How are children surviving cancer today? Better than ever before. Some childhood cancer patients, now in their young adult years, are expecting to reach milestones in their lives others before them never would have reached.

Today, 1 in 1,000 young adults in the United States is a childhood cancer survivor. In the 1970s, the chance a child would outlive leukemia or lymphoma was 25 percent. Today, it's 80 percent. That's better than most adult recovery rates.

As recovery rates rise, a new frontier is on the horizon -- follow-up for these young people as they age. You see, the very treatments that saved these individuals may cause them complications later in life. It's not yet clear what happens when kids live 20 to 30 years beyond diagnosis. But teams at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, plan to find out as they launch one of the most ambitious follow-up programs to date. Contacting 5,000 patients who have survived for more than 10 years, doctors hope they will recruit a group to receive free check-ups for life. They'll also receive blood tests, MRI scans, even fertility counseling. Their medical histories will serve as rich textbooks for medical professionals and future patients -- so the war on childhood cancer can continue.

On Sunday September 16, 2007, The Colosseum Gym will be hosting the 1st Annual Lift for the Cure: Powerlifting and Bench Press Competition. All proceeds to help benefit the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. This will be an OPEN meet limited to 60 lifters. All weight classes will be honored, including a separate Law Enforcement Division (Top Cop Award). This will be a unsanctioned RAW meet (belts and wraps only). USAPL rules apply.

Guest Judge and exhibition lift by 7-time USPF National Champion and 6-time IPF World Champion, "Captain Kirk" Karwoski.

The $25 application fee/donation includes a unique event t-shirt, food and refreshments and the opportunity to help a great cause. Event categories include Squat/Bench/Deadlift OR Bench only. Weigh in time is 8 am - 9am. Lifting will start at 10 am. Limited to 60 lifters.

Spectators are welcome! The $5 spectator donation to The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults includes food and refreshments. Children under 6 are free. Shirt sales and vendors will be on the scene.

The event will be held at The Colosseum Gym located at 9195F Red Branch Road, Columbia, Maryland.

More on the Ulman Fund and how it came about.

The Young Survival Coalition's Diversity Program aims to foster a committed, connected and diverse community for young women affected by breast cancer. The Diversity Committee brings together women of color, women who partner with women, women of various socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures and disabilities.

As a collective, this committee works to create programs and to establish partnerships to work towards ensuring that all young women affected by breast cancer, in all communities, have access to the information and support they need.

Specific topics include:

• Diversity
• Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender
• Asian
• Black/African Descent
• Latina

Merv Griffin, creator and producer of TV game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, announced in July that he'd been diagnosed once again with prostate cancer. Hospitalized after the cancer recurrence was detected during a routine examination, Griffin was reportedly doing fine. New reports indicate Griffin's prognosis is not so fine, although his reps won't confirm of deny this.

It is clear Griffin is still in the hospital. Sources close to him say he is putting all his strength into fighting this battle with cancer.

In lieu of sending him flowers, Griffin asks that well-wishers donate to the Young Musicians Foundation -- an organization he chairs. Also, messages can be sent here.

Rise Above It (RAI) is a non-profit organization that helps young adults battling cancer. The strength in spirit of its founder, Colin O'Donoghue, guides RAI in its efforts. As a friend, teacher and coach, Colin deeply enriched the lives of others.

RAI continues this practice with the same enthusiasm and vigor he brought to every aspect of his life. Colin always believed that enjoying life and embracing a positive attitude were essential components of happiness. Using this principle as inspiration, RAI devises fun and positive events that raise money to accomplish its primary objective: to provide meaningful support to young cancer patients.

This is achieved by hosting fund-raising events designed to provide eligible recipients with additional resources. Using the proceeds from these events, RAI board members solicit cases to provide grants and personal consultation to individuals and families with immediate needs in their fight against cancer. Through financial assistance and personal attention, RAI strives to instill a positive attitude within its recipients, thus allowing them to live each day with faith and a fighting spirit.

The Good Bead company wants you to show your support for the fight against breast cancer with their pink ribbon collection.

Here at The Good Bead we believe supporting the community never looked so good. We are focused on supporting worthy causes by custom creating high-quality, affordable products that engage consumers and raise awareness in the community.

The Good Beads new product Fondangles are quite possibly the most unique line of cell phone straps available. Their unique designs, high quality materials and optional o-ring make will attach to almost any cell phone. The Good Bead will be donating a percentage of sales from Fondangles to the Young Survival Coalition. Fondangles will be available beginning July 9th at Best Buys stores in New York City (Madison Avenue, Union Square, Noho, and 86th & Lexington); Riverside, CA (Tyler Street and Canyon Springs Parkway); Jacksonville, FL; Kennesaw, GA; Douglasville, GA; Atlanta, GA; and Peachtree, GA.

Who knows which pieces of cancer information floating around out there are actually true? I don't. Do cell phones cause cancer? Some say yes, some say no, I say I'm confused! Luckily, I happened upon this Discovery Health article that highlights a variety of myths and then offers the lowdown on each one. Here are seven of them:

Myth #1. There is currently a cure for cancer, but the medical industry won't tell the public about it because they make too much money treating cancer patients.

Chalk this up to urban legend. And consider this: doctors, laboratory scientists, and their families and friends die of cancer at the same rate as everyone else in the United States. How about this: medical breakthroughs happen all the time and are quickly applied. Think about antibiotics and vaccines -- like the polio vaccine -- that have transformed health care. How about this? Not too long ago, less than one in 10 kids with leukemia survived 10 years. Now, the cure rate is nearly 80 percent. Seems like progress to me.

Chemotherapy is harsh, which is good when it comes to killing cancer. What's not-so-good is that it can also cause hair loss, inflict nausea, and disable the proper functioning of all sorts of organs -- including the ovaries. Chemotherapy, therefore, can affect female fertility.

In some cases, doctors have extracted immature eggs from adult women about to receive chemotherapy, matured them in a laboratory, and then implanted them when the women are ready to have children. Until now, no one had ever tried this with eggs from young girls -- girls who have not yet undergone puberty. But it's just recently happened.

Doctors have removed eggs from young female cancer patients and for the first time, have brought the eggs to maturity before freezing them.

Christine Sansone was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 at the age of twenty-five. She passed away a few days ago after battling bone metastasis for eight years. She recently had leg surgery and never recovered. I met Christine a few times at the Young Survival Conference held by LBBC and the YSC.

Christine was featured in The Beautiful Eight -- An educational video for women living with metastatic disease.

She was recently quoted in the March/April issue of MAMM magazine.

"Living longer and stronger - Women with metastatic breast cancer are bringing new hope and energy to their cause." -- Christine Sansone.

Christine's story..

For many young people, the risk of wrinkling is a bigger tanning deterrent than the risk of skin cancer. How's that for some misplaced worry?

Now if the wrinkle-worry gets these youngsters to stop tanning, then I'm happy. Still, it amazes me that warnings about skin cancer still are not taken seriously.

"We don't know for sure, but there's some suggestive evidence that young people are more influenced by thinking about themselves getting old faster, than thinking about themselves getting a skin cancer," says one doctor.

I usually check the Young Survival Coalition message boards everyday. Even though I am five years out from my cancer diagnosis, this is a place I love to go to for support and also to help other young women who are newly diagnosed.

I hope that I can be helpful in some way, maybe by answering questions or just telling the girls that I did have a positive lymph node and I'm still here with no recurrence at this time. I know that when I was first diagnosed, one of the important things to me was finding someone with the same diagnosis that was years out from chemotherapy and doing fine.

There was a poll that was done by one of the board members. I found it to be interesting. The question put out to the women on the YSC message board was -- How old were you when diagnosed with breast cancer?

Katie is a member of the Young Survival Coalition. She agreed to do an interview about her breast cancer journey. She blogs here, when I just checked her blog she had a funny post to share about how her cleaning lady likes to party.

"i left an ativan on the bookcase last week.
she put it in the candy bowl."

How did you find out you had breast cancer?
In November 2006, I had an excisional biopsy to remove what I had been told was a fibroadenoma. A few days after the surgery I went back to the surgeon to have some stitches removed. At the time I was so convinced it was benign that I didn't think to be nervous about getting the results of the pathology report. When my surgeon told me it was cancer, I didn't get upset. I just really had no idea what "cancer" meant, as it was nothing I had ever thought about happening to me. I spent the rest of the day in shock - I didn't even cry. Incidentally, it was the same day as my nine-year anniversary with my husband. We ate a very expensive dinner in complete silence.