Not everyone buys into the power of pink when it comes to breast cancer.

Pink ribbons, pink teddy bears, pink hats, shirts, scarves, socks, purses, jewelry, magnets, and even cooking appliances have monopolized the breast cancer market. And some people just plain refuse to associate the disease with anything remotely sweet, soft, and soothing.

Think about this:

Annette`s Angels, founded in 2006 by the children of Annette Roberta, love and applaud the effectiveness of the flood of pink used to raise awareness about a disease that took Roberta after a 15-year battle.

But they refuse to embrace any color but black as they proceed to kick breast cancer in the butt. Black reflects their anger at breast cancer. And their power to fight it.

Annette's Angels are committed to fighting this terrible disease, and they invite us all to shop at their online store, where some items -- there's just no way around it really -- are pink. The angels will donate 50 percent of all profits to FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, the only resource of its kind for those facing genetic breast and ovarian cancers.

Wyeth officials say their hormone replacement therapy Prempro is not the cause of one Ohio woman's breast cancer. But two jury decisions prove otherwise.

The first jury, in October, awarded Jennie Nelson and her husband $1.5 million in compensatory damages, validating Nelson's claim that her breast cancer -- resulting in a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation -- was caused by the Prempro she took for six years. When this verdict was thrown out due to a mistrial, a retrial began.

The retrial concluded yesterday -- with a Philadelphia jury awarding the Nelsons this time with $3 million.

"Both times this case has been heard on terms established by Wyeth and still the juries have clearly found that Prempro causes breast cancer," says Nelson's attorney Tobias Millrood, adding that Wyeth puts sales ahead of patient safety.

Wyeth respectfully disagrees and argues that it acted responsibly in the promotion of its hormone replacement products and in disclosing with doctors and patients all therapy-associated health risks.

Millions of women have used Wyeth's hormone replacement therapies to control the effects of menopause, and the company, sanctioned in January to pay $1 million to an Arkansas breast cancer survivor, now faces more than 5,000 lawsuits of this same nature.

Despite a large-scale study revealing drugs like Prempro increase the risk of breast cancer if used for five years or more, the drug still remains on the market. And Wyeth is so sure their drug is not at fault for causing Nelson's breast cancer that they plan to appeal yesterday's verdict.

The breast cancer drug Tykerb may be one of the future wonder drugs available for women left with limited options for treating advanced-stage disease.

Tykerb, manufactured by British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, is currently an experimental drug that delays growth of tumors nearly twice as long as standard chemotherapy in patients who no longer respond to Herceptin -- a targeted drug that significantly decreases chances of recurrence for women with HER2 positive breast cancer. Herceptin blocks the swift growth of an aggressive protein on the cell's surface while Tykerb does its work on the inside of the cell. Herceptin is given intravenously. Tykerb is given in pill form.

Two previous posts -- one in April and one in June -- relfect the progress of Tykerb as reported in the media. With each new report, Tykerb seems to gain momentum and promise. And this past week, new reports revealed new promise as Glaxo began seeking regulatory approval of the Tykerb pill in Europe.

Glaxo has filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration for approval of this drug and is preparing to market the drug for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in women. Glaxo hopes to launch Tykerb -- also known as lapatinib ditosylate -- next year.

In November 2004, my husband I and decided to try to have a third child. But instead of getting pregnant, I got breast cancer. And with the aggressive treatment I would receive -- surgery, dose-dense chemotherapy, radiation, and Herceptin therapy -- becoming pregnant was not an option. Birth control became my only option -- an option that has many limits for premenopausal women surviving breast cancer.

I'm in the market for a new vacuum cleaner. Mine is 11 years old -- it was a wedding gift -- and although it still picks up the dirt and sand and grime that often litters my carpet as a result of two busy little boys, it's been through the ringer. Maybe that's because all I do is vacuum, or so my 5-year-old Joey thinks. He was asked in preschool one day to talk about his daddy's job and his mommy's job. He told his teachers that his daddy "plays the keyboard" which is true but while he meant a computer keyboard, his teachers conjured up the image of a musician and wanted to invite Joey's daddy to join the class for a jam session. And Joey said that his mommy "vacuums." Of all the things I do in a day -- as a mostly stay-at-home-mom -- Joey seems to think vacuuming sums me up. I think this justifies the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner.

There's a pink vacuum cleaner on the market, and I think it's just what I need. Made by Oreck Corporation -- a company that intends to offer the finest products for a cleaner, healthier home -- this vacuum also benefits the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation by donating $50 for each consumer who tries for 30 days this special edition Clean for the Cure product. This hypo-allergenic vacuum weighs just eight pounds and comes with an eight-year guarantee and eight free annual tune-ups. And you can't beat the pink color and pink breast cancer ribbon displayed prominently on this product that can tidy up the messiest of messes while helping to power the fight against breast cancer. I'm sold.

The costs of medical care are skyrocketing. Governments are grappling with the rising costs in how to provide healthcare and cancer patients are struggling to get the care they need. Where is the unfolding national and global healthcare crisis headed and what will our healthcare look like in the future?

According to the World Bank, the healthcare gap between rich and poor countries remains steady and warns the trend is likely to continue without some type of fundamental change in how we care for people in less-prosperous countries. Jean-Louis Sarbib, vice president for the World Bank's division that produced the new report, is quoted as saying, "This inequity has tremendous consequences for the health of the world's poor." It is predicted that the world's population is expected to grow from 6 billion today to a projected 7.5 billion by 2020, with most of the growth expected to be in developing countries.

Over the last two decades, the growing awareness about nutrition and the fact that all foods are not the same when it comes to good health, has spurred the trend of consumers demanding more food value for money spent. Companies vying for those dollars have been paying attention, according to a top ten list of functional foods published in an issue of Food Technology magazine. According to the Institute of Food Technologists, a nonprofit group that promotes sound science in the discussion of food issues, functional foods are foods or food components that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition.

Five of the ten functional food trends are:

• Food for kids that are lower in fat, calories, sodium and sugar and higher the nutrients.
• Organic foods that are grown without pesticides or cancer-causing toxic chemicals.
• Phytochemicals that provide the antioxidants known to lower the risks of cancer.
• Good fats in the way of healthier oils, like olive oil, that provide cancer prevention benefit. Foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon.
• Small portions of food such as the 100-calorie snack.
  

Basically, the trends in what consumers want, and what the market is beginning to offer to meet that demand, are foods that provide good nutrition, taste good and are fun. To read more about functional food trends, go here.

That's what I am calling AOL's list of top ten green cities -- the top ten cancer prevention cities -- because when it comes to reducing environmental cancer risks and promoting a healthy lifestyle, a city that is known as a green city is also a cancer prevention city. AOL's criteria in choosing the top ten green cities they believe are creating a healthy and livable place for its residents are: clean air and clean water, renewable energy, reliable city buses, trams, streetcars and subways, a growing number of parks and greenbelts, and farmer’s markets.

Not to claim bragging rights, but my hometown of Portland, Oregon is on the list. Austin, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Boulder, Colorado; Burlington, Vermont; Madison, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; Santa Monica, California; Chicago, Illinois and New York, New York made the list. New York City? Yes. According to AOL's reviewers, Central Park goes a long way in making New York City a green city. As does the fact that 80 percent of the residents use public transportation. New Yorkers use fossil fuels at the rate the U.S. did in the 1920s. To learn all the ways these cities made the green list, go read AOL's Top 10 Greenest Cities. Or as I like to think of it -- the top ten cities promoting a healthy lifestyle and maintaining clean livable areas resulting in the creation of a cancer prevention environment -- the top ten cancer prevention cities.

In the United States, there is the war on drugs. There is a war on cancer. There appears to be a war on cancer patients who need to use medical marijuana. In Canada, the Global National is reporting that medical marijuana patients are being forced into the black market for the marijuana they need. In the United States, the same goes on. Borders blur, and the wars seem to be the same.

At the bottom of an old Winnepeg, Manitoba mine marijuana is legally grown and dried for cancer patients to use. But it is of such poor quality, it is estimated that a third of the pot is returned. Then there are the cancer patients who can not afford the cost Health Canada charges.

Because of these factors, cancer patients are turning to compassion clubs for help. According to Phillipe Lucas, who has set up a compassion club for cancer patients, "Compassion clubs are serving more people than Health Canada, we're creating a better supply than Health Canada. And we're doing more legitimate research than Health Canada and we're doing all of this at no cost to the taxpayer." Marijuana is classified as an illegal drug. Putting aside your opinion on whether marijuana should be legalized -- right now it is not legal -- and essentially this is making criminals out of cancer patients. Unless you are a cancer patient who has experienced the grueling cruel side-effects of chemotherapy, or the persistent pain of cancer, you might not appreciate that there are a limited number of drugs that work to alleviate side-effects and physical pain. Sometimes none of the prescription drugs work. For some cancer patients, marijuana seems to work.