There are four pages in the March 2007 Reader's Digest featuring amazing discoveries, devices, tests, and cures. And many of the snippets of information are -- yes -- somehow linked to cancer.

Think about this:

• A new ultrasound technique lets radiologists distinguish between malignant and benign breast lesions. Using elasticity imaging, researchers accurately identified harmless and cancerous lesions in almost all of the 80 cases studied. If results can be reproduced in a large trial, this technique could significantly reduce the number of breast biopsies required.

• Scientists seeking new treatment for diseases can use an online tool developed by researchers at MIT and Harvard. The Connectivity Map matches diseases with compatible drugs, based on the genetic profiles of both. So far, about 160 drugs and compounds are cataloged, and a few new uses for existing drugs have already been suggested. Eventually, all FDA-approved drugs will be included.

• For those who sometimes forget to take their pills, a new device -- that can be preloaded with up to 100 doses of medication -- could one day be implanted in the body and programmed to administer drugs via wireless signals. This device, successful in tests using dogs, was designed to deliver medicines that are less effective when taken orally.

Sometimes it seems cancer's grip is tightening. Other times, in the war against this pesky disease, it seems we are on the verge of something really great.

On August 9, Patty was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is 36 years old, a wife, a mother of four children -- and already a fighter in her battle that has just begun. So far, she has endured surgery, and she will soon proceed through months of intensive chemotherapy, one year of Herceptin treatment, and weeks and weeks of radiation. It's a familiar path for so many women -- a path marked by devastation, fear, worry, and panic. Yet if there is a gift that flows from cancer, it must be the support and concern and love that can cushion the blow delivered by this disease.

Patty has an abundance of support -- and it all starts with her husband, ironically an administrator of two cancer centers, who is blogging her journey with great strength and an overwhelming love for his wife whose own mother died of breast cancer in 1992 at the age of 46. Patty and her husband have been vigilant about monitoring her health over the years -- in light of her family history -- and Patty had been tested, screened, biopsied, and examined many times before her diagnosis. When her recent tests and biopsies revealed breast cancer, it was both shocking and expected.

Now Patty and her husband -- who authors the blog Patty's Journey -- are expecting the best of outcomes on this journey of a lifetime.

ConsumerLabs conducts a valuable service in independent product reviews but it will cost you money to read the complete reports. They do release highlighted information, without detailed specifics, and this week they released the results from its new Product Review of Supplements for Cancer Prevention.

Of the 22 supplements containing three popular ingredients -- green tea, lycopene or selenium - that were tested, the results do not look very good for the consumer. The research testers found problems in three out of the four green tea products. According to the abstract of the report, one product contained only 71 percent of its claimed level of EGCG, a key compound in green tea, while two products were found to be contaminated with lead, with 3.3 to 6.8 micrograms per daily serving, far above acceptable limits. Four selenium supplements passed the testing standards, and one failed, as it contained only 38 percent of its claimed ingredient. All five lycopene supplements passed the test.

The brand names of cancer prevention supplements tested were Bluebonnet, Canadian Sun, Country Life, GNC, Food Science of Vermont, Futurebiotics, Herbal Select, Jarrow, KAL, Life Extension, Metabolic Maintenance, Nature's Answer, Nature's Bounty, Pharmanex, Puritan's Pride, Schiff, Vitamin World, and Whole Foods.

However, you will have to pay a fee to find out which products and companies made the grade and which ones bamboozled the buyer out of some bucks. However, without ordering a copy of the report, it is clear that it is a buyer beware market when it comes to cancer prevention supplements. You might be getting a bottle full of empty promise. I would stick to a variety of cancer prevention foods whenever possible for cancer prevention nutrients.