ABC's Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts is at home resting after a successful surgery for breast cancer. Pathology reports will take some time to pocess, but when more information is available, the public will be updated, says a Good Morning America spokesperson.

Roberts, 46, told her story recently in an e-mail.

I never thought I'd be writing this. ... I have breast cancer," writes Roberts.

Last Tuesday night, I watched Greta Van Susteren of Fox News' On The Record as she interviewed Brittany Lietz, Miss Maryland 2006. Greta asked Brittany what her Miss Maryland job entails. Brittany told Greta her full-time job is to represent her platform -- skin cancer.

Brittany didn't choose just any topic for her platform. She chose one that is entirely personal.

Skin cancer has left more than 20 scars on Brittany's body. One, on her back, marks the site where a stage two melanoma was removed when she was just 19 years old. It presented as a mole, a little smaller than a nickel, she says. In all likelihood, the cancer was caused by two years of tanning bed use. Brittany says she probably tanned every day for two years. Her pursuit of bronzed skin began when she was 17 and wanted a tan for her prom. It ended after doctors told her she had cancer.

It's been one year since I began writing for The Cancer Blog. According to statistics generated by this site, I've written 27,381 words and 793 posts. If you've been reading for this entire time, you surely know a lot about me. Not only do my posts reflect current news and issues, but they feature all sorts of personal stuff too. When considered together, my work here reflects just about every piece of my cancer journey, my inner most thoughts, my morals and values, my take on the world. But for those of you who haven't been reading for long, for those who have forgotten how I fit into the cancer puzzle, for those who want a recap, here's a rundown on me: Jacki Donaldson.

I was born and raised in Ohio but have also lived in Nevada, Virginia, and Florida -- my current home. My life always went pretty much according to plan -- I lived happily with my parents and one sister, faithfully attended school, went to college, got married, had two baby boys and a series of good jobs, and had just begun commenting to my family members about how lucky our family was not to have been affected by cancer. It seems just as I spoke this aloud, cancer arrived.

Today, I've been asked twice to offer more specifics about the information contained in posts. I thought I'd communicate my thoughts on this matter publicly so you all may benefit.

First, let me share that blogging is like talking to a friend -- Hey, did you hear about that new study about the breast cancer vaccine?, I might say to my neighbor before I explain the overall gist of the news I happened upon. The purpose of blogging is to communicate a few details and to spark interest, not to capture every speck of information on the topic. Digging up the nitty gritty is for you, the reader.

Your quest for more knowledge takes just one click. Once you read a post, look to the bottom left and you will see a blue link titled Read. Click here and you'll land at the news source related to the post. If you don't find what you're looking for here, just type some key words into Google and search for more. If bloggers happen to find news but there is no internet link -- this happens with magazines and other print publications -- the source will be noted at the end of the post.

If a post contains personal perspective, like this one, you won't find a Read link -- that's because the source is in the blogger's head. You are welcome to leave a comment requesting more information about these posts.

Now this whole lesson on the Read link does not mean you cannot ask questions of bloggers -- please do -- but if you desire the quickest route to post details, this link is your best bet.

I hope this is clear. And I hope you find exactly what you seek in this world where cancer is one hot topic.

Fred Thompson, actor and former United States Senator from Tennessee, made the announcement today that he was diagnosed with lymphoma a few years ago and now is in remission.

Thompson added to that announcement that he was considering running in the 2008 Presidential Election. He stated today on Fox News, "I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future -- and with no debilitating side effects".

You can find Thompson playing a district attorney Arthur Branch on the NBC drama Law and Order.

When I read something powerful -- a quote, a story, a reflection -- I write it down or cut it out or make a copy of it and drop it into a file folder I've titled inspiration. This file, among others, has been on many a moving van and has traveled with me all over the East coast, from city to city, house to house. And every once in a while, when I need a lift, this is my go-to file -- I go to it, pluck something out, and refresh my mind and spirit.

This file has been with me since at least 1997 -- the date on a photo-copied Ann Landers column I have sitting before me. It's 10 years old, but there's nothing dated about the words printed on this single sheet of paper. They are as touching and moving and relevant now as they were when I first read them. They may be even more meaningful today, because of the thread of cancer that is now woven throughout my days.

These are life lessons, offered by a publisher of the Mount Pleasant News in Iowa, for students about to graduate from high school. They go like this:

Dear Graduates:

There is the kind of education you get in school and the kind you get afterward. Both are important. Put them together, and you have wisdom. The trouble is, life is generally half over before you figure out what is going on.

Graduating seniors can save 25 years of trial, error, and hard knocks by memorizing the lessons of life listed below.

On the average, you learn about one big lesson per year after you leave high school. In really tough years, you learn two or three. Some years, you don't learn anything. After 40, you forget things and have to learn them again.

Some of this information is borrowed. Some is stolen. Some may even be original, but that's doubtful. It's pretty hard to be original in a world as old as this one.

25 Things You'll Need To Know After High School

1. Don't sweat the small stuff, and remember, most stuff is small.
2. The most boring word in any language is "I."
3. Nobody is indispensable, especially you.
4. Life is full of surprises. Just say "never" and you'll see.
5. People are more important than things.
6. Persistence will get you almost anything eventually.
7. Nobody can make you happy. Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
8. There's so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it doesn't behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us.
9. Live by what you trust, not by what you fear.
10. Character counts. Family matters.
11. Eating out with small children isn't worth it, even if someone else is paying.
12. If you wait to have kids until you can afford them, you probably never will.
13. Baby kittens don't begin to open their eyes for six weeks after birth. Men generally take 26 years.
14. The world would run a lot smoother if more men knew how to dance.
15. Television ruins more minds than drugs.
16. Sometimes there is more to gain in being wrong than right.
17. Life is so much simpler when you tell the truth.
18. People who do the world's real work don't usually wear neckties.
19. A good joke beats a pill for a lot of ailments.
20. There are no substitutes for fresh air, sunshine, and exercise.
21. A smile is the cheapest way to improve your looks, even if your teeth are crooked.
22. May you live life so there is standing room only at your funeral.
23. Mothers always know best, but sometimes fathers know too.
24. Forgive your friends and your enemies. You're all only human.
25. If you don't do anything else in life, love someone and let someone love you.

Daniel Sieberg, science and technology correspondent for CBS News and blogger for Tech Talk recently went searching for online sites offering help and hope for those seeking insight into the world of cancer.

Sieberg went about his search by typing into Google the word cancer. Thrown back at him were more than 250 million results. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and misinformation, Sieberg sifted and sorted through everything that faced him -- and he narrowed down the results to his favorite five.

Sieberg is right on with his picks, and while I personally would have included The Cancer Blog as a source loaded with accurate, reliable, and inspiring information, I still commend Sieberg for so effectively hunting down some very good cancer resources. For what it's worth, I happen to highly recommend them myself.

American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute
WebMD
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Leroy Sievers Blog

Cancer is a complicated disease often described by those who know it well in confusing medical, technical, and scientific terms. There's a way to understand it in simple terms, though. And a recent CBS news story features a great run-down on the disease, its causes, how it grows, and more.

Think about this:

• Cancer refers to any one of a large number of diseases characterized by the uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells. These cells have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal tissue and can spread -- metastasize -- throughout the body.

• Cancer is caused by damage in the DNA. DNA is like a set of instructions for cells and tells cells how to grow and divide. Normal cells can develop mutations in their DNA but can repair most of them. If they cannot make a repair, the cells often die. But certain mutated cells don't repair and don't die. They instead grow and become cancerous.

• Normal, healthy cells grow in an orderly, well-controlled way. They live for a set period of time and then die on schedule. Dead cells are replaced by new normal cells. Cancer cells, in contrast, grow in an uncontrolled manner. They don't die. They accumulate. One malignant cell becomes two, two become four, four become eight, and so on, until a mass of cells -- a tumor -- is created. Tumors remain small until they're able to attract their own blood supply, which allows them to obtain the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow larger.

• Not all cancers form tumors. Leukemia, for example, is a cancer of the blood, bone marrow, lymphatic system, and spleen.
  
  
• Cancer can take decades to develop. By the time a cancerous mass is detected, it's likely that 100 million to one billion cancer cells are present, and the original cancer may have been dividing for five years or more.

• Lung cancer is the top cancer killer among men and women and will kill 160,390 people in 2007.

Presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth will appear tonight on 60 Minutes where they will publicly discuss with Katie Couric Elizabeth's newest cancer diagnosis and their decision to continue on in the presidential race.

Elizabeth, 57 and first diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2004, shared Thursday that her cancer has returned, this time in her bones. Considered stage four and treatable -- but not curable -- her cancer has generated much discussion and awareness about the workings of this life-threatening disease.

To view a clip from tonight's news program, airing at 7:00 PM ET/PT, click here.

White House press secretary and colon cancer survivor Tony Snow asks the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions regarding the surgery he will have on Monday to remove a growth from his lower abdomen.

Blood tests and a CAT scan of the growth show no presence of cancer, he reports. But still, he and doctors are proceeding cautiously due to his history.

Snow, a former Fox News radio and television talk show host, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, when he was a commentator at Fox. Two months after surgery, he returned to the air and then became White House press secretary in April 2006.

Snow's plan is to be back behind the podium a few weeks after surgery, when he has a better idea of what it is he's dealing with.

A friend of a friend was diagnosed this week with a cancerous brain tumor -- a glioma to be exact -- and the surgery to remove the mass is scheduled for Monday.

I don't know much about this woman or her cancer, but I do know doctors told her yesterday she will likely survive for only a few years. I can't help but think that if doctors had given me this same prediction at the time of my cancer diagnosis, my time would just about be up.

I can't fully grasp the magnitude of this sad and sobering news. But I can comprehend that any one of us could be on the receiving end of such an announcement at any given moment. We are all vulnerable. And so I am confronted once again with the powerful and painful reminder that each day really could be my last.

Researchers have found that when cells become cancerous, they become 100 times more likely to genetically mutate than non-cancerous cells. This explains why tumor cells have so many mutations. Good news on the research front. But bad news on the treatment front -- because therapies that target a certain gene may be largely ineffective in controlling cancer.

"This is very bad news, because it means that cancer cells in a tumor will have mutations that protect them from therapeutics," says lead researcher Dr. Lawrence Loeb, professor of pathology and biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, who presented his findings February 18 at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Loeb says chemotherapy drugs target specific oncogenes -- genes that affect the malignancy of a cell -- but if cancer cells are mutator cells, then a single tumor may have cells with all sorts of oncogenes. And while chemotherapy may kill some cancerous cells, millions of others will live on.

It's not all bad news, though, says Loeb who believes this research may help doctors determine the stage and malignancy of tumors by testing the number of mutations. It may also help researchers understand what makes a cancer cell a mutator and how to slow the rate of mutation.

"The idea is that if you might normally get exposed to something in the environment at 20 years old that would give you cancer by age 55, then if we cut the mutation rate in half, you might not get cancer until age 90, and you may even die of something else before that," Loeb explained.

To the consternation of small business and medical insurers alike, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced sweeping reform in health care coverage with a proposal of universal health care for all Californians. Currently, 6.5 million residents who live in the state are without the security and safety of medical health care coverage.

Schwarzenegger, who is now being accused of sounding more Democrat than Republican, suggests his new $12 billion dollar health care plan be paid with fees levied on businesses, insurers, doctors and hospitals, and that 85 percent of every insurance premium dollar be spent on the insured in patient care. Insurers would be required to make all-things-equal in offering health insurance based on a community-rating model, as opposed to charging higher premiums for those who fall into a high-risk category. In addition, insurance companies would not be able to deny coverage. All persons who apply for health insurance would be guaranteed coverage.

Employers would be required to provide health insurance to all workers or pay 4 percent of their payrolls to the state; doctors would pay a new tax of 2 percent; and hospitals would pay a new tax of 4 percent.

The number of medically-uninsured in this country is growing yearly, and it is an issue that cannot be ignored. Those without medical insurance postpone seeing a physician, and when we are talking about cancer, delayed diagnosis and treatment can often mean the difference between life and death.

Recent surveys have indicated that even the insured are beginning to wonder if they will be able to afford quality health care in the future, as the cost of care continues to rise. It is not lost on politicians that health care is an important issue with the voters of this country, and those who wish to garner more votes will tackle these concerns.

In fairness, I am not suggesting politicians are solely motivated to act based on popular vote, but elections do have a way of clarifying the issues that are important to the citizens of this country and the resulting changes that can occur as a result of defined focus.

Schwarzenegger is not alone in his efforts to affect change. In December, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden introduced a new proposal to provide affordable, high quality, private health coverage for everyone regardless of where they work or live with the Healthy Americans Act.

The current system is simply not working for nearly 46.6 million people who are without health insurance coverage, according to statistics provided by U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. The solution will not be an easy one, but a solution is needed. Schwarzenegger has made a bold move, but one that will be made by other political leaders in this country as we lead up to the 2008 presidential elections. For the every day citizen, the time is overdue for the realignment of a health care system that is teetering out-of-balance and in a seriously off-kilter orbit.

Related posts:

Uninsured: the hard wind batters the brittle tree
Cancer survivors not getting medical attention or medications
Two paychecks away and cancer into the abyss
Healthy Americans Act: health insurance for every citizen

The January 2007 issue of Reader's Digest is full of little tidbits of health news. Like how patients are losing patience with hospital emergency rooms.

In an effort to cut the waiting time for ER patients -- the average wait time is three hours and 42 minutes -- some hospitals are offering incentives. One Ohio hospital is giving $25 gift cards to those made to wait longer than 30 minutes. Patients at three Virginia hospitals get a pair of movie tickets if they are not treated in 30 minutes, and a Nevada hospital is cutting fees for those who are not seen by a nurse within 15 minutes of arrival. The incentives appear to be working. One hospital cites a new wait average of 23 minutes and new patient satisfaction score of 90 percent.

In other Reader's Digest news, it is reported that people who weigh themselves daily as part of a diet and fitness routine are more likely to regain lost pounds than those who avoid the scale. And in another news brief, information about the transnasal esophagoscopy (TNE) is shared.

The TNE is an esophageal cancer screening procedure worth some attention. Few know about it's merits yet it may be a tool allowing earlier detection of a cancer often caught too late. It's a less risky procedure than tests requiring sedation, and the whole process is quite simiple. It merely involves numbing of the nose and insertion of an endoscope and tiny camera through the nostrils so pictures of the esophagus can be taken. This test is not recommended for symptom-free individuals -- just for those with a persistent cough or hoarseness, which are early signs of the disease.

There's more where all this comes from -- hiding among the pages of this month's Reader's Digest. So take a peek -- try a visit to www.rd.com -- because you're likely to find something geared just for you.

Jack Osbourne, son of rock legend Ozzy and colon cancer survivor Sharon Osbourne, recently stated that he blames his alcohol and drug addiction on his father. During his mother Sharon's diagnosis and treatment for colon cancer, the young Jack used alcohol and the powerfully addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin as a way to cope.

Jack is quoted as saying, "My problems peaked when mom was sick and dad was dealing with his problems the same way as I was, by drinking, so I had no one to turn to. I was just hanging out with my crowd drinking and doing drugs." Jack ended up in an addiction rehab clinic to get clean and sober.

This is no way excuses the badly-decided choices that Jack made when he turned to alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with his feelings, but there is a sharp focus and more than a bit of snarkiness to the news reports concerning Jack's blaming comment that misses a great opportunity in regard to discussing the impact a parent's cancer diagnosis has on children.

As the American Cancer Society (ACS) states, "Families face many complex issues when one of their members has cancer. There will probably be a time during a family's experience with cancer when psychosocial support services will be helpful in meeting the emotional needs of the family. There are teams of experts, each with a different focus, who offer support and are trained in how cancer affects a family." ACS offers a terrific resource for the family with the online publication of Helping Children When A Family Member Has Cancer.

The Family Doctor states, "Every person has a different way of handling news that a loved one has cancer. Many people react with shock, disbelief and even anger when they're first given the news." The Family Doctor's Cancer: Helping Your Family Help You offers advice on different questions a parent might have, such as:

• How will my family react to the news that I have cancer?
• Should I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How do I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How can I help my children cope with their feelings?
  

In 2002, when I drove home after being told I had cancer, I wondered and worried about how I was going to tell my children, how I could avoid the unavoidable shattering of innocence in their world, how to protect them from their own fear and pain? I sat outside in the car, trying to stare through the walls of our home, knowing that in the next five minutes I would be changing our lives forever with the news of my cancer diagnosis. I wanted to freeze time, to save the innocence, to keep the awful news from being true.

In the ACS online resource for families, it states, "Parents can have a powerful effect on how their children react to a crisis in the family. In the beginning this responsibility can feel like a huge weight, but it is possible for family members to learn how to deal with and even grow through the experience of having cancer in the family."

Support services can include individual counseling, family counseling, and support groups. If you do not know where to start, ask your physician or call the local hospital or local ACS office. Someone will be able to help you help your children, and all family members, navigate through the crisis of cancer, so that everyone becomes a survivor of cancer in the best way possible.