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A new study published this week in the journal Cancer has doctors, patients, and families talking -- and asking hard questions -- about what happens in a couple when it's the wife, rather than the husband, who becomes ill.

Here's what researchers found when they followed 515 patients with cancer or multiple sclerosis over a period of five years.

• A woman is six times more likely to end up separated or divorced soon after a diagnosis of cancer or MS than a man who becomes ill with the same disease.

• In couples in which the woman fell ill, the divorce rate was more than 20 percent.

• In couples in which the man got sick, the divorce rate was just 2.9 percent.

• The older a woman was at the time she got sick, the more likely she was to end up alone.

• However, the longer a couple had been married, the less likely they were to end up divorced.

The researchers at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Huntsman Medical Center, and Stanford University were studying a phenomenon that has already been documented in numerous other studies...  Read more

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This week a decision was made that could affect many lives. Currently mammograms are recommended as a yearly screening technique for women starting at age 40. If you have health insurance, it tends to happen pretty much automatically; your doctor sends you a reminder, and off you go to the radiology lab. Now all that might change.

The preventive services task force issued a recommendation that women under 50 shouldn't have routine screening mammograms unless individually recommended. And after age 50, mammograms should only be performed every two years instead of annually, the panel said.

What that means is that women between ages 40 and 50 won't be offered mammograms as a routine part of their wellness health care. And after age 50, they'll be offered mammograms only every two years, which is a long time for a tumor to grow.

As with so many health care decisions, this could come down to money...  Read more

"I just don't feel as sharp as I used to; it's like my brain is moving in slow motion." My close friend Amy, who recently finished treatment for breast cancer, was speaking to me and two other friends who are also cancer survivors. It was as if her admission yanked open a door; suddenly all three began talking about how emotionally devastating it's been to feel that cancer has changed their ability to concentrate, create, remember.

Sam, who's in his 60s and has had surgery for colon cancer, told everyone that his doctor had just told him about some research done at UCLA that demonstrated what cancer patients have been arguing for years: that "chemo brain," as the memory and concentration problems resulting from cancer treatment are known, can be very serious and doesn't necessarily go away after treatment is finished, as doctors had previously thought.

Everyone was so excited that we...  Read more

Even though my father just died, I'm not going to repeat the relationship-building advice that caregivers hear so often: to tell your sick or aging mother, father, husband, wife, grandparent, other relative, or friend, now, while you can, and at every opportunity --- hurry, hurry, hurry! --- how much you love them.

Because if you're a caregiver, they know. Say the words because you can't help saying them, not because you feel you're supposed to.

Full disclosure: This is coming from someone infamous in her family for loathing to say, "I love you." I'm not averse to the sentiment –- far from it! –- only to the thinning of its meaning when the words are tossed off too casually, too robotically, too often, as has become the modern norm. (Pet peeve: The perfunctory "Byebyeloveyou!" at the end of every phone call.)

When I hear, or say, "I love you," I want the words to be fully intentional...  Read more

If you or a woman you know has early stage breast cancer that's HER2-positive, she needs to know about some new research published yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

An early stage tumor that's as tiny as one centimeter or smaller still has a high risk of deadly recurrence if it's HER2-positive, new data show.

Researchers from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reviewed recurrence data on breast cancer patients whose tumors were one centimeter or smaller -- typically considered to present a very low recurrence risk. (See size chart; one cm is about the size of a black-eyed pea.) What they found was that if a woman's tumor, no matter how tiny, was HER2-positive, her 5-year recurrence rate was 23 percent -- almost one in four.

Led by Ana Gonzalez-Angulo, MD, the researchers analyzed the center's breast cancer research database, which contained data on 965 women whose tumors were less than one centimeter when diagnosed, and who did not receive treatment with Herceptin...  Read more

Going through cancer treatment is traumatic enough, and no one expects cancer patients to do anything more than try to get well. But some cancer survivors and their families turn around and use their experience with cancer to create foundations and services to help other cancer patients. And many times these services are among the best, because they're created with the insights that only another cancer patient can have. Here are a few inspirational -- and useful --- stories about cancer services created by cancer-stricken families. They're my cancer heroes and heroines of the day.

A Matching Service to Help Breast Cancer Patients Find the Right Clinical Trials

A new and incredibly valuable service,BreastCancerTrials.org was conceived by two San Francisco breast cancer patients, Joan Schreiner and Joanne Tyler, who met when a breast surgeon put them in touch with each other. Joan, whose cancer had metastasized before it was detected, found out firsthand how hard it was to find information on treatments that might help her...  Read more

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It's scary to think about cancer, but even scarier to think that we might unknowingly be doing things that put our families at risk.

I'll never forget the day I was cleaning my mom's bathroom, and her caregiver arrived. She smelled the bleach spray I was using all the way from the front door and asked me what I was doing, then gently admonished me that the harsh chemicals weren't good for my mom's lungs, already weak from a lifetime of cigarette smoking. I felt terrible, of course, but also bewildered. After all, I'd been trying to do something nice. Using my experience as a starting point, I thought I'd round up the latest thinking on household chemicals and the risk of cancer and other serious illness. Here are my top five tips.

1. Spring clean the cleaning products. The number one rule of thumb, doctors and environmental safety experts say, is read the ingredient list carefully on anything you're going to be spraying in the air or wiping on touchable surfaces...  Read more

What with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the pink ribbons everywhere, breast cancer is even more on our minds than usual. What better time to think about prevention and awareness? Are you worried about the possibility of breast cancer in your future, or in the future of someone you love? Here are the top ten things you can do to ensure a breast cancer-free future for yourself and your loved ones.

Detection:

1. Get regular mammograms. It sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many women don't. Last week an Australian study found that women who get regular mammograms had a 4 percent risk of dying of breast cancer; women who weren't screened had a 56 percent mortality rate. Ready to make that appointment?

2. Find out whether you or women close to you have dense breasts. What does this mean? It means the breast cells grow and multiply more rapidly, raising your risk...  Read more

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The supplement resveratrol, a key ingredient in red wine and grapes, has been endlessly touted as an alternative treatment for preventing and treating many conditions. I wrote about its anti-cancer benefits in a previous post, and it's also thought to help with general anti-aging. Now experts are saying it may be particularly beneficial for people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.

I know from tough experience that when you or a family member has diabetes or pre-diabetes, it feels like a constant struggle -- and source of tremendous worry -- to keep blood sugar under control.

Recently, studies have suggested that taking the supplement resveratrol could be a safe and simple way to do this. Research shows resveratrol appears to boost insulin sensitivity, helping the body process sugar into energy.

The latest study, released this week, was important for people with diabetes and their families because it proved definitively that resveratrol activates sirtuins, which are proteins in the brain that have immediate control over glucose metabolism...  Read more

Today is LiveStrong Day, the day Lance Armstrong's powerful organization has set aside to focus awareness on cancer, cancer research, and cancer survivors continuing to live healthy lives.

It's a great day to take a few moments and think about the people in your life living with cancer (including you!), how strong and brave they are, and what we can all do to support one another better. LiveStrong Day isn't about feeling sad -- it's about feeling empowered to go out and do something to make people think about the presence of cancer in their lives, no matter how small.

The LiveStrong Foundation has a cool interactive map that you can use to find LiveStrong Day events near you. I checked out my area and found a wonderful and inspiring collection of grassroots happenings, including a motorcycle gang and an equestrian team riding in support of LiveStrong, elementary schools planning health awareness days, and bike teams everywhere planning "LiveStrong Loops" decked out in yellow...  Read more