National Cancer Institute

WASHINGTON -- When tens of thousands gather in Washington today for the March to Conquer Cancer, many will celebrate some hopeful news: Overall rates of new cancer cases are declining for the first time since the 1930s.But a smaller group is highlighting a dismal footnote. Cancer rates among minorities remain high -- and in some cases are rising.Despite research advances, treatment breakthroughs and unprecedented levels of funding, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and American Indians get cancer and die from the disease at significantly higher rates than whites.

The most comprehensive study ever on the link between organ donations and cancer is arming physicians with new data that could help make the procedures safer. Organ transplant patients get new kidneys, livers and lungs that save their lives, but they face a heightened risk of cancer because drugs that prevent the rejection of new organs also weaken the immune system. Most patients, like Jessica Protasio of Columbia, go through with transplants because the immediate risk of dying from failing organs outweighs the long-term risk of cancer.

INSPIRED BY the successes of the AIDS political-action movement, many Baltimore-area breast cancer survivors are working hard to make their disease become as public as it is painful.They have struggled through the lonely, private terrors of the newly diagnosed.They have gathered strength in the sheltering sorority of other breast cancer patients.Now they're ready to speak out to national audiences -- on a "Soundprint" radio series that begins Saturday and on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Alarmed at the seemingly high rate of brain cancer among children in St. Lucie County, Fla., a group of mothers who courted controversy with their calls for a major health study are starting to feel vindicated.Last summer, the mother of a child who died organized other families, raised concerns about the local water and soil and generally set the population on "pins and needles," in the words of the Port St. Lucie mayor.At first, the mothers' effort seemed to stall as community leaders tried to stave off panic over a highly questionable public health threat.

Ryan Hanley spent the summer before he turned 18 thinking about organizing a transcontinental bike ride to raise money for cancer. When he entered the Johns Hopkins University, he set about selling the idea and recruiting classmates and friends to ride 4,000 miles. The maiden effort that he had dubbed 4K for Cancer — which raised $80,000 in 2002 in memory of Hanley's father, who had died of cancer when Hanley was 13 — operated under the university's auspices for five years before becoming an independent nonprofit organization.

When the news broke that President Bush felt a shortness of breath while jogging, the rest of the country held its breath as well. The illness of a president is a reminder that power never guarantees immortality.Ironically, the president's illness and the dark fears it prompted came soon after Democrat Paul Tsongas entered the presidential race, bringing with him an unprecedented claim for a presidential candidate -- as well as a reason to marvel at the strength human beings often show in the face of their own mortality.

Research Vitamins don't stop prostate cancer Vitamins E and C and the nutrient beta carotene don't protect against prostate cancer, says the latest study in the continuing, confusing quest to determine when supplements really help health. Previous research has yielded conflicting results, and even this new study of almost 30,000 men published in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute doesn't settle the issue. Indeed, while vitamin E showed no effect on men overall, the study leaves open the possibility that it might help smokers.

Doctors who treat women with breast cancer are glimpsing the possibility of a vastly different future. After years of adding more and more to the regimen - more drugs, shorter intervals between chemotherapy sessions, higher doses - they are now wondering whether many women could skip chemotherapy. If the new ideas are validated by large studies, such as two that are just beginning, treatment of breast cancer would markedly change. Today, national guidelines call for giving chemotherapy to nearly every one of the nearly 200,000 women whose breast cancer is diagnosed each year.

Mike Panzera found himself getting slower. His kick was weaker and less accurate. He was tiring too quickly. But the Hammond soccer player wasn't worried about his health last October, just his team. Early in November, however, nonstop headaches for almost two weeks forced the starting striker to the sideline during the playoffs. "I felt I was letting my team down," Panzera said. By mid-November, double vision had forced Panzera to the hospital, where he learned he faced a frightening battle with an aggressive brain cancer.

Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the past two decades never needed to know they had the disease, leading many to treatment that can do more harm than good, according to a new study. The findings, published in Monday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that since a blood test became the standard way to screen for prostate cancer, an additional 1.3 million men have been diagnosed with the disease. But because many men are diagnosed with cancer that will not cause symptoms and will not kill them, the screening tests save few lives, the authors conclude.