The Noreen Fraser Foundation is proud to announce that rock-icon and cancer advocate, Melissa Etheridge, has joined our board of directors.
NFF Newest Board Member: Melissa Etheridge
June 12th, 2009Cancer Health Disparities
June 4th, 2009Did you know that cancer impacts population groups in different ways? Young African American women are more susceptible to a particularly aggressive and deadly form of breast cancer. Vietnamese women are five times more likely to develop cervical cancer than white women and Latinas are twice as likely with higher rates of mortality.
You Go Christina!
April 18th, 2009She’s one of Hollywood’s funniest leading ladies, having practically grown up in front of the camera. But these days, Christina Applegate is using her celebrity not just for laughs, but to talk about her recent struggle with breast cancer and help raise awareness for young women who may not know the risks. Christina appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in September of 2008 to talk about her cancer diagnosis and the choices she made in her treatment. No stranger to breast cancer, Applegate watched her mom battle the disease in the 70’s and have her own double mastectomy. Because of her family history, Christina is vigilant about her yearly mammograms and on one such appointment, an MRI detected a lump.
Once Christina received her diagnosis, she received a lumpectomy and was told she needed six weeks of radiation. But when further tests concluded that she had the BRCA gene otherwise known as the ” breast cancer gene”… Christina had a decision to make. Go forward with radiation treatments and continue getting tested for the rest of her life… or have both breasts removed therefore, drastically minimizing the chances of recurrence.
It has been a year since her bilateral mastectomy and the actress has not slowed down a bit. Christina has been filming her hit comedy, “Samantha Who?” for ABC while continuing to be an outspoken and active member of the cancer awareness community.
Liz Lange- Cervical Cancer Experience
April 12th, 2009Liz Lange, the founder and president of Liz Lange Maternity, has been cancer-free for eight years. The maternity wear maven was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 35 after her annual Pap smear came back abnormal, and subsequent tests detected the disease. Needless to say, the diagnosis came as a shock to the young mother who had two small children at home and a thriving business to oversee. Like many women, Lange didn’t think cervical cancer would or could happen to her. She had no outward symptoms of the disease and no real knowledge of why or how she got it. She soon learned that almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which is very common sexually transmitted disease. In fact, three out of four people will get it at some point in their lives. In most cases, HPV is harmless since the immune system usually fights off the virus before it causes any ill-health effects. But in some cases, women end up with damage in the cells of the cervix, which can become cancerous. Lange chose to have a hysterectomy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy…a course of treatment that has kept her cancer free since her initial diagnosis.
Since battling her cancer, Lange now feels “compelled” to share her story and to educate women about cervical cancer, the importance of regular gynecological exams and knowledge of HPV.
New MRI
April 2nd, 2009There’s a new MRI machine in town and it may be better in detecting breast cancer. The machine, known as the 3-T MRI was tested by researchers from the University of Toledo where they found that the 3-T detected 66/66 malignant lesions, while a mammography detected 54/66 and sonography detected 54/66. The American Cancer Society recommends that women with a high-risk of breast cancer have yearly MRI in addition to their mammogram. The results from the study suggest MRI screening is more effective than mammography or sonography. The issue now is how to select women for the MRI screening and the costs associated with routine MRI screenings.
Here is where the info came from.
http://professional.cancerconsultants.com/oncology_main_news.aspx?id=43452
