Texas Longhorns running backs coach Ken Rucker will soon take a leave of absence, following his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer. Rucker will have surgery on August 27. He wll keep coaching until this date.

Rucker, a 33-year coaching veteran, fully intends on returning to coaching this season.

"I plan to be back this season," he says. "No doubt about it; 100 percent."

Rucker's prognosis is good -- thanks to early detection.

Here's more proof that melanoma happens -- and to young people too.

Texas A&M second baseman Parker Dalton was diagnosed with melanoma last September and underwent surgery to remove the skin cancer that had surfaced right between his shoulder blades. Five days after surgery, he returned to school and resumed baseball practice. He was declared cancer-free in October.

Dalton's only visible reminder of cancer is a reddish, eye-shaped gouge in the middle of his back. It's the not-so-apparent reminders -- the emotional underpinnings of a cancer journey -- that fill Dalton's mind and offer him his renewed sense of purpose and perspective and a fresh commitment to his religious faith.

Dalton is playing baseball better than ever. He says he feels like if he can beat cancer, he can beat a curveball."

Here's more proof there is life after cancer.

It might not be possible at this time to eradicate cancer altogether. But we may be able to stop cancer cells in their tracks through a process called senescence.

In senescence, cells don't divide. And when cells don't divide, they don't grow. In such a scenario then, cancer cells wouldn't divide and therefore couldn't grow.

Think about this:

According to lab tests on mice, triggering senescence in certain cells hampers the growth of some tumors.

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston are the ones behind the scenes on this project -- the study appears online in EMBO Reports, a publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization -- and all eyes are on the p53 gene.

The p53 gene lives within cells and works to nip cancer in the bud by springing to action in damaged cells that may be spinning themselves into a cancer frenzy.

Researchers say senescence ordered by the p53 gene is extremely important in suppressing tumor formation and is as important as apoptosis -- a type of programmed cell death. But in some cancers, senescence might not be enough to halt cancer, they found.

OK, so senescence is not a perfect approach to halting all cancers. But it seems to work for some -- so I say for now, let's take what we can get.

Simply being female puts all women at risk for breast cancer. That and age, race, family history, personal history, genetic make-up, when they had children, when they reach menopause, and a whole host of other possible factors.

Now U.S. doctors are officially calling body mass index, breast density, and alcohol consumption predictors of the disease, says Therese Bevers, medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center, at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Bevers helped write updated guidelines for the prevention of breast cancer and presented them at the 12th annual National Comprehensive Cancer Network in Hollywood, Florida on Friday.

The guidelines, featuring the revised list of risk factors, also offer treatment options for women -- including bilateral mastectomy for women who have tested positive for the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 as well as possible medical treatments with drugs such as tamoxifen and raloxifene.

Eight-year-old Luis Carranza, whose mother slipped him from Mexico into the United States for live-saving cancer treatment, has died of leukemia after the same treatment that once offered him remission attacked his central nervous system, and caused seizures and terminal, irreversible brain damage.

Luis' story, first featured in a September 18 post, is a powerful one, riddled with struggle and hardship and love and commitment.

The story began less than two years ago when Guadalupe Carranza smuggled her young, sick son into the United States for treatment. Luis was welcomed into a Texas hospital and was showered with an abundance of love from staff and volunteers. Guadalupe did not receive the same warm welcome, however, and was deported back to Mexico. And while she battled to return to her son's bedside, Guadalupe was met with continued defeat -- until her son fell into a coma and border and consulate officials allowed the mother to cross back into the United States where she stayed until her son passed away on Thursday at his grandparent's house in El Paso.

Guadalupe had been with her son since May 8, 2006. And an attorney involved in Luis' case says he believes the boy, despite his serious condition, could sense his mother's presence. And everyone involved believes the boy, who was clearly suffering, is now in a much better place.

Merck, maker of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, is backing off its lobbying campaign following pressure from medical groups and parents who believe the vaccine should not be mandated as a school attendance requirement for adolescent girls.

The public outcry that caused Merck to announce its stop order on Tuesday stems from the fact that the vaccine protects against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. School-mandated vaccines are typically for diseases spread through casual contact, such as measles and mumps.

Merck's medical director for vaccines, Dr. Richard M. Haupt says, "We're concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts," adding that the company will continue providing information about the vaccine upon request.

Gardasil, launched in June and the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, has inspired controversy since day one. There's the cost -- $360 for three required shots -- and all sorts of insurance concerns and conservative groups who worry the vaccine encourages premarital sex and interferes with parental rights. Even those in support of the vaccine -- like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Practitioners -- question Merck's quick push to market this drug, especially in light of the company's withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

"I believe that their timing was a little bit premature so soon after (Gardasil's) release, before we have a picture of whether there are going to be any untoward side effects," says Dr. Anne Francis, who chairs an American Academy of Pediatrics committee.

Legislatures in 20 states have taken steps to mandate the vaccine for young girls. And with the exception of Texas governor Rick Perry's February 2 executive order requiring Texas girls entering the sixth grade in 2008 get vaccinated, nothing has been made official so far.

Come September 2008, 11 and 12-year-old girls in Texas entering the sixth grade will receive three shots of the Gardasil vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer.

Texas is the first state to require that young schoolgirls receive the cervical cancer vaccine, approved for use by the FDA in June and proven to protect against the most common strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) -- the cause of most cervical cases cervical cancers.

Texas governor Rick Perry (R), who just signed an executive order making this mandate official, believes the high cost of treating diseases and ensuring the health and well-being of our population justifies the vaccine requirement.

Perry, who has been met with opposition from those concerned that HPV vaccination of young girls promotes premarital sex and interferes with parental rights, will allow parents to opt out of the vaccination requirement with documentation citing religious or philosophical reasons. But he hopes most will comply with the cervical cancer vaccine he believes is no different than immunization against diseases such as polio.

Gardasil drugmaker Merck stands to make billions if the vaccine is made mandatory across the country. The series of three necessary shots cost $360.

Perry, who received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign, has other ties to the company. His former chief of staff is one of Merck's three lobbyists in Texas, and his current chief of staff's mother-in-law is state director for Women in Government -- a group active in introducing bills across the country that affect women.

Cancer patients who have heart attacks are typically not treated with a course of life-saving aspirin because of the belief that these patients might experience lethal bleeding.

This belief is now under dispute and researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center say that without aspirin, the majority of these patients will die. Their arguments, subject of a recent study, will be published in the February 1 issue of the journal Cancer.

Aspirin has been viewed as harmful because of its tendency to thin blood. Because cancer patients can experience low platelet counts and abnormal clotting, aspirin has been considered a contraindication. But this study found that nine of 10 cancer patients with low platelet counts who experienced heart attacks and who did not receive aspirin died. Only one patient died, however, in a group of 17 cancer patients who received aspirin.

This conclusion -- that aspirin helps people with cancer just as it does for people without cancer -- may help medical professionals determine guidelines for treatment of heart attacks in cancer patients. Because right now, physicians are uncertain about how to balance treatment for both conditions.

Beginning January 1st, an additional $1 dollar cigarette tax will be added to each pack of cigarettes purchased in Texas. CBS 11 News is reporting that this will raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to $4 dollars, or ten more dollars a carton, and smokers are stocking up on cartons of cigarettes before the tax hike goes into effect.

In the past, states that have increased taxing of cigarettes have seen a positive effect on the number of people who quit smoking, for no other reason than purchasing cigarettes becomes too cost prohibitive. The American Cancer Society (ACS) is looking forward to this happening, as they predict it will keep 300,000 people from starting up and cause 100,000 current smokers in Texas to quit.

Smoking has indeed become an expensive habit since the days when the government gave away cartons of cigarettes to World War II soldiers in the belief it calmed their nerves.

Meanwhile, back in Texas, CBS 11 News quoted Discount Cigarettes manager Patrick Ingram as saying, "Every state has their own tax, so you're not supposed to take large quantities across the border. So, people will go buy truck loads and bring across the border, or just steal."

That's probably true, to a lesser extent, but the ACS is right, the increased overall price for a pack of cigarettes when the new tax is implemented will prompt more people to quit smoking and deter even more from starting a habit that is not only increasingly expensive but just plain bad for your health.

Among all sorts of news circulating as a result of the recent breast cancer conference in San Antonio, Texas is a report about an international study that has many touting Canadian chemotherapy treatments as the best therapies around -- even better than the commonly-used AC/T cocktail (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel) .

The winning Canadian drug combinations -- EC/T (epirubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel) and CEF (cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and fluorouracil) -- are reportedly more effective at preventing breast cancer recurrence than AC/T.

About 2,104 women in Canada and the United States participated in this international study. All had undergone surgery to remove a tumor and were receiving chemotherapy. The women, aged 60 and under, all had cancer that had spread to their lymph nodes, indicating the disease was likely to spread.

The women received one of three treatments -- AC/T, EC/T, or CEF -- and results revealed that for every 100 women who received EC/T or CEF, 10 women would suffer a recurrence. For every 100 women who received AC/T, 15 women would relapse.

The lead researcher of the study says it's too soon to say whether EC/T and CEF are more effective in the long-term. So participants will be followed for some time while researchers will try to make sense of their initial findings. In the meantime, they suspect AC/T will continue to be widely used because of its lesser side effects.

Mammograms are offered at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center. They are also offered on M.D. Anderson's self-contained 38-foot van containing a LoRad MIV mammography unit. The van travels to various workplace sites where employees and clients can jump on board the van for a mobile mammogram.

Hartford Hospital's Take the Time mammogram van travels to clinics, churches, senior centers, and other Connecticut locations where women can easily access life-saving screenings. The University Breast Health Center in Augusta, Georgia is home to a mobile mammography program that reaches underserved women unable to report for on-site visits. Lexington Medical Center in South Carolina offers mobile mammograms. Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization affiliates offer their own traveling screening services. And a mobile mammogram service was offered on Kent State University's campus during this October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Mammograms on the go are no different than mammograms at fixed locations. They are high quality, safe, confidential -- and typically speedier than the traditional screening procedure. Often, a woman knows before she departs that her image is technically accurate. She can ask questions and receive information, and she can expect a prompt call from the radiologist or her physician who will discuss results. Sometimes, mobile mammograms take as little as 20 minutes to complete.

Mammograms are recommended for women age 40 and older and for women with a personal or family history of breast cancer. As with all medical services, there are barriers -- such as awareness, cost, transportation, convenience -- that prevent access for some people. Mobile mammograms help drive away barriers. They allow more women more access to the best tool for identifying breast cancer in its earliest form.

Roll on, mammogram vans!

NOTE: This post was written prior to the announcement that Freddy Fender passed away on Saturday at the age of 69. A more detailed post concerning his death will follow.

Grammy award winning musician Freddy Fender, 69, was released Thursday from the hospital and is now resting at his home in South Texas. He is battling lung cancer and while he is at home now, sources say he is gravely ill as a result of treatment and a recent blood infection.

Fender has wanted to share a public statement but is just not up to it. His wife, Vangie Huerta, and his spokesperson, Ron Rogers, are speaking on his behalf. Both report the cancer that started in Fender's left lung has spread to his body. Fender has been ill for some time -- with both diabetes and hepatitis C. He also received a kidney from his daughter in 2002 and underwent a liver transplant in 2004.

Born Baldemar Huerta in 1937, Fender has won three Grammy awards, the most recent in 2002. His music career began in the late 1950s with the hits Before the Next Teardrop Falls, Wasted Days and Wasted Nights and You'll Lose a Good Thing.

Luis Carranza is just eight years old. And he is just a few years -- or perhaps a few months -- away from dying as a result of a weakened immune system due to aggressive treatment for leukemia. The same treatment that at one time brought remission for this boy also attacked his central nervous system, caused seizures, brought on terminal and irreversible brain damage, and eventually sent him into a vegetative state. Luis has traveled a rough road -- and so has his mother who illegally slipped him across the Mexican border into the United States in hopes of treatment to save her young son's life.

Guadalupe Carranza did find salvation for her son in a Texas hospital and for more than one year, Luis received chemotherapy and radiation -- and loads of love from staff and volunteers who helped care for him. Guadalupe was not always there for her son, though, because after locating helpful health care and social services, she was deported to Mexico. She tried to return on many occasions and even received assistance from doctors, nurses, social workers, and attorneys who worked to find a legal way to unite Guadalupe and Luis. But not until Luis fell into a coma did efforts pay off.

After negotiation with border and consulate officials, Guadalupe was granted a humanitarian parole visa and legally crossed into the United States on May 8. The visa allowed her 60 days -- but officials agreed to let her stay until Luis passes away. And so she stays -- by her son's bedside where he rests peacefully in a place that gave him a chance at life. A chance his mother says he never would have had in Mexico.

Ann Richards was the Governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. She was only the second woman to hold that post. In March of his year she said she was being treated for esophageal cancer. She passed away at the age of 73.

Ann Richards seemed like a spunky lady. When she was nearing sixty she rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle because she said "I thought I needed to do something kind of jazzy." Ann didn't start her political career until she was in her 40's. She won a seat on the Travis County commission in Austin in 1976.

The 1988 Democratic National Convention is when Ann burst onto the scene. At the keynote address she famously described the syntax-challenged Republican presidential nominee, George H.W. Bush, this way: "Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

She eventually was defeated for the re-election of Governor by Bush's son, and future president, George W. Bush. That was the last time she ran for office. She then worked as consultant and commentator and she served on corporate boards.

One quote she liked that she said summed up the aspiration of women in politics: "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."

Parents may want to save their kids' baby teeth for more than just nostalgic reasons -- they may want to save them because they are rich in stem cells and the pulp tissue could provide the means to treatment for injuries and disease. BioEden Inc. is a new company out of Austin, Texas pioneering this effort that is so new some doubt science will ever catch up with the expectations of this firm. But President Jeff Johnson says all evidence indicates that baby teeth are a wonderful source of stem cells -- cells that doctors and researchers pursue for their capability of replicating and morphing into specialized cells that can be used to repair the body. Experts think baby teeth stem cells might one day be used for bone, teeth, and even nerve cell regeneration which could hold potential for spinal cord injuries and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Parents may find brochures in their dentist offices featuring the benefits of banking their children's teeth once they fall out. And pursuing tooth banking is no different than pursuing any other dental procedure. There are fees involved, of course -- banking fees and perhaps referral fees from dental offices -- and other considerations that each parent must weigh. Dr. Phil Hunke, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and pediatric dentist for 32 years, says the idea of removing cells and freezing them holds true promise -- and he may want to bank the tooth of a child or grandchild once he learns more. Dr. Kevin Donly, a professor of pediatric dentistry, says he sees some potential but will not be banking teeth for his three little boys. He just doesn't think he's at the point where it's necessary. Another pediatric dentist -- Dr. John Updyke -- believes that if money were not an issue, all parents should bank their kids' teeth. But many young families can't afford the initial $595 and the $89 annual storage cost it requires. And without a solid scientific backing, tooth banking might not come up as a priority for many when it may take 10 years or more to even determine how useful these specific stem cells will be.