Each month, about 22,000 women log on to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) web site and answer seven questions to determine their risk of developing invasive breast cancer. The Gail Model, named for the NCI's chief biostatistician, Mitchell H. Gail, generates a five-year risk and a lifetime risk for each woman who answers each of these seven questions.

• Does the woman have a medical history of any breast cancer or of any ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS)? Note: This assessment tool cannot accurately predict risk for a woman who already has a medical history of breast cancer.
  
• What is the woman's age? Note: This tool only calculates risk for women ages 35 and older.
  
• What was the woman's age at the time of her first menstrual period?
  
• What was the woman's age at the time of her first live birth of a child?
  
• How many of the woman's first-degree relatives -- mother, sisters, daughters -- have had breast cancer?
  
• Has the woman ever had a breast biopsy? How many breast biopsies has the woman had? Has the woman had at least one breast biopsy with atypical hyperplasia?
• What is the woman's race/ethnicity?

A simple drop-down answer menu is provided for each question, and explanations for each question are available. Upon completion of the short survey, the Gail Model spits out a five-year breast cancer risk and a lifetime breast cancer risk with comparisons to the general population of women.

While this is only an assessment -- based on statistics that do not always take into account individual differences -- it is still a helpful tool. Because it's clear that women can minimize breast cancer risk with behavior changes and sometimes medication. And generating a personal rating on risk is a rating worth knowing. It's also worth knowing that this tool was designed for use by health professionals. If you are not a health professional, consider discussing your results with your doctor.

One of the keys to finding a cure for cancer is to understand how cancer grows and spreads within the body. Angiogenesis is our body's ability to form new blood vessels. This is important and needed for the body to help heal wounds and is also a part of a woman's menstruation each month. Its function in our bodies is a positive thing most of the time.

Angiogenesis also has a role in how cancer cells grow to become tumors. Cancer cells need a blood supply to live and grow. The cancerous tumor actually develops its own blood supply by sending messages to nearby blood vessels. These vessels then have the ability to grow toward the tumor. The tumor then has its own blood vessels to thrive, survive and grow.

This was not taken seriously back in 1961 when Dr. Judith Folkman came up with the theory of angiogenesis. He felt strongly that tumors could not grow bigger than a head of a pin without blood supply. He thought that an entirely new way to treat cancer would be to block this blood vessel growth to the tumor. Decades of work has proven this theory to be correct. What changed a lot of people's minds was an experiment that was done at the end of the 1970's at Dr. Folkman's lab. Tumor cells were put into a rabbit's eye, a place in the eye where there are no blood vessels. Blood vessels did grow toward and into the eye where the cancerous cells lived.

Marjory, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and her husband Gordon, a family physician, both blog Beating Breast Cancer. Marjory shares her perspective as a breast cancer patient and Gordon shares his knowledge as a doctor. I check in on Marjory and Gordon regularly, as Beating Breast Cancer is one of my favorite blogs in the cancer community.

In a recent post, Gordon admits to checking the blog's traffic report to see who is visiting and what they are searching for when they arrive at the Beating Breast Cancer blog. He noticed that a search for information on painful lumps in the breast is a topic frequently searched for -- and so he put together easy to understand information for readers interested in learning more about breast pain and painful breast lumps. Gordon is reassuring in letting women know most breast lumps do not turn out to be breast cancer (although he insists that a woman see her physician immediately should she find a lump in her breast) and he explains the causes of painful breast lumps. To learn more, visit Gordon's A Painful Breast Lump - Could It Be Breast Cancer?

Has anyone else questioned the intent of businesses hitching their product wagon to the pink campaign for breast cancer? I am not picking on this business in particular, it's just the business news press release of the day announcing another company going pink for breast cancer charity. According to vendPINK, a division of the dittie company -- in announcing the launch of its new cause-related pink vending program -- states that the vendPINK program will be supporting women in and out of the bathroom. The company goes on to state that "VendPINK vends the fun, feminine and fabulous dittie tampons that inspires and supports women during that time of the month. While out of the bathroom, vendPINK is inspiring those women fighting breast cancer." Okay. They said it -- not me.

"Our vendPINK programs reflects dittie's commitment to creating a network of women dedicated to supporting one another," said Barbara Carey, dittie and vendPINK president and founder. "Everyone has been affected by breast cancer in one way or another. We are passionate about creating this support system and do not want anyone to ever feel they have to face breast cancer alone." 20 percent of the profits from the sale of this product are going to breast cancer charity. I like all companies who donate a portion of their profits to cancer charity. But there is a small part of me that is becoming cynically exhausted by the pink. Maybe it's just me. How do you feel about the pink?