Sometimes there are no words....

Christine     Saffron     Megan     Erin     Sharona     Shannon     John     Samantha     Chelsea     

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2002, I was overwhelmed by the entire situation.  For a couple of weeks my life was a series of numbness, depression, and denial.  I would try to read about it (knowledge is power, they say...) but I couldn't read the words without crying.   My life seemed to be on hold--I had no desire to do the every-day tasks that usually filled my time. 

I have found out that breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, other than skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death for all women and the leading overall cause of death in women between the ages of 40 and 55. In the United States, 1 out of 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. This year, breast cancer will be newly diagnosed every three minutes, and a woman will die from breast cancer every 13 minutes. The American Cancer Society estimates that this year in the United States approximately 192,200 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and approximately 40,600 women will die from breast cancer.  There are more than two million breast cancer survivors in America today.

The pink ribbon is the symbol for breast cancer awareness invented in 1991 by Evelyn H. Lauder, found & president of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Alexandra Penney, then-editor of Self Magazine. Lauder says, "The ribbon stands for awareness. And it stands for the sisterhood that will help women survive - and conquer- this disease.  Feel free to take one of my ribbons for yourself. 

Breast Cancer Resources on the Internet

Information Sites

American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Network - http://www.cancer.org/bcn/bcn.html

Avon's Breast Cancer Awareness Crusade - http://avon.avon.com/showpage.asp?thepage=crusade

Best Breast Cancer Sites - http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jbonine/bc_sources.html

Breast Cancer Answers - http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/bca/

Breast Cancer Answers - http://www.canceranswers.org

Clinical trial matching, art gallery, personal stories, and links from the California Public Health Foundation.

Breast Cancer Information Center - http://www.feminist.org/other/bc/bchome.html

Breast Cancer Network - http://www.breastcancer.net/

A 'linked list' of Internet-based resources on the prevention, detection, and treatment of

breast cancer. The latest bc-related news and medical developments.

Breast Cancer Roundtable - http://tangle.seas.gwu.edu/~tlooms/MGT243/breast_cancer_roundtable.html

CANCERLIT Citations and Abstracts - http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/clinpdq/canlit/breast.html

CANSearch - http://www.cansearch.org/canserch/canserch.htm

HomeArts Breast Health Center - http://homearts.com/depts/health/00breaf1.htm

National Action Plan on Breast Cancer (NAPBC) - http://www.napbc.org/

National Breast Cancer Centre - Australia - http://www.nbcc.org.au/default.htm

Oncolink - http://oncolink.org/  Cancer site started by the University of PA Cancer Center. A great starting place.

Benign Breast Disease and Breast Cancer Tutorial - http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/surgery/wolberg/breast.html

Tutorial for third-year medical students. Provides good basic information with illustrations.

Breast Cancer Health and Medical Information - http://www.mediconsult.com/mc/mcsite.nsf/conditionnav/breast~sectionintroduction

Includes access to breast cancer drug information.

Doctors Guide to the Internet - Breast Cancer - http://www.pslgroup.com/BREASTCANCER.HTM

National Cancer Institute - http://wwwicic.nci.nih.gov/

Sapient Health Network - http://www.shn.net/index.html

Susan Love MD.com - http://www.susanlovemd.com  An interactive educational website on women's health issues, particularly breast cancer and breast health. Lots of good questions are asked and discussed on this site. There is also thoughtful discussion of breast cancer issues in the news. Be sure to look through the archives of answers to previous questions.

Treatment Choices

Breast Cancer Decision Guide - http://www.bcdg.org/

Breast Cancer Treatment Guidelines -

http://www.cancernetwork.com/guidelines/breast/page1.htm

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network and American Cancer Society have put together

these guidelines and decision trees to help patients evaluate standard treatment choices.

Breast Cancer Trials - NABCO - http://www.nabco.org/trials/

Breast Cancer Trials - NAPBC - http://www.napbc.org/napbc/ctlist.htm

California Clincal Trial Matching Service for Breast Cancer Patients - http://www.canceranswers.org/clin-qry/

Bone Marrow Transplant Newsletter - http://www.bmtnews.org/

Cell Culture Drug Resistance Testing (CCDRT) - http://oncolink.org/specialty/med_onc/chemo/general/chemosens_1.html

Information on the process of testing a patient's own cancer cells in the laboratory to try to identify which drugs will be most effective on their tumors. Here is an argument for why this technique might be worth considering (http://www.virtualtrials.com/assay.html).

Quality Review Program - Cancer - http://www.carecounsel.com

Quality Review Program by experts at renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Members receive report assessing accuracy, completenessand overall quality of their treatment plan, including other treatment options, when appropriate.

Making the Right Choice: Treatment Options in Cancer Surgery - http://web-hou.iapc.net/~raevans/

TransMed: Online Management of Breast Diseases - http://www.breastdiseases.com/

Treatment guidelines.

Guide to Unconventional Cancer Therapies - http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/uctm/

Written by the Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange Project (Canada) and funded by

Health Canada.

Center for Alternative Medicine Research in Cancer - University of TX - http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/utcam/

A research center chosen by Office of Alternative Medicine to evaluate alternative cancer

therapies.

This page was last updated on: January 13, 2007

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