On July 23, a milestone in presidential campaign history was delivered when Democratic presidential candidates fielded questions sent in via YouTube, a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. On September 17, Republican candidates will take part in the second CNN-YouTube debate.

Aired live on CNN, this unusual debate featured 39 serious questions -- about immigration, climate change, the voting system, even cancer.

Thirty-six-year-old Kim of Long Island, who pulls off her wig mid-question, asks in her video clip about the millions of uninsured Americans who don't have access to preventative medical care.

Join Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) for a free educational teleconference titled Medical and Quality-of-Life Updates from the 43rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The teleconference will be held on Monday, June 11, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (EDT). You can participate by using any telephone or by computer using Real Network Player or Windows Media Player. Register online at www.lbbc.com or call 610-645-4567.

This teleconference brings to you groundbreaking research presented at the largest annual conference of cancer professionals in the United States. Some topics discussed will be:

• Advances in surgical, hormonal and chemotherapy treatments
• Using diet and nutrition to improve quality of life
• Clinical trials measuring the long-term impact of treatment on health and well-being
• New information on how to treat and manage metastatic breast cancer

Following the speaker presentation there will be an interactive question and answer session.

If you have just been diagnosed or are ready to go through treatments it is important that you understand your disease and the therapies recommended. A great website, www.webmed.com has a list of questions that you should bring along to your next appointment.

Remember -- Knowledge is power!

10 Cancer Questions for Your Medical Oncologist About Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy, or Immunotherapy

1. Why are you recommending this treatment for me? Why is it preferable to others?
2. What does this treatment do, exactly? How well does it usually work?
3. What are the risks and side effects of this treatment?
4. How long will I need this treatment?
5. Where will I go to get this treatment?
6. What should I expect from the treatment itself? How long will it take?
7. Should I bring a friend or family member with me to treatment?
8. After treatment, will I need time to recover? Will I be able to drive myself home? Will I need to miss work?
9. Should I make any changes to my diet or lifestyle during or after treatment?
10. How can I reach you if I have concerns or further questions?

10 Cancer Questions for Your Surgeon or Surgical Oncologist

1. Why are you recommending this surgery for me? Why is this treatment preferable to others?
2. What will this surgery accomplish, exactly? How well does it usually work?
3. What are the risks of this operation?
4. How should I prepare for this surgery?
5. What will happen during the procedure?
6. How long will I need to stay in the hospital?
7. What will my recovery be like?
8. What complications should I look for?
9. When can I go back to work?
10. How can I reach you if I have concerns or further questions?

10 Cancer Questions to Ask the Radiation Oncologist

1. Why are you recommending this treatment for me? Why is it preferable to others?
2. What does this radiation therapy do, exactly? How well does it usually work?
3. What are the risks and side effects of radiation therapy?
4. How many weeks will I need this treatment?
5. Where will I go to get this treatment?
6. What should I expect from the treatment itself? What will happen? How long will it last?
7. Should I bring a friend or family member with me to treatment?
8. After treatment, will I need time to recover? Will I need to miss work?
9. Should I make any changes to my diet or lifestyle during or after treatment?
10. How can I reach you if I have concerns or further questions?

---

Today I offer you not so much a Thought for the Day but a Question for the Day. Before I ask my pressing question, though, I want you to consider this story.

Diagnosed with a rare malignant melanoma on her retina in 2001, Ann Guthrie, a South Carolina wife and mother of two grown sons, endured radiation and chemotherapy. The treatments shrunk Guthrie's tumor, but another mass appeared two years later, forcing the removal of her right eye.

At about the same time Guthrie lost her eye, cancer was discovered in her lungs. It was inoperable. Then cancer landed in her brain. And now, without any approved treatment avenues, Guthrie is out of options.

Like many people with terminal illnesses, this woman is willing to try just about anything -- a clinical trial, experimental drugs, risky treatments -- to extend her life. If she's going to die anyway, why not? She just might live longer. And if she doesn't, she could at least help advance science by offering herself up as a sort of guinea pig.

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed changes that would make it easier for patients to access options like these, it's just not that simple right now.

There are ethical issues -- like weighing the needs of people who think anything is better than death against the need of society to prove drugs and treatments work safely. The only way to ensure a sort of balance is through clinical trials -- and letting anyone participate in clinical trials, for example, would make the results harder to interpret.

And there are medical and legal risks. What if terminally ill patients end up in worse shape after a treatment with an experimental drug, for example? What if the FDA or a physician is considered responsible for adverse drug reactions?

Denying terminal patients their last bits of hope is difficult. "It's a hard discussion to have with a patient and his family," says one doctor. "There's a lot of tears. We all would love to be able to get them access to some form of therapy."

And now for my question:

What do you think about terminally ill cancer patients and their access to anything that might extend -- or save -- their lives?

Magnus Magnusson, former host of the BBC quiz show Mastermind, died just days ago after a four-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He died peacefully at his Glasgow home at the age of 77.

When a question or concern or worry related to breast cancer pops into my head, I typically find myself parked in front of my computer in search of instant answers, instant comfort, instant wisdom. There are several different websites I consult -- each one different from the others, each one complementing the others. They are my reference tools, my handbooks, my encyclopedias. They offer me a clear picture of a confusing, cloudy disease. And here they are -- seven super websites that have been become staples in my life.

It's a question that could face any one of us at any time -- the question over whether to pay the high cost of cancer treatment, when it could send us into debt, or to discontinue treatment in order to save money for the family members who will survive us. Dying of lung cancer, Carolyn Hobbs was confronted with this exact question when considering a new biotechnology drug -- Erbitux -- that she learned cost $1,800. The drug may have extended her life but she determined it wasn't worth it -- and she refused the treatment.

During the last decade, expensive new treatments -- some upwards of $50,000 -- have given some patients their first real fighting chance against disease. The problem with these treatments, however, is that most patients will only survive an extra few months. A lucky few may survive for years. For some, maybe the small fortune these few months or years cost is worth it. For others, squandering their life savings on an extended death sentence is not worth it.

For me -- right now -- I believe I would do anything possible to ensure a longer life. And according to one poll, nearly one-third of Americans faced with death would also do anything possible to survive just a bit longer. This percentage is up from one-fifth in 1990. So I have some company in my corner. But I have not walked in the shoes that require this type of decision. I can only speculate about how I might approach this life-and-death decision. And hopefully, I will never have to make it.

I have been a cheerleader for the breast cancer drug Herceptin ever since I began receiving it. I had my initial worries -- about an allergic reaction that I knew caused death within 24 hours for a handful of women and about possible toxicity to the heart -- but after faring well through my first dose and having now successfully completed my one year obligation to the drug, with no allergic reaction or heart damage, I have come to believe the Herceptin might just be the gem of a drug that the media says it is. Yet now I've read an article that makes me question what I really know about Herceptin -- and the studies that surround it and the statistics that back it and the messages sent out over the lines of mass communication to every day, non-medical people like me.

While research findings suggest there might be a slight benefit for women including soy in the diet as a measure of breast cancer prevention, there is doubt that soy has any substantial benefit, and might actually cause more harm than good.

"At this point, women should not be taking high-dose soy supplements, especially those who are breast cancer survivors and women at increased risk for the disease," said Bruce Trock at Johns Hopkins' Brady Urological Institute and Kimmel Cancer Center. "We don't have long-term data on the effects of these supplements, and there is some evidence that they could be harmful."

Trock has research to back up his statement. In animal testing, soy products showed an increase in tumor growth. In human studies, they were able to observe changes in breast cell growth that might actually increase risk for breast cancer.

In the 1980's, soy became popular as a cancer prevention food after early laboratory data showed that high doses of compounds within soy, called isoflavones, may block estrogens, promote cell death and have anti-inflammatory qualities. Asian women, who have much lower rates of breast cancer, include tofu and bean curd, both soy foods, in their daily diet, and this was held up as an example of the benefits of soy. But, as Trock points out, "We need to take into account that Asian women are more physically active, drink less alcohol, have children earlier, and their entire diet is different from Western women, all of which decrease their breast cancer risk." The jury is still out on the subject of soy, and from the estrogen-positive breast cancer survivors I know, most are steering clear of soy at this time because there are too many questions still unanswered.