Breast Cancer

Judy Blume, the chronicler of youth angst in such books as " Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," is writing now about a much more personal battle against breast cancer. In a blog post titled !@#$% Happens, Blume writes of a summer that began with plans for a trip to Italy and soon moved on to surgery. As you might expect, she blends plenty of  self-deprecating humor into her tale. She's healing now, a month after surgery, and looking forward to writing again.

I'm sure that Baltimore Ravens fans noticed the pink cleats, gloves, wristbands, sideline caps and other equipment the team sported during October. I want to let the community know that the Ravens were much more than "pretty in pink" during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The National Football League's initiative, "A Crucial Catch: Annual Screening Saves Lives," reminds women ages 40 and older about the importance of annual mammograms. Through this initiative, the NFL provides funding to the American Cancer Society to help uninsured and underserved women access breast cancer screening and detect breast cancer early.

Update: The American Chemistry Council disputes the study. Here is a statement: “It is concerning that the authors could be over-interpreting their results and unnecessarily alarm workers. This study included no data showing if there was actual chemical exposure, from what chemicals, at what levels, and over what period of time in any particular workplace. Although this is an important area of research, these findings are inconsistent with other research. This study should not be used to draw any conclusions about the cause of cancer patterns in workers.”  The original blog post is below: Women who worked ten years or more in jobs that exosed them to cancer-causing substances and endocrine chemicals increased their odds of getting breast cancer, a new study has found.

The Joan Lauffer breast cancer Scholarship Fund will award up to $1,000 to a college-bound high school senior who has or had a parent with breast cancer. The student should attend public or private school in Anne Arundel County. Write a short essay of one to three paragraphs explaining how cancer has affected your family and how the scholarship will help in the future. Deadline is May 31. Send essay to wm.lauffer@gmail.com with name, age, phone number, e-mail address, high school, college/university hoping to attend (either two- or four-year)

How many children have you had, and did you wait until after 30 to have the first one? Do you have more than one drink a day? Did you get your period before you were 12? Do you exercise? Have a low-fat, high-fiber diet? Did you breast-feed? Do you work nights, wear a bra, have breast implants, use the Pill or wear antiperspirant? Do you smoke? Did your mother, your aunts or your sisters have breast cancer ? Do you have the breast cancer gene? Do you want to know if you have the breast cancer gene?

Cheryl Corbin's mother and grandmother had breast cancer, so an oncologist suggested she be tested for an inherited gene mutation linked to the disease. But when the results came in, she didn't show up to hear them. "I was afraid to hear the words," Corbin, 47, said. "There's no turning back from there. " A genetic counselor tracked her down at the University of Maryland Women's Health clinic, where she is an office manager, and told her that she had the mutation that gave her an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer . Corbin had no doubt about her next move - she had her breasts removed.

As she organizes her second annual run to raise funds for breast cancer research, Darby Steadman is facing what she calls a delightful dilemma. She has no shortage of runners. The event in a Millersville park next Saturday is maxed out at about 250 registered participants and dozens of volunteers. The Driving Miss Darby Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Steadman and friends, may have to close registrations. "Isn't that a nice problem to have?" said the 40-year-old mother of two, who is battling breast cancer . Undeterred by the possibility of too many participants, she has expanded the event to "dozers.

As October Breast Cancer Awareness Month approaches, a new study has been gaining big attention today. Researchers doing what The New York Times calls the "first comprehensive genetic analysis of breast cancer" have named four genetically distinct types of breast cancer. While the new treatments expected to come from the research are years off, the study published Sunday in the journal Nature is considered a breakthrough, the newspaper reported. "This is the road map for how we might cure breast cancer in the future,"  Dr. Matthew Ellis of Washington University, a researcher for the study, told The New York Times.

After months of chemotherapy and radiation, Susan Faber had finally finished breast cancer treatment and conquered the disease. It should have been a happy occasion. But Faber felt at a loss earlier this year as she rang the gong at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a ritual all patients who finish cancer treatment at the facility take part in. Suddenly a rush of emotions exploded from inside. Faber, 48, had been so preoccupied with treatment for her stage three cancer that she never really had a moment to truly think about the experience.