Three of the scariest words anyone may ever hear are, “You have cancer.” Three of the most hope-filled ones are, “You will survive!” Thanks to earlier detection, breakthrough research, enhanced treatment and ongoing support, cancer survival rates continue to improve. Today, nearly 14.5 million people in the United States are living with and beyond cancer….
An annual survey done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that 15 percent of adults in the United State smoked in 2015. The CDC hails this rate as an all-time low, and points to a record one-year drop in smoking — down 1.7 percent from 2014 — for helping lower adult…
Move more. Work out. Stay active. We hear every day that regular exercise is an important part of staying healthy. The idea of exercise as a powerful cancer-fighter is nothing new. A number of studies have looked at this topic over the years, focusing mostly on cancers of the breast, lung and colon. Now, a…
Since I was invited to share my story, those words have been swimming around in my mind. My story. I blogged my days during cancer treatment. I did that to share my experience, to educate, to encourage. That’s what my story is about. I told my story in that blog. Told it in a raw,…
For years, Denise Valente suffered from a nonmalignant fibrocystic breast condition. Her breasts would get tender, swollen and lumpy, and she would have the cysts aspirated. It was so predictable, in the words of the 58-year-old Valente, “I got pretty nonchalant about it.” Then in 2010, she discovered a lump in her right breast that…
At age 31, my husband, Lonnie, was diagnosed with cancer — a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. As if that wasn’t scary enough, the weeks of testing he underwent during the diagnosis process uncovered something suspicious in his colon. Lonnie underwent a colonoscopy, during which his doctor discovered a polyp so large that only part of…
For a small, inexpensive, readily available pill that originally came from tree bark and traces its roots to ancient Greece, aspirin remains a modern-day marvel. You may be one of millions of people who take a low-dose aspirin daily to help guard against heart disease, and now there’s even better news: This humble nonprescription drug…
Anyone who has ever heard the words, “You have cancer” — or who loves someone who has heard them — will tell you these are life-changing words. As you struggle to figure out where you go from here and what happens next, the last thing you want to hear is: “It will be a week…
In August 2012, Phil Meeks, now 47 years old, went to the doctor with shortness of breath and pain in his legs. He thought the pain was related to smoking cigarettes. The news he received was shocking. Not only was he diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, he was given just 30 days to live unless…
Carroll Grossman, a 71-year-old distance runner, felt in the best shape of her life when she found a lump in her left breast and was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. At first, she denied it. “I have always been about good health and couldn’t believe this was happening to me,” she said. “After the…
Norton Cancer Institute is making a mark as an authority in treating blood cancers. Findings from two important clinical trials have been published in prestigious medical journals. In December 2015, the findings of a trial on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study compared how well two…
In May 2015, Micheal White, severely short of breath, rushed to the emergency room at Norton Brownsboro Hospital. Chest X-rays revealed fluid in his lungs. He was hospitalized overnight so doctors could monitor him and run more tests. The next day, Micheal got the earth-shattering news: He had stage 4 lung cancer. A chaplain came…