Cancer Prevention

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.

Is it true that eating soybean products can prevent cancer?Various plants contain a number of different phytoestrogens, substances that behave like a weak form of the human female sex hormone, estrogen. One class of phytoestrogens, called isoflavones, is present in especially large amounts in soybeans, which as a result appear to have greater estrogen-like activity than other plant foods.Some scientists have proposed that eating soy foods can protect against both breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.They hypothesize that during the premenopausal years the phytoestrogens can prevent the cancer-promoting effects of estrogens on breast tissue cells.

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer announced yesterday the appointment of a Council on Cancer Control that will develop a program to prevent cancer and reduce Maryland's cancer death rate, the highest of any state in the nation."

RECENT days have been good ones in the war on cancer. No, researchers did not come up with a new treatment. What happened was potentially more important: The nation began to focus more attention on preventing the disease.The thanks go to Dr. Bob Arnot, whose new best-seller, "The Breast Cancer Prevention Diet," launched a long-overdue (albeit acrimonious) debate about how what we eat affects cancer risk. While critics accuse Dr. Arnot of promising more than science can deliver, the resulting food fight will prove as important a milestone as the tobacco battles of the 1960s.

WASHINGTON -- A vaccine shown to prevent most cases of cervical cancer won approval from federal drug regulators yesterday in a move that could save the lives of thousands of women in the United States every year. As expected, the Food and Drug Administration allowed Merck & Co. to start selling the vaccine, Gardasil, for females ages 9 to 26. Studies showed that the three-shot series was nearly 100 percent effective in protecting against the two dominant strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, HPV. That virus causes more than two-thirds of cervical cancer cases.

A new type of PSA blood test could spare up to 200,000 men a year the need for painful biopsies to determine if they have prostate cancer, doctors in a large national trial said yesterday.The test, which received government approval in February, helps to distinguish between early-stage prostate cancers and benign conditions that should merely be watched."Medical science has come up with a more rational approach to screening for prostate cancer," said Dr. Alan Partin, a urologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, one of seven medical centers involved in the study.

Gail Purtan is such a private woman that she'd put a sheet over her head if it would help her go unnoticed, one of her daughters says.A family-first kind of woman, she has spent her life supporting others' accomplishments, notably those of her husband, Dick, one of Detroit's most beloved radio personalities, and their six daughters.But 18 months ago, Purtan's diagnosis with an advanced case of ovarian cancer changed her profile. "I feel I have no right to stay quiet when there is so much to tell women," she says.

Will an increasingly health conscious nation clamor for broccoli sprouts?Nothing would make Dr. Paul Talalay happier. He is, after all, the Johns Hopkins University Medical School researcher who determined that broccoli sprouts contain high concentrations of sulforaphane, an organic compound that spurs cells to produce cancer-blocking enzymes.Now Talalay and the company he founded to ensure his discovery is properly exploited, Brassica Protection Products LLC, have a powerful marketing ally, the Sholl Group Inc., licensee of Green Giant Fresh, one of the country's most recognized vegetable food brands.

CPR, first aid courses to be held next month at sites across county Courses in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid have been scheduled for next month at several sites in Anne Arundel County by Central Maryland Red Cross. They include: Adult CPR, teaching emergency action principles, rescue breathing, anti-choking procedures and rescue for victims ages 8 and older. The fee is $33. It is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. May 1 at the Edgewater Red Cross, 3475 Pike Ridge Road; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 5, 12, 19 and 26 at the Glen Burnie Church of Latter-day Saints, 409 Fifth Ave.; and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 5 and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. May 22 at 4408 Llewellyn Ave., Fort Meade.

Move over, soy milk and wheat-grass juice. The elixir of the moment is a fermented tea promoted for health benefits ranging from improved digestion to cancer prevention. Called kombucha, it is a drink with a dual identity. There's the commercial version that comes in pretty pastels and fetches upward of $3 a bottle at natural foods stores. And there's the brown, pennies-per-serving home-brew, made with a scary-looking blob of bacteria. Whether store-bought or homemade, the drink has grown popular with fans of "probiotic" foods, which contain live bacteria cultures.