NEWS
By Judith Graham | September 15, 2008
CHICAGO - In the high-profile world of breast cancer advocacy, women with a hereditary predisposition to the disease often feel overlooked. That's why it meant so much when actress Christina Applegate acknowledged last month that she has a genetic mutation known as BRCA1 linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Applegate, 36, went further, disclosing that she had had both breasts surgically removed. The actress' mother has battled cancer twice and "I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said on Good Morning America.
NEWS
By SUSAN REIMER | August 21, 2008
Christina Applegate is young, beautiful, famous and stunningly candid about her decision to have both breasts removed rather than live in dread that her breast cancer would return. "I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said on Good Morning America this week. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one." Applegate, star of Samantha Who? and, previously, of Married ... with Children, is just 36. She was found to have breast cancer in July, and it wasn't a surprise. Her mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor, so Applegate had been getting mammograms since she was 30. More important, the young actress tested positive for a mutation in what is called the breast cancer gene, BRCA1.
NEWS
By Jonathan Bor | May 30, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama's personal doctor said yesterday that the Democratic presidential candidate is in excellent health but is struggling, with some success, to quit smoking. Dr. David L. Scheiner, Obama's primary care physician since 1987, said his patient has desirable blood pressure and cholesterol, jogs regularly and is "lean and muscular with no excess body fat." One worry: Obama, 46, has a history of "intermittent cigarette smoking," said Scheiner, adding that the Illinois senator has quit several times and is currently using Nicorette gum "with success."
NEWS
By Jacques Kelly | April 16, 2008
Kathleen Drenga Glass, a certified public accountant, died of ovarian cancer Saturday at her Westtown, Pa., home. The former Towson resident was 56. Born Kathleen Drenga in Baltimore and raised in Towson, she was a 1969 Notre Dame Preparatory School graduate. She earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Notre Dame and a master's degree in business administration from Loyola College, where she met her future husband, Dr. G. Daniel Glass, an optometrist. A certified public accountant, she joined the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen in downtown Baltimore and moved to Philadelphia in 1980.
NEWS
By Susan Gvozdas | September 23, 2007
Eighteen women in Nikki Karl's family have had breast cancer, ovarian cancer or both. Ten have died before the age of 42. Doctors X-raying Karl after she fell out of a tree at age 13 found a tumor on one of her ovaries. It was surgically removed, and she's been cancer-free ever since. The 38-year-old has a clear family history of cancer, but more than 80 percent of women who get breast cancer have no genetic mutation or family history of the disease. That percentage climbs to 95 percent when ovarian cancer is included, Karl said.
NEWS
August 23, 2007
Dr. Janet Sunness of Greater Baltimore Medical Center, a National Institutes of Health-funded researcher and international authority on vision issues, has been appointed to the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration Medical Advisory Board. Sunness has served as medical director of GBMC's Hoover Rehabilitation Services for Low Vision and Blindness since March 2005. A resident of Pikesville and an ophthalmologist, Sunness is an expert on advanced dry age-related macular degeneration. Her clinical practice focuses on low vision and retinal and macular disease.
NEWS
By Stephanie Shapiro and Sindya N. Bhanoo | June 14, 2007
When cancer experts announced yesterday that they had identified certain symptoms that might indicate ovarian cancer, they sent a pointed message to patients and clinicians: Scrutiny of seemingly benign physical complaints can save lives. The "first national consensus on ovarian cancer symptoms" urged women and clinicians to regard bloating, abdominal pain, eating difficulties and urinary symptoms as possible early warning signs. According to the statement by the American Cancer Society, the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, women should contact their doctors if they experience such symptoms almost daily for a few weeks.
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | March 22, 2006
The widely used genetic test for breast cancer risk can miss mutations that help cause the disease, according to a new study. The finding is likely to increase the pressure to develop more thorough testing methods. The test, which looks for mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, missed them in about 12 percent of breast cancer patients from families with multiple cases of breast or ovarian cancer, according to the study's authors at the University of Washington. Experts said the chances of such false negative results were much smaller for women who were not from such high-risk families, so that most women who tested negative had little cause for concern.
NEWS
By JACQUES KELLY | February 8, 2006
Wendy Lea Fiedler, a political activist who headed Howard County's Democratic Central Committee and was a secretary in the county state's attorney's office, died of complications from ovarian cancer Monday at her Ellicott City home. She was 53. "I never knew Wendy until I was elected. She was a wonderful, sweet person," Howard County Executive James N. Robey said yesterday. First elected to the central committee in 1994, she had served as its chairwoman since 1998, when Mr. Robey won election.
NEWS
February 4, 2006
Jill Chaifetz, 41, who spent most of her professional life championing the legal and educational rights of New York's children, died Thursday of ovarian cancer. Her death was announced by Advocates for Children of New York, the group she had headed since 1998. In 1992, Ms. Chaifetz founded the Legal Services Center at The Door, a New York youth development agency. Through the center, she provided legal advice to young people, including many who were in foster care or homeless.