I remember going through the prostate cancer scare with my grandfather. Louis is 86 years young and a few years ago he had a high PSA score of 21. I took him to the doctors since I found out that the test's normal range was much lower. The physician recommended a prostate biopsy and gave us some information. My grandfather was 84 years old and he said about 70 percent of men his age will develop prostate cancer. He also said that with such a high PSA score he was almost sure it was prostate cancer. On a positive note, he did say that prostate cancer usually is a slow growing disease and in my grandfather's case he might be able to just take hormonal therapy to control the disease. ( I already had all this information printed out of course!)

We scheduled the biopsy and I picked Lou up the day of the procedure. The nurses had given him a valium to take before the biopsy. I made sure he took it on the way to the doctors office. After about 15 minutes I asked him if he felt anything from the drug. He replied that he felt nothing yet.

We enter the doctors office and he gets called back quickly. I was in the waiting room eating my bagel and reading a magazine when this other couple came in sat across from me. They smiled and the man said some pretty goofy things and was laughing. I realized that maybe HIS valium was working. My grandfather I guess needed a double dose.

My grandfather gets finished and after we walk out the door I tell him how much that guy was laughing in the waiting room. My grandfather replied (not even trying to be funny) "He isn't going to be laughing when he gets in there." Also, I have to mention that my grandfather told me exactly what they did to him, every detail. It did not seem fun and was painful for him.

For chronic pain sufferers, this might be the earliest beginning of the ultimate end for unrelenting pain. Columbia University researchers have been studying how pain works at the molecular and cellular level and discovered a key enzyme that cause nerve cells to send pain messages through the central nervous system even when there is no physical pain being experienced. So although you might not actually be in physical pain any longer, if your brain is being told there is still pain, you will experience the reality of pain.

Because of this find, researchers are hoping a drug can be developed that will shut down the messengers and the message.

Researcher Richard Ambron is quoted as saying that pain is not necessary. I could not agree more and have been an advocate for quality of life issues for long-term cancer survivors who must endure chronic pain without effective relief.

Just like Ambron, I do not think it is necessary that people put up with or suffer silently in pain either, and because the current methods of treatment can lead to additional health problems, this type of research is most welcome -- and long past due.

While many cancer patients use, or are interested in, herbal remedies to improve the quality of life during cancer treatments and beyond into cancer survivorship, research-based evidence in how and why herbs work is still largely ignored as scientific study. In my opinion, not nearly enough rigid investigation is going on in relation to herbal therapies even though, from a patient's perspective, there is much interest. I become very intrigued when I do read that a study will be done to further the knowledge into the validity -- or not -- of age-old herbal remedies. If it works, I want to know why.

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia will be studying several herbs, ginseng and valerian, that might be of significant benefit to cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment to off-set some of the common troublesome symptoms like insomnia and fatigue. Ginseng is believed to fight fatigue and improve the immune system. Valerian is known to relax and calm, and act as a sleep aid. Perhaps while they are investigating these two herbs, they can figure out a novel way of toning down the smelly gym sock phenomenon associated with valerian. I still haven't found a way to use it without encountering its most unpleasant aroma.