On Friday, Walgreen Co. was ordered by a jury to pay $25.8 million to the family of a cancer patient given a medication that caused a stroke and then several years later, death.

Beth Hippely was prescribed Warfarin, a blood thinner, in 2002 while being treated for breast cancer. According to court documents, the prescription she received at a Walgreen's pharmacy was 10 times what it should have been. The overdose caused a cerebral hemorrhage which led to permanent bodily injury, disability, pain, and then death. Hippely, a mother of three, died at the age of 46. Apparently, the error occurred when a 19-year-old pharmacy technician misfiled the prescription.

Hippely's family has been seeking justice for five years.

Back in the news: the link between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer. This time, the connection is seemingly more conclusive than before, when some argued that many factors influence the risk of breast cancer, that HRT could not do the job all on its own.

Now, two separate studies offer up powerful evidence that HRT is linked to tumor growth. Case in point: when use of the therapy drops, so do incidences of breast cancer.

New figures in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest there have been 16,000 fewer cases of breast cancer nationwide since mid-2002, when women stopped taking their hormone pills following the federal Women's Health Initiative announcement connecting the therapy with increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, and heart attack.

Many did not want to believe HRT was to blame for so many breast cancer diagnoses. And maybe it's not the actual cause of the disease, but the fuel for tumors trying to grow.

These new findings do not appear to be a statistical fluke, says one doctor. Numbers have been computed and re-computed, and the message is clear: HRT is strongly implicated as the guilty party. There is just no other culprit, says a statistician at the National Cancer Institute.

Wyeth, maker of Premarin and Prempro -- two forms of hormone therapy -- continues to caution women against drawing any conclusions about HRT and breast cancer. There still may be broader explanation for the decline in cases, say their spokespeople.

Aspirin and painkillers such as ibuprofen have been deemed too risky for use in the prevention of colon cancer, according to a federal task force.

The risk of intestinal bleeding, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems led the US Preventative Services Task Force to conclude that taking more than 300 milligrams per day of drugs like Motrin, Advil, and Aleve is just too risky to outweigh the potential benefits of preventing cancer. And while taking less than 100 milligrams of such drugs can reduce the risk of heart disease, it does nothing to lower the rate of colon cancer.

Details about this task force study are published in Monday's issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to the results of an international study, postmenopausal women who have taken tamoxifen for early stage estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer for two to three years might increase their chances of survival by switching to newer breast cancer drugs called aromatase inhibitors.

Study researchers found this drug switch-up reduced the number of events linked to poor survival by 32 percent -- although no difference has been found in overall survival at this early point in the trial.

"These findings provide some limited evidence to advise all women being administered tamoxifen to switch, even though this approach is not devoid of potentially serious side effects," say experts at the National Cancer Institute.

Side effects appear to be minimal, however, and the up side of treatment with aromatase inhibitors is the fact that they don't seem to carry the risk of death from other causes like with tamoxifen, which can cause stroke or endometrial cancer.

This study is expected to be published in the March 15 issue of the journal Cancer.

Survival for childhood cancers has increased dramatically over the years. Researchers are now evaluated long term side effects from childhood survivors of brain tumors and leukemia who received cranial radiation therapy (CRT).

A clinical trial was conducted that evaluated the risk of stroke later in life among survivors included 37 patients who had been diagnosed with leukemia and 63 patients with brain tumors that had been treated with CRT. Their rates of stroke were compared to stroke rates of their siblings who had not been diagnosed with childhood cancer.

The researchers concluded that increased doses of CRT increase the risk of a stroke later in life. Patients who have received prior CRT may wish to speak with their physician regarding their individual risk of a stroke.

Sometimes drinking alcohol is healthy. And sometimes drinking alcohol is harmful. Studies show that one drink per day -- compared with no drinking at all -- can reduce a woman's risk for heart disease and stroke by 50 percent. And other research indicates that older women who drink moderately have better cognitive skills. But there are also downsides for women who drink even moderate amounts of alcohol.

Even as little as one-half drink per day increases the risk of breast cancer -- possibly because alcohol raises estrogen blood levels which can promote growth of breast tumors. Women are also more likely than men to become dependent on alcohol and to experience other consequences too -- including damage to the brain and other organs. One in 13 adults in the United States has a serious alcohol problem -- and at least six million of these adults are women. And because the risk for alcohol-related health issues increase with age, older women should be especially careful of their alcohol intake for the purpose of maintaining health and limiting the odds of a breast cancer diagnosis.

In the interest of balancing the healthful and harmful effects of alcohol, The Harvard Women's Health Watch suggests that women over the age of 65 limit themselves to one drink per day. Or less.

The term Omega-3 has become well known in recent years with studies that this healthy fat found in fish and most other seafood can reduce the risk of cancer, and particularly prostate and breast cancer. Consumption of fish has been shown to have cardiovascular health benefits like reducing triglycerides and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Vicki's Broiled Lime Cilantro Salmon
1 whole side Salmon fillet, 3/4" thick 
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
2 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 lime sliced thinly

Combine cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and salt in bowl and mix well. Place fish on a plate or platter skin side down if the skin is still on, and pour mixture over fish. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. Spray non-stick cooking oil on broiler pan and place fish on pan. Place lime slices around on top of the fish. Place in oven about 12 inches from the heat and broil for about 6 minutes. Keep an eye on it as it broils because all ovens heat differently. Take fish out of oven and let stand for 3 to 4 minutes as fish will continue to cook on its own with the heat already in it.  Slice and serve.

Another option is you can grill the salmon with this same recipe but grill covered for about 4 to 5 minutes.

For over twenty years, the gold standard in long-term chemoprevention for women with estrogen-positive breast cancer was Tamoxifen. It seemed to work well in preventing recurrence of breast cancer for a certain percentage of women taking it for five years. Tamoxifen had its drawbacks though, as it was known to increase the risk for uterine cancer, blood clots and strokes. But there was nothing else that worked as well at preventing breast cancer from coming back, so women took it and hoped for the best.

A few months ago, researchers found that raloxifene, known by most as Evista, worked just as well as Tamoxifen with fewer of the potentially life-threatening side-effects of Tamoxifen. Seemed like good news at the time. But as I like to point out on a semi-regular basis, I feel there is a rush to swallow the latest newest pill before taking a long look at the potential dangers. Every pill comes with dangers. It is a matter of calculated risks when deciding to take a drug that might save your life only to cause a whole new set of medical problems.

And now Eli Lilly, Evista's drug maker, has come out with a new warning that its drug, previously thought to be safer than Tamoxifen, increases the risk for stroke. According to Eli Lilly, the finding was made during a study designed to see if raloxifene reduced the risk of heart disease and breast cancer in postmenopausal women who had heart disease or were considered at high risk.

New birth control pills and contraceptives are already on the market -- or about to be released -- that allow women the option of ending monthly menstruation for good. This option is becoming increasingly popular with women at both the beginning stage and ending stage of their reproductive life.

For women who suffer greatly each month with the physical pain and emotional upsets that can occur during periods, this might be a good option. For other women, it might be a matter of convenience and a way of improving sex life. If you are not actively attempting to get pregnant, this seems like a reasonable option in eliminating periods that do not seem to serve a practical purpose. As I understand it, the pills are far safer than the contraceptive pills of the past, with much lower doses of estrogen and progestin. However, it is still a birth control type pill, and the warnings remain the same. If you are over 35 and smoke, you are advised not to use it. If you are a cancer survivor diagnosed with cancers fueled by hormones, you are advised not to use this method of controlling monthly menstrual cycles. This pill still increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and blood clots.

On the other side of the coin -- according to research -- these birth control type pills might lower risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer. But, hormones operate in the body on so many complex levels, and regulate so many other systems within the body, I do not know that scientists understand the complexities enough to tell women that halting a hormone process for an indefinite amount of time by manipulating estrogen and progestin is safe for long-term health. Especially when it comes to cancers that are hormone-driven.