Cancer Research UK is about to increase its wealth -- once a signed honeymoon photograph of the Prince and Princess of Wales is auctioned.

The photograph reportedly came from an unnamed member of the Royal Household and had been purchased by a collector. Taken on the Royal Estate at Balmoral just days after the wedding of Charles and Diana, it's Diana's signature prominently displayed on the photograph -- it reads, Lots of Love, Diana.

The auction, organized by a businesswomen whose lost her mother-in-law to breast cancer, will take place on June 9 at a charity ball at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square. It is expected to sell for £3,000.

Those venturing into space face a very serious occupational hazard -- cancer. The disease can be caused by radiation from the cosmic rays and solar flares astronauts encounter when they travel beyond the Earth's protective magnetic layer or magnetosphere.

British scientists are working on rectifying this problem by creating a Star Trek-style deflector shield to protect astronauts from radiation.

Think about this:

Scientists wish to mimic the magnetic field that protects the Earth with shields deployed around spacecraft and on the surfaces of planets to deflect harmful energetic particles.

Details, presented at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Preston, UK, include the following:

• The idea has been linked to the deflector shields that protect the USS Enterprise and other spacecraft on Star Trek. The shields, like on the TV show, could be switched on and off.

• In order to make the shield, scientists must generate a magnetic field and then fill it with ionized gas, or plasma. As energetic particles interact with the plasma, energy is sapped away from them, causing them to slow down.

• Protective shelters would not work on long-duration space journeys due to the drip of energized particles, thought to be as harmful as large solar storms.

"The nice thing is that magnet technology is really quite evolved here on Earth," says Dr. Mike Hapgood, from the Didcot-based research centre. The question is can you take it into space?"

A team from Rutherford-Appleton plans to build an artificial magnetosphere in the laboratory. They would eventually like to fly a test satellite which would test the technology in space.

Breast cancer drug tamoxifen, designed to cut recurrence in women with estrogen-receptor positive disease, has been shown to continue working long after women stop taking the drug. And two studies suggest it might also offer long-term protection for healthy women with high risk of developing breast cancer.

One such study found the drug decreases risk of hormone-sensitive breast cancer by 39 percent over 20 years. Another shows a 34 percent decrease for up to eight years after the therapy concludes.

Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, one study -- the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study, or IBIS -- looked at 7,145 women at high risk of breast cancer. And for the first time, clear evidence has surfaced in support of the merits of tamoxifen after the completion of treatment.

IBIS study participants took either a daily dose of tamoxifen or a placebo for five years. At the eight-year mark, 87 women who took the actual drug were diagnosed with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. And 129 women in the placebo group were diagnosed with the same disease.

In the second study, researchers from the Royal Marsden Hospital in London investigated 20-year data on 2,471 healthy women at high risk of breast cancer who took tamoxifen for six or seven years. Similar results were found.

Despite the benefits of tamoxifen as a preventative treatment, the drug is not currently approved for this use in the UK, where breast cancer is the most common form of female cancer.

Little Layla Schilling is just two-and-a-half years old -- and for more than one year of her short life, she has been fighting a rare liver cancer that spread to her lungs. But a series of medical interventions has worked miracles -- and Layla now gets to leave the hospital and head for home, where a belated Christmas gift from Santa awaits her -- a trampoline.

When Layla's cancer was first discovered, doctors at Royal Children's Hospital in Australia immediately removed 80 percent of her liver to stop the tumor growth. Several months later, cancerous spots appeared again in her liver -- and in her lungs too.

Five months of intensive chemotherapy did its job -- and Layla's mom, Sara Wright, says her daughter is now doing well.

"The chemotherapy has successfully shrunk the tumors in her lung and what was left was removed by surgery," she said. "The tumor in her liver is under control, but the only way to be sure it doesn't come back is to have a transplant."

While a transplant is in Layla's future, she is focused right now on the moment. As every child should be.

Bubbling from the earth in Balmoral, Scotland is a mineral water that appears to slow the growth of cancerous cells -- so say scientists who tested the mineral water against tap water. In laboratory testing, the mineral water slowed colon cancer cells 62 percent better than tap water; slowed liver cancer by 35 percent, and slowed cervical cancer by 21 percent better than tap water.

Deeside Mineral Water first came to be known as offering health benefit in 1760, when a local woman is reported to have been cured of Scrofula by drinking and bathing in the Balmoral waters. Back then, the waters were thought of as an agent in miraculous effect. Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and Queen Victoria are said to have been attracted to the area for this reason.

A Deeside Mineral Water spokesman is adamant in insisting that they do not believe that the bottled water holds out any promise of a miracle cure -- only that it might be considered a complementary therapy in conjunction with conventional medical treatments. We are certainly glad they made that clear.

From our understanding of the online literature published by the Deeside Mineral Water company, the bottled water needs to be consumed on a daily basis for a number of weeks to show benefit, and one would have to continue drinking the bottled water to maintain health benefits the mineral water is reported to offer. For more information, visit the Deeside Mineral Water website.

Thanks to a tip from a reader, I have just ordered my free Pink Ribbon 25-cent coin from The Breast Site. The Royal Canadian Mint, in partnership with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, has produced the 2006 Pink Ribbon Coin as a symbol of hope for a future when breast cancer does not take the lives of our loved ones. Thirty million coins have been produced and are only available in Canada, at participating Shopper's Drug Mart stores and through the Royal Canadian Mint -- and now through The Breast Site too. One free coin, the first of it's kind and available since April 2006, is offered to each reader who requests one.

The Breast Site serves as a guide for breast health products, services, and information. Featured on this site are facts and tips and news about breast cancer, breast surgery, breastfeeding, bras, and breast-themed books. What a valuable website with a valuable offer for a valuable coin.

Thanks to Anna for the tip!