Researchers are reporting that a new vaccine designed to treat breast cancer appears to be safe in women with advanced disease. It showed signs of slowing down tumor growth too.

The Neuvenge vaccine, made by Dendreon Corporation -- maker of the Provenge prostate cancer vaccine -- targets the aggressive Her-2 positive form of breast cancer, which affects 20 to 30 percent of breast cancer patients. Using immune cells from a cancer patient's own body, Neuvenge is a tailor-made therapy.

Reports about Neuvenge, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicate the vaccine did not cause any serious side effects and of the 18 women who participated in the Phase I study, there was a reduction in the size of a tumor in one patient. In three other women, the disease seemed to stabilize for as long as a year.

Just recently, European researchers announced that MRI scans offer a new way to detect breast cancer in its earliest form. They can even prevent cancer among high-risk women.

Better than standard mammograms, MRI can detect a nonmalignant tumor called ductal carcinoma in-situ, or DCIS. Once found, the lesion can be surgically removed before it becomes cancerous.

Think about this: It is believed that almost all breast cancer starts out as DCIS. And this: if MRI were the gold standard breast cancer screening tool, we might be able to prevent a lot more breast cancer cases than we do now. It seems researchers agree.

Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a targeted therapy used for treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer. Results of a Phase II clinical trial showed that Herceptin might have a roll in treating patients with HER2 positive advanced bladder cancer.

The researchers conducted the clinical trial to examine the effectiveness of Herceptin along with chemotherapy in a little under fifty patients with advanced bladder cancer. The chemotherapy given with the Herceptin was paclitaxel, carboplatin, and gemcitabine.

This was a small study and research will have to continue to see if this treatment is something that will be put into mainstream use. The study concluded that:

• 11 percent of patients experienced a complete disappearance of detectable cancer.
• 59 percent of patients experienced a partial disappearance of detectable cancer.

Hope is a complex concept and one that is often misunderstood by many people including health care professionals. Many people tend to interchange the terms of wishing, optimism, and hope, but the three have significant differences.

Wishing is usually specific in that you wish for something you desire. It is positive in nature. Optimism emphasizes the positive aspects of a situation and is considered to be a positive trait. Both of these have places in our lives but to live with a disease like cancer and to get through treatments, navigate health care systems, and to overcome society's negative views about cancer as a death sentence, a person must have a strong sense of hope.

In stumbling upon an article published by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship written by Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD entitled "You Have The Right To Be Hopeful", I realized that without this inner strength, this determined will power, this drive, that hope creates, there would be a lot less survivors in this disease. It is a good read and I am passing along the link to the free PDF file for others to enjoy and learn from.

1. Hope constitutes an essential experience in the human condition.
2. Hope means desirability of personal survival and the ability of the individual to exert a degree of influence on the surrounding world.
3. Hope is necessary for healthy coping.
4. Hope is a cognitive affective resource that is a psychological asset.
5. Hope is a mental willpower and is a sense of mental energy that helps move a person toward a goal.

Femara (letrozole) provides both anticancer responses and disease stabilization in a significant number of patients with recurrent, estrogen receptor positive ovarian cancer. The results of the study were published in Clinical Cancer Research.

Femara blocks levels of estrogen in the body, ultimately reducing or preventing growth of estrogen positive cancer cells. Femara has been demonstrated to be effective for estrogen positive breast cancer, but has not yet had a clear influence in women with ovarian cancer.

Forty two patients were part of a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of Femara. At three months, 42 percent of patients achieved disease stabilization and 9 percent achieved a regression of their disease. At over six months, 26 percent of patients still did not have progression of their disease measured by CA125 levels in the blood.

The researchers concluded that Femara may provide an effective and well tolerated treatment alternative for patients with recurrent, estrogen positive ovarian cancer.

Women treated with Herceptin (trastuzumab) in combination with chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer showed that after five years the risk of congestive heart failure did not increase with time.

The findings of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) were presented at the 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago last week.

Heart damage occurs in around 5 percent of patients treated with Herceptin. It is the most significant side effect; women with existing heart conditions cannot take the drug. The study showed that women were either susceptible to heart problems or they weren't. The risk of long-term problems is the same as the risk that is there from the beginning.

Drugs currently in trials for obesity and diabetes may soon be fast-tracked for use in the fight against breast cancer. Typically, it takes many years to research and develop new drugs. But these already-developed drugs, if successful, could reach the market much quicker.

The drugs, believed to work by blocking the enzyme PTP1B, could help breast cancer patients because the enzyme is found in high levels in about 40 percent of these patients.

Studies on mice show blocking production of the enzyme significantly slowed tumor development. In some cases, it stopped the spread of the cancer and it might even stop some tumors from forming.

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.

Femara (letrozole) is an aromatase inhibitor that works by suppressing the production of estrogen. In postmenopausal women estrogen is still produced in the body by the adrenal gland. Decreasing this production is a way of decreasing the risk of recurrence.

Tamoxifen on the other hand works by blocking the estrogen receptors on the cancer cell itself resulting in slower growth of the cell or cell death. Tamoxifen can be given to post or premenopausal women but Femara would only be prescribed to women that are postmenopausal. The reason being, is that a premenopausal women will still have estrogen produced by the ovaries. Femara would not be effective in this instance.

A Phase III clinical trial that is ongoing shows preliminary results that Femara is superior than Tamoxifen in women with early stage disease that are postmenopausal. The results of the study were published in the Annals of Oncology.

On Tuesday, researchers announced that a three-drug cocktail may help women with HER2-positive breast cancer better than any other drug used on its own. About one quarter of women with breast cancer make up this HER2 category.

Tests on mice revealed using the three drugs along with breast cancer drug tamoxifen helped wipe out tumors altogether. And the tumors did not come back. This is the first time mice were cured of a very aggressive human breast tumor. Incidentally, when a single drug was used, tumors returned within several weeks.

The three wonder drugs used in this study -- all are monoclonal antibodies that precisely target certain aspects of tumors -- are the experimental drug pertuzumab; trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin; and gefitinib, or Iressa.

Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, this study supports the notion that HER2-positive tumors eventually become resistant to one drug and attacking them on several fronts seems to work better.

Breast cancer drug Herceptin has been approved in Europe for use with hormonal therapy for postmenopausal patients with HER2 and hormone receptor positive metastatic disease.

Herceptin, made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, is already approved in Europe for early and metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.

This new approval is based on data from an international late stage clinical trial showing the combination of Herceptin with hormonal therapy doubled the median progression-free survival time.

My friend's husband lost his mother to liver cancer during the wee hours of Sunday morning. He had traveled with his family from Ohio to Florida expecting to take his mom home with him so she could spend her last months where she once lived.

Steve never got to take his mom home. She died just days after he landed in Florida. Still, I am confident he won't return to Ohio empty-handed. His positive and healthy perspective on losing his mom will surely keep him company.

I got to see Steve and Kim -- my very best friend whose bouncy ringlets I envied long before I got my own post-chemotherapy curls -- on the same day Steve's mom died. They needed to get away and wanted a distraction for their two small children.

I am honored to have been chosen as my friends' destination -- not only so they could begin to heal from their loss, but because I gained a renewed sense of calm about death and dying during the time we talked and laughed and reminisced.

Steve's mom, 69, died at home in the loving arms of hospice caretakers who offered her round-the-clock care. During her final hours, she received a bath, a back rub, and a massage with body lotion. She sent non-verbal messages to her family members indicating she wished to be alone and once she had convinced everyone to head for bed, she took her final breaths. She died facing a wall, in contrast to her usual position in which she faced the door, as if to welcome all visitors. Her final resting pose was perhaps her way of saying good-bye. Steve sees it this way.

Just moments after Steve's mom was driven away in a funeral home car, Steve saw the clouds part. And then the rain fell. "Mom just figured out how to turn on the water," Steve said.

I don't think I'll ever forget this remark. Or the fact that the rain didn't last for very long on Sunday. The day Steve's mom died was gorgeous, glorious, and sunny.

There's so much more we talked about -- like the convertible Steve's mom drove and how he thought about placing her urn, her photo, and a scarf in the seat and taking his mom for one last spin before turning the car in -- and we passed the day in a celebratory manner. This, I think, is exactly what Steve's mom would have wanted.

You've surely known kids whose parents smoke declare their repulsion for the habit. The health risk, the expense, the filth of smoking seem to deter many youngsters from following in the footsteps of mom and dad. Theoretically, anyway. In practice, these same kids may fall prey to the very act they vowed to reject.

How about kids raised in households filled with sugary snacks and drinks, foods packed with fat, salt, and calories, and parents with expanding waistlines? Seems only natural these children, despite good intentions, end up struggling with healthful eating and weight management.

We are what our parents teach us. It's all we know for a good many years. And by the time we are able to make our own independent decisions, it's often too late. Our parents' actions and values are already programmed within us -- and it takes hard work to switch things up.

So here's my plea for this Sunday morning: do your kids a favor and become a positive role model. Don 't just tell your little ones what is right and healthy and virtuous -- show them. Let your behavior be the gold standard now, so that later, it's likely to be what your sweet babies will fall back on.

Here are seven ways to get started:

Feed 'em well
If kids learn healthy eating habits early, they're likely to stick with them. Offer whole grains options (rice, bread, pasta) and snacks that are not in the junk food group. Don't even buy the stuff you may later wish to clear out of your cupboard. Guests at our house are offered two drink options -- water or milk. Why? Because if we have juice (it's loaded with sugar) or soda (also sugary and calorie-laden), our kids just can't hold back. But if we don't have these beverages, they are never an option. Out of sight, out of mind.

Keep 'em moving
Take your kids to the park, get them running around your backyard, take them swimming, organize a kid-friendly football game, invest in a kite. Quiet activities are also good -- and necessary -- but when in doubt about how to entertain your busy little bees, make them move!

Let 'em see you sweat
You need to keep moving too. Not only for your own well-being -- that's obvious -- but so your kids see your physical activity as a staple of healthy living. Teach your kids to do push-ups and sit-ups and do them together. Jump rope, run laps at a local track, ride bikes, or dance. Just don't expect your kids to stay active if your idea of exercise is flipping through TV channels.

No TV
Turn off that TV. Rid your household of junk-food commercials, mind-numbing content, and addictive inactivity. Let TV be a treat -- a small one -- and not an expectation.

No smoking
Need I explain? It's unhealthy, costly, dirty, and a sure contributor to cancer. Try with every ounce of your being to keep this habit away from your impressionable children.

No stress
Some stress is unavoidable. Some is even healthy. But the kind of stress that hurts our tummies, gives us headaches, and threatens our health should be minimized. We must do our best to control our own stress so its effects don't spill over. And we must teach our kids how to cope too. Fortunately, some of the techniques listed above also work for this category -- physical activity, for example, does wonders for lowering stress. We can become experts at deep breathing -- have your kids practice with you. And we can teach a bit of distraction. If homework is making kids crazy, go with them on a short walk where they can regroup and return to the task with a clear head.

No double standards
We simply cannot say one thing and do another. Smoking while preaching the dangers of the habit just doesn't make sense. Saying "no" to sweets with your hand in the cookie jar is downright unfair. Carrying around extra weight and demanding physical fitness is simply ineffective. So make a commitment to yourself and your kids that you will do as you say. It's the only way.

Tykerb has been approved by the FDA for use in conjunction with the chemotherapy drug Xeloda. Tykerb is a cancer medication that more precisely targets tumors without killing lots of healthy cells in the process.

Herceptin and Tykerb target a protein called HER-2/neu but work in different ways. Herceptin targets the outside of the HER2 protein and Tykerb works from the inside of the cell. This difference can give advanced breast cancer patients another drug to switch to if Herceptin stops working for them.

Glaxo said that Tykerb will be available in two weeks. The results of a study showed that Tykerb worked so well that the international study was stopped early and all the participants were offered the drug.

The FDA said it was too early to know if women taking Tykerb and Xeloda would live longer than those taking the latter drug alone.

Dr. Steven Galson, FDA drugs chief, said "Today's approval is a step forward in making new treatments available for patients who have progression of their breast cancer after treatment with some of the most effective breast cancer therapies available."

My gut hasn't always guided me through life's most difficult decisions and dilemmas. It wasn't until I felt a lump in my breast more than two years ago that my gut kicked into gear and told me something very important.

"It's cancer," my insides told me one week before the surgeon who did my biopsy called.

"It's cancer," the surgeon said. I didn't tell him, but I thought it: "I know."

I also knew prior to surgery that my cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes. My gut told me this too. It also told me the chemotherapy drug Taxol was not right for me -- since my cancer had not spread -- despite the urging of one oncologist that I accept this treatment. I would have gone on gut instinct alone in my rejection of this medication but another doctor weighed in and agreed with my gut, so I had solid backing on this decision.

Many have dismissed hunches like these and have written off those who believe in them as screwballs, says writer Chip Brown in the March 2007 issue of The Oprah Magazine. But as Brown shares after peering into the world of gut instinct, there are 100 million nerve cells in the gut. They run on autopilot, regulate digestion, play a critical role in the body's immune system, and control mood-altering neurotransmitters identical to those in the brain.

The gut is essentially a second brain. It was a "gut feeling" that led Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, to begin exploring the possibilities of overnight delivery and Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, to begin mass marketing coffee. Wall Street professionals make millions on their gut feelings, sportscasters make startling predictions based on gut guidance, and entrepreneurs launch thriving businesses because of the inklings that rumble in their tummies.

You may or may not be a gut thinker yourself. But I've stumbled upon a gut exercise -- thanks to psychotherapist Nancy Napier --and I'd like for you to consider it the next time you find yourself stuck at a crossroads, unsure of where to turn. You never know, the direction you seek may be swirling around in your midsection, just waiting for a call to action.

Think about this:

You are wavering between two choices. Find yourself a quiet, serene place where there will be no disruptions. Now sit down. Take a moment to settle and focus on the issue you want to explore. Then choose one side. Think about this side and notice what happens in your gut. Do you feel a tightening and gripping or a softening and warming? Are the sensations pleasant or uncomfortable? Notice your thoughts. Are they positive or negative? Give yourself some time to feel your gut and your mind responding.

Now shift to the other side. Think about the previous questions, and try to chart what your body gut is saying.

While you may not get a gut answer at first, if you come back with the question several times, you'll likely hear just what your gut wants you to know.