Liz Claiborne, fashion designer for working women climbing corporate ladders, died Tuesday at the New York Presbyterian Hospital after battling cancer for many years. She was 78.

Said Bill McComb, CEO of Claiborne's company since November: "In losing Liz Claiborne, we have not only lost the founder of our company, but an inspirational woman who revolutionized the fashion industry 30 years ago. Her commitment to style and design is ever present in our thinking and the way we work. We will remember Liz for her vision, her entrepreneurial spirit and her enduring compassion and generosity."

Claiborne, with husband Art Ostenberg and partners Leonard Boxer and Jerome Chazen, launched her label in 1976 after working for years as an unknown dress designer. Her brand featured ensemble sportswear with price tags below that of other designers and revolutionized the department store industry. Once compartmentalized, with pants in one department and skirts in another, Claiborne's coordinated clothing inspired the merging of once-separate departments.

Cate Blanchett is set to star as Marisa Acocella Marchetto in Cancer Vixen: A True Story, the cartoonist fashionista for Glamour and the New Yorker who discovered, while planning her wedding to celebrity restaurateur Silvano Marchetto, that she had breast cancer. Marchetto also realized she had let her health insurance lapse right before being diagnosed with cancer.

With stylish aplomb, she has become phenomenally popular for her colorful personality, and the telling of her breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship with a sense of humor and fashion flair that included wearing her favorite high heels to chemotherapy and noting that her hospital gown reminded her of Diane von Furstenberg designs.

Amazon features an exclusive cartoon on the Cancer Vixen: A True Story book page and portrays Marchetto as a "self-described shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, single-forever, about-to-get-married big-city girl cartoonist with a fabulous life." Blanchett is reportedly in talks to produce the film as well, with her husband, Andrew Upton, through their company Dirty Films.

One of our bloggers and breast cancer survivor Jacki Donaldson, in a previous post featuring Marisa Acocella Marchetto, recommends Cancer Vixen: A True Story as a "must read." For all women facing breast cancer, I agree. Never underestimate the positive benefit of a spunky attitude -- sense of humor -- and a really sexy pair of high heels when it comes to facing the struggles with breast cancer.

Hair colorist Jason Backe hopes hair dye does not cause cancer -- because he is covered in it every day in the Manhattan hair salon where he works. But the topic of hair dye and cancer has been on his mind lately -- because he has been fielding questions from clients about the possible link between the two ever since an American Journal of Epidemiology study was released and caused nationwide panic about hair dye upping the odds that women might contract lymphoma -- a cancer of the lymphatic system. But on Thursday, a New York Times article summed up opinions from both experts and hair stylists, revealing that most everyone believes this panic is not necessary.

Recent studies found that those who had ever used hair dye were 1.19 times more likely to get lymphoma than those who had never used it. Those who colored their hair before 1980 -- before then-questionable chemicals were removed from hair dyes -- were 1.39 more times likely to get the disease. Ann Curry on the Today Show said, "These are scary numbers," but Dr. Barnett Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institute of Health said, "Compared to risk factors for other diseases, those numbers are very small." Smoking makes people 10 to 60 more times likely to get lung cancer. According to Dr. Joseph K. McLaughlin, president of the International Epidemiology institute, if these numbers are true -- and that's a big if -- it would mean that using hair dye may present a remote risk to your health. But it would still be less risky than crossing a street, driving a car, not wearing a seat belt, or drunk driving.

I am not exactly in a panic about this whole issue. But before I heard the news about hair dye and cancer, I did dye my hair -- once. And I don't think I will do it again -- even though the risk may be small -- because I have already had cancer. And any amount of risk associated with any type of cancer is just something I don't want to mess with.