She's the guru on breast cancer, the woman who writes the continually updated breast cancer bible. She's Dr. Susan Love, author of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, and in the May/June 2007 issue of MAMM magazine, she shares some of her latest thoughts.

On milk ducts

Dr. Love says all breast cancer begins in the milk ducts. If we want to get rid of breast cancer, she says, we need to understand where it starts. Until recently, we weren't able to do that. Now, doctors can numb the nipple, thread a catheter into a milk duct and sample the fluid, cells, carcinogens, and hormones. By looking at the location where cancer develops, there's the potential to find out how it started and how to prevent it. In March, Dr. Love's Research Foundation sponsored a conference on this topic.

On MRI

Dr. Love is not a big fan of MRI. It's overly sensitive and finds everything -- most of which is not cancer, she says. MRI leads women on wild goose chases so Dr. Love likes to reserve this test for women at high-risk.

Each year more than 211,000 American women learn they have breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in this country other than skin cancer. But breast cancer is not just a cancer that strikes women. Each year 1,700 men in this country will learn that they have breast cancer. About 500 men will die from the disease. So it is just as important for men to know the signs they might experience if developing breast cancer and act on them immediately with a visit to a doctor. It is important to know your body and to recognize changes that might be taking place.

Signs of Male Breast Cancer

1. Abnormal lumps or swelling in either the breast, nipple, or chest muscle
2. Skin dimpling or puckering
3. Nipple retraction (turning inward)
4. Redness or scaling of the nipple or breast skin
5. Nipple discharge

Wouldn't it be great if we could find breast cancer long before something appears on a mammogram?

An FDA approved test called the Halo Breast Pap Test System might be able to do just that by collecting Nipple Aspirate Fluid (NAF). The test is designed to detect abnormal cells in the breast. The Halo system can identify benign disease as well as abnormal ductal cells that can be precursors to cancer.

Some research has suggested that ductal fluid excreted from the nipple can be used to identify a women's specific risk of breast cancer. A women with abnormal cells in the fluid has a four to five times greater risk of developing breast cancer.

Think about this:

The introduction of the HALO Breast Pap Test has been compared to the introduction of the Cervical Pap Test in the 1950s, which is widely credited with reducing cervical cancer death rates by more than 70 percent through the identification of abnormal cells in the cervix. Whether the same can be said for the breast pap test remains to be seen, but it is likely that the screen will be adopted by more OB-GYNs as oncologists push for ever earlier identification of cancer.

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.

He an unlikely breast cancer survivor -- because he is a man. But still he developed the disease that roughly 1,700 men will contract this year. And while that statistics pertaining to women and men with breast cancer differ -- women are 100 times more likely to get the disease -- the biology of the disease is exactly the same. Under the microscope, breast cancer is breast cancer. It does not behave any differently in female and male bodies. And detection, treatment, and survival rates are nearly identical for both sexes.

Bob Riter, 49, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. Now in remission, he works as the associate director of the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance in New York where he speaks out and educates the public about this widespread disease. He believes his personal story, with its different twist, prompts people to really listen.

Riter's audiences learn that breast cancer in men usually presents itself as a lump in the chest, dimpling of the skin, or changes in the nipple. Doctors can perform breast exams, mammography, and biopsy to investigate the possibility of the cancer that typically strikes men between the ages of 60 and 70. Treatment includes mastectomy to remove the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy.

It was the presence of blood coming from his nipple that sent Riter to his doctor -- and then to a surgeon who declared a diagnosis of breast cancer. Riter is somewhat of an exception because he reported to his doctor immediately. Most men do not. Many do not even realize they are at risk of breast cancer so they ignore symptoms. They also may go underground with their suspicions of breast cancer because of embarrassment. Both can lead to diagnoses of more advanced diseases.

Riter is doing his part to enlighten both men and women that men are not immune to breast cancer, that they should be active in monitoring their breast health. "I really like to go to national breast cancer meetings," he says, "because a lot of people know that men get breast cancer in theory, but until you have a face to associate with it, it's fairly abstract. And so I'm sort of that face."

For me, it's the small things that matter most as I heal from breast cancer. Like a hand on my shoulder, a note in the mail, a phone call to see how I'm doing -- and a happy boobie card my friend and fitness trainer gave me the other day. I went to her house for a training session, and she greeted me at the door with a purple piece of paper cut into the shape of breasts. Butterfly stickers marked the nipple areas and the words Good Luck, Jacki were written happily in red marker. Just the day before I received this cheery gift, we had spoken about my upcoming mammogram and ultrasound for a suspicious lump I had discovered in my breast. We have spoken about my whole cancer journey over the course of my whole training journey -- so she knows all about the ups and downs. And when she sensed my dip in spirits, she reached out, with love and concern -- and with happy boobies.

My mammogram and ultrasound turned out just fine. Nothing is wrong. What I felt is just normal tissue. My cancer is not back. So my spirits are back up -- and my happy boobies are hanging on my refrigerator as a reminder of the support that still surrounds me every day.

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?

Parents want what is best for baby. No parent wants to expose their baby to cancer-causing chemicals. Because you cannot always rely on baby care product makers to offer only the safest and the best products for your baby, the Environmental Working Group offers Skin Deep, an online searchable safety ratings database of brand-by-brand baby care products.

Skin Deep's database of baby care product categories includes: after sun products; anti-itch/rash creams; baby bubble baths; baby lotions; baby oils; baby powders; baby shampoos; baby soaps; baby sunscreens; baby toothpastes; baby wipes; cradle cap treatments; diaper creams; lip balm/treatments; and nipple cream for mothers.

While every baby care product on the market is not yet included in the Skin Deep baby care products database, parents can find many of the major brands listed. Each product comes complete with a safety score that allows parents to shop wisely.

Of special note: Parents can be safe from cancer-causing personal care products too. Back in February, we featured Skin Deep's Campaign for Safe Cosmetics when it launched a searchable database of adult personal care products used every day that might contain chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other serious health issues. To learn more about this resource, go here.