Author Leah Hager Cohen says her blog is inspired by her mother, for at least two reasons. One: it is because of her mom that she's a writer. "She has seen me for a writer my whole life, ever since I could make up stories and dictate them to her," says Cohen. Two: her mom is fighting ovarian cancer, has been since April 2006 when she was 62. Cohen's blog -- Love As a Found Object -- is for her mom and about her mom. It is quite a blog.

In an entry written in September 2006, Cohen shares:

My mother is perhaps the most energetic person I know, and my children, who collectively run a close second, have grown accustomed to having her set the pace when she is around. She's the one who persuaded me, six years ago, that the kids and I did not need a dining room nearly so much as we needed a "project room." She usually arrives for visits bearing the raw materials and mental blueprint for some art or engineering project into which she and the kids then plunge together. Even though we've all had months to get used to her cancer, her tiredness still seems strange, as does the chemo-haze from which she regards us more quietly than is her wont. She seems almost an imposter in this muffled state, so accustomed are we to having her lead us on capers and jaunts through real and metaphorical woods.

Cancer Schmancer is what actress and cancer survivor Fran Drescher titled her 2003 novel. Now, thanks to this spunky gal, there's a whole Cancer Schmancer movement taking place, a movement that will culminate this June with the launch of a non-profit organization with the name of -- you guessed it -- Cancer Schmancer.

Drescher says Cancer Schmancer is all about the politics of cancer education and funding, screening tests, early detection, the removal of carcinogens from women's products, and the often-dismissed truth that young women do get cancer.

Drescher, who for two years fought with doctors who persisted she was too young for uterine cancer -- she wasn't -- says her organization will raise awareness and change health policy to better promote diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of womens' cancers.

Aspirin, and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are known to halt the growth of some cancers, such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer, but no one could really explain why. Obviously, as a result it was believed that chronic inflammation might be leading to increased cancer risks. Still, no one could explain how any of this was happening enough to harness the ability to replicate it.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center researchers have announced the discovery of a novel tumor suppressor gene that works with NSAIDS to stop the growth of cancer cells.

"Current clinical trials are evaluating a range of NSAIDs for a variety of cancers without any clear vision of the best way to use them," states Towia Libermann, PhD, Director of the BIDMC Genomics Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The fact that upregulation of this single gene MDA-7/IL-24 -- correlated not only with cell death induction of numerous types of cancer but also among various diverse classes of NSAIDs, makes this discovery particularly exciting."

As a result of this discovery, researchers believe newer targeted cancer therapies can be developed. To read more about the discovery, visit Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center's Study Explains How NSAIDs Halt Cancer Growth.

Some of the previous posts we have on inflammation, cancer and aspirin are:

• Aspirin: amazing wonder drug in fighting cancer
• Inflammation link between rheumatoid arthritis and cancer
• What aspirin reveals about cancer

Oregon State University (OSU) researchers have been working on creating a purple tomato for several years and predict that one should be available in the local grocer's within two years. The eggplant purple tomato will have all the healthy tomato antioxidant lycopene goodness the red orbs offer now with the added benefit of blueberries nutrition in phytochemicals believed by some to offer cancer prevention functional food benefits.

According to OSU Professor Jim Myers, the new hybrid eggplant purple tomato will be the first true purple tomato. According to an OSU backgrounder on the purple tomatoes, hundreds of years ago, explorers discovered purple tomatoes in the wild, but those tomatoes never made it to the table because the fruit was small and some were poisonous. In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists collected seeds from these tomatoes and started to breed them with modern hybrids, making them safe to eat. They discovered that the new purple tomato, unlike the traditional red, contain high levels of anthocyanins, a chemical found in dark fruit pigments such as blueberries and grapes.

Some days, science is just plain fun.

Breast cancer survivor and journalist Laura Jensen Walker is author of Reconstructing Natalie, a story of about a young Christian woman diagnosed with breast cancer.

Walker uses humor to tell the tale of Natalie Moore getting dumped by her boyfriend when he finds out she has breast cancer; being shunned by friends; leaving her church; and attending the Boob Voyage party thrown before her double mastectomy.

There is new romance to be found as Natalie undergoes reconstruction and reconstructs her life. Walker believes strongly that women diagnosed with breast cancer need to laugh -- that humor is healing.

Reconstructing Natalie has been selected as the Women of Faith Novel of the Year. Walker is also the author of the autobiographical book Thanks for the Mammogram!

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have discovered a gene, NEDD9, that is present in more than one-third of melanoma skin cancer cases that have spread, that does not appear in melanoma skin cancer that has not spread. Melanoma isn't a big skin cancer killer on its own, it is the spreading of cancer from the original skin cancer tumor that makes melanoma deadly.

Using transgenic mice and inducing melanoma, the researchers were able to identify the NEDD9 gene in the mouse tumors and establish that the same gene in humans drives the spread of melanoma tumors. The researchers believe that this identification process can lead to the identification of other novel genes involved in cancer.

"This is a demonstration of the principle, that the mouse has similar genomic changes that are important for cancer, and we can use the mouse model as a filter to help us identify which gene is responsible for the cancer development and metastasis," said Dr. Lynda Chin, an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

I did not know -- until I was sitting in the Cancer Center receiving chemo for breast cancer last year -- that author Barbara Delinsky is a breast cancer survivor.  My sister handed me a book off the shelf in this infusion center filled to the brim with cancer patients, all seated neatly in a row on pink leather recliners.  I started flipping through the book -- called Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors -- when I realized it was written by a best-selling author I had read before.  Her novels have caught my attention on several occasions and have been some of the books I have had a hard time putting down.  This book was no different.

Uplift is a book full of anecdotes and advice and wisdom shared by every-day breast cancer survivors -- and the family, friends, and men in their lives too. Topics include chemo and hair, the workplace, humor, exercise, and religion, among others. And without medical jargon or statistical reports, readers learn from those who have been there -- and want to make the road easier for those who follow.

I had to put Uplift back on the shelf once my infusion was complete but days later, I received a package in the mail from a former co-worker and friend.  Inside the package was my very own personal Uplift.  I have read it and reread it.  I have loaned it out and recommended it and quoted from it.  It is truly uplifting. 

Karen de Balbian Verster, artist, writer and poet, is a breast cancer survivor. After her second cancer diagnosis she began attending art workshops at Gilda's Club and got back into painting, which she says was healing since painting uses a different part of her brain than writing. Currently, her artwork, including monotypes, monotype collages, oils and watercolors, are on display in Stroudsburg. Her writing brings us the book, Boob: A Story of Sex, Cancer and Stupidity, now published and available in bookstores.

Her novel is a fictional tale that begins with the reality of a terminal breast cancer diagnosis for Kyra Copperfield. But then Kyra is abducted by a serial killer who promises to delay killing her if she amuses him by telling stories about herself. The author, de Balbian Verster describes it as a Scheherazade meets Hannibal. Kyra figures it is a slow, painful death either way.

You have to admit, as far as inspirational breast cancer recovery books written by breast cancer survivors go, this one has a different twist. At least it's the first one I have run across involving a serial killer. Of the possible scenarios in what could be worse than being diagnosed with cancer -- and I can think of few things that could be worse -- being abducted by a serial killer certainly ranks right up there. For that, I tip my hat to the originality of the author. To learn more about the author, and to read an excerpt of her book, go here. She is as uniquely interesting as the premise of her novel.