Breast Cancer

SAN ANTONIO - Breast-cancer experts are cheering what could be some of the biggest advances in more than a decade: two new medicines that significantly delay the time until women with very advanced cases get worse. In a large international study, an experimental drug from Genentech called pertuzumab held cancer at bay for a median of 18 months when given with standard treatment, versus 12 months for others given only the usual treatment. It also strongly appears to be improving survival, and follow-up is continuing to see if it does.

THIS HAS been a bad year for proponents of early detection of breast cancer. Not only have we seen debates about the effectiveness of mammography, but a study just published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that breast self-examination did not prevent deaths from breast cancer. Once again women find themselves wondering what happened. For years, we've been told that early detection is the only way to ensure that you will find breast cancer at a curable stage.

Linda Kerns was 4 years old when she saw her mother die. One year later, her aunt died. When she was 34, she watched in agony as her sister died. All had breast cancer. None made it out of their 30s. Last year, at 35, she was diagnosed with the dreaded disease. With a malignant tumor the size of a baseball in one breast and the cancer already spread to nine nearby lymph nodes, she made a desperate choice: to subject her body to a near-lethal onetime dose of chemotherapy followed by a bone-marrow transplant to repair her chemically ravaged immune system.

Yesterday's Race for the Cure was the largest ever in Philadelphia, drawing at least 40,000 people to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and raising an estimated $2 million. With this success comes a sad irony: In a nation where 211,000 cases of breast cancer occur each year, Philadelphia's Race for the Cure has joined the heavyweight class of civic events, up with the St. Patrick's Day Parade and summer festivals on the Parkway. This cancer fund-raiser is now a popular Mother's Day tradition, particularly among those who, on that special Sunday in May, have no mother to telephone.

BABY-FEEDING WARNING Parents, don't give babies soy-based beverages other than infant formulas as their only source of nutrition. So warns the Food and Drug Administration, which says soy-based drinks, sometimes called "soy milk," do not have the nutrients infants need. The warning stems from the case of a 5-month-old baby girl, now in critical condition, fed almost since birth on a soy beverage bought in a health food store. FLU TOLL If you've suffered through it, you won't be surprised to learn that the 1989-90 flu season could turn out to be the worst in five years.

Cancer is a scary prospect, and we need all the help we can get to understand what it is, how it's treated, and how to cope with it. Some iPad tablet applications have risen to the task, or parts of it. A guide to 120 types of cancer is part of Cancer.net Mobile , from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. This free app has information about treatment, costs, and side effects, and helps patients and families manage life with cancer. Unfortunately, links to a video and podcast of "When the Doctor Says Cancer" were not working when we tested the app. Tools in the app let you log symptoms and side effects and note the questions that you need to take to the doctor's office, when you could be nervous and forget.

Q: For the last two months, I have been taking a green coffee bean extract recommended by Dr. Oz on his show. So far, I've lost 10 pounds without even trying. What's your opinion of it? A: Generally, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. But this stuff may actually work. Excitement about the weight-loss magic of green coffee bean extract began this year, after a "randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, linear dose, crossover University of Scranton study.

Camille Quattrone Ridarelli, 60, of Penn Valley, wife of former teen idol Bobby Rydell, her high school sweetheart, died Monday of cancer at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood. She and Roberto Ridarelli - Bobby Rydell was a stage name - grew up blocks from each other in South Philadelphia. In an interview several years ago, she said that when she was a student at St. Maria Goretti High School, "I used to see him on the trolley car when he went to [the old] Bishop Neumann, and wait for him, but he never gave me a second look.

No one likes having a colonoscopy - a big reason why the colon cancer screening is underused. Nonetheless, growing research suggests that older folks are having unnecessary colonoscopies. The latest study of routine colonoscopies among people over 70 found that nearly a quarter were getting "potentially inappropriate" tests, based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Those guidelines say that people at average risk of colon cancer should have a colonoscopy once a decade starting at age 50, and stop at age 75. The rationale is that the disease usually progresses slowly, so people near the end of their lives are unlikely to live longer with early detection and treatment.

The next time you click on TV and hear talk-show host Montel Williams looking deep into the eyes of a breast cancer patient and saying he sympathizes, check your cynicism. Williams had a double mastectomy 23 years ago when he was a Marine. He told attendees at a breast cancer research funding gala in New York last Saturday that doctors found a lump in his chest, operated and then discovered it was benign, according to the New York Post. Although he still has his nipples, "there was moderate scarring" that has faded.

Once almost unthinkable, cutting off healthy breasts to prevent cancer is increasingly common among women with certain gene mutations and, as Angelina Jolie found, often restores a sense of control. "I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no ways diminishes my femininity," the movie star wrote Tuesday in a New York Times op-ed. Jolie, who watched her mother die of ovarian cancer at age 56, inherited a mutation in a gene, BRCA1, that puts her at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

Angelina Jolie trended high among worldwide Twitter topics all day Tuesday. In a New York Times op-ed, she said she'd had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that carried with it an unusually high risk of breast cancer. The outpouring of support was unusual even for Twitter. Stars, especially, praised Jolie's resolve. Kristen Bell called her Times op-ed "admirable," and director Adam Shankman called it "beautiful. " Nia Vardalos called for "a moment of quiet respect for Angelina Jolie's candor and all women's bravery in facing this choice.

Denise Benn spent Mother's Day last year enduring the effects of chemotherapy, trying to treat the cancer that invaded her colon and worried her five sons. One of those sons is Arrelious Benn, now an Eagles wide receiver and in better spirits than a year ago. One of the reasons is the health of Denise, whose cancer is in remission. On Saturday, one day before Mother's Day, Denise joined her five sons on Team Arrelious, created for the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure, a 5K walk/run in his native Washington.

The Temple football team has been participating in the annual Komen Philadelphia Race for the Cure since 2006. The Owls, however, will have added roles in Sunday's fund-raiser for breast cancer research at the Eakins Oval/Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fifteen members of Temple's football family - including head coach Matt Rhule and his wife, Julie - will participate in the 5K race, 5K walk, or 1-mile walk. More than 50 others associated with the Big East program have volunteered to hand out water.

For some, Mother's Day involved brunch. For others, a few blissful hours to putter in the garden or to read a book. In Philadelphia, thousands marked the day to honor Mom by walking or running to help protect all women. The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the region's largest one-day breast cancer fund-raiser, brought together grandmothers, mothers, mothers-to-be and little girls far too young to be thinking about motherhood. Men participated too, an important reminder that they are not immune to breast cancer.

IN THE BATTLE against ovarian cancer, three puppies at the University of Pennsylvania will be on the front lines. The pups - Ohlin and Thunder, both Labradors, and McBain, a springer spaniel - have been conscripted to lead the charge in a novel collaboration announced last week between Penn and the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Ovarian cancer claims the lives of more than 14,000 women every year and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women in the nation. The new collaboration takes aim at the silent killer with a combination of chemistry, nanotechnology - and dogs.

It took two years, roughly 100 interviews, a dozen workshops, and 21/2 hours in three acts for 1812 Productions to birth It's My Party: The Women and Comedy Project . But Jennifer Childs' examination of why women are funny (Christopher Hitchens' infamous Vanity Fair article stating the opposite gets mentioned and drop-kicked out of the room early on) still seems to be suffering some labor pains. The trouble comes from both the show's content and its form. Its ensemble of seven includes some of Philly's funniest and best-loved performers: Melanie Cotton, Charlotte Ford, Drucie McDaniel, Bi Jean Ngo, Cathy Simpson, Susan Riley Stevens, and Cheryl Williams.

In January, Michelle Friedman of Mount Laurel celebrated her 46th birthday with more than 100 friends, many of them e-mail buddies who came from all over the country to wish her well. Afterward, she described the experience on her blog, "I'll Say It Once!": "Nine days ago I had people treat me like a big star. I know what it's like to be treated like a VIP. It rocks; I hope you all get to experience it, especially for something like a birthday. " To her family, said her husband, Ken, she was always "a rock star.

As legal questions go, it is very succinct: Can human genes be patented? To the uninitiated, and at least two judges, it might seem obvious - or absurd. How can you get a patent for human genes? Aren't genes part of the human body, part of nature? Can you get a patent for a human leg or kidney, or the sun or the moon? The U.S. Supreme Court will wrestle with the question of whether human genes are patentable during oral arguments Monday in a case that could have huge implications for people needing cancer testing, scientific researchers, and pharmaceutical organizations, but also agricultural producers, other industries, and, perhaps, individual liberty.

A Montgomery County hospital will be offering free breast cancer screenings for uninsured women over 40 years of age next month. Holy Redeemer Women's HealthCare at Southampton will provide the exams on Wednesday, April 17, from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. by appointment to women who qualify. In addition to a mammogram, women will meet with a nurse and breast surgeon for a breast exam. To register call 1-800-818-4747 by April 12. The hospital is located at 45 2d Street Pike.   Contact staff writer Mari A. Schaefer at 610-892-9149, mschaefer@phillynews.com or @MariSchaefer on Twitter.