Cancer Patients

In rejecting PSA screening for prostate cancer, an influential federal panel has chipped a cornerstone of preventive medicine, declaring that it's not always best to catch cancer as early as possible. "At best, PSA screening may help only 1 man in 1,000 avoid death from prostate cancer," the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday. "Most prostate cancers found by PSA screening are slow growing, not life threatening, and will not cause a man any harm during his lifetime.

Oncologist Ubaldo Martinez doesn't have enough time to address all the special needs of the growing number of elderly cancer victims who seek his help, even though he spends 90 minutes with patients the first time and 30 during subsequent visits. It's all he can do to explain their disease and its treatments to them, but so many other things can affect how they'll do. How many drugs are they taking? Are they frail? Or robust enough to race their grandkids up a hill? Do they have dementia?

Fox Chase Cancer Center will become part of the Temple University Health System, officials announced Thursday. The combination, which is expected to close next summer, will join two prominent Philadelphia health-care institutions, both of which have faced fiscal difficulties lately. Temple, based in North Philadelphia, will get a nationally recognized research partner that could help it compete with other academic medical centers in the region. Fox Chase, which will keep its name, will get a bigger referral base for patients, room to expand at Temple's Jeanes Hospital next door, and a chance to save money as health-care reform further squeezes the dollars available for clinical care and research.

Jose Canseco lived up to a pregame promise he made to four young cancer patients, homering in his first two at-bats last night as the Chicago White Sox beat visiting Kansas City, 7-6. On Cancer Survivors Night, 450 patients and their families turned out at Comiskey Park. Four children - all under the age of 16 - were on the field for batting practice. Canseco promised the two girls and two boys he'd hit home runs for them. He hit a three-run homer in the first and a two-run shot in the third.

When she answered a help wanted ad for nurses at Delaware County Memorial Hospital, working with cancer patients was not exactly what Cassie Sharrer had in mind. But when the subject came up, she told her superiors she would give it a try. Almost three years later, Sharrer has found oncology nursing a job that has its own kind of rewards. "The job is interesting because I do all kinds of nursing, including being a primary care giver, a health teacher, helping new patients adjust and working with the terminally ill," Sharrer said.

Thom Bernitsky and Lenore Urban, husband and wife, feel free to speak openly to each other. So when his wife was diagnosed as having breast cancer in 1989, Bernitsky said, they naturally talked about their feelings of devastation and confusion. There were questions that needed to be answered - the "whys," as Bernitsky put it - and depression that needed to be faced and dealt with. They sought counseling and went to sessions together. Bernitsky went to a partners group for husbands of women with breast cancer at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Northeast Philadelphia.

ST. LOUIS - For a lot of people, weathering the winter is no fun. Cold temperatures. Shorter days. More colds and flu. Weathering it all with cancer is worse. Before Jerry Miller was diagnosed with Stage 3B colon cancer last summer, he walked pretty much everywhere, year-round. And he loved it. "My car was stolen 12 years ago, and I never bothered to replace it," said Miller, 44, of St. Louis. Not anymore. In addition to fatigue and weakness, chemotherapy has wreaked havoc on his immune system and caused extreme cold sensitivity in his hands, feet and other parts of his body.

The American Cancer Society's Look Good . . . Feel Better Support Group meets from 10:30 a.m. to noon on the first Tuesday of the month at Virtua-Memorial Hospital Burlington County (Mount Holly) and quarterly from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Barry D. Brown Health Education Center in Voorhees. The program is designed to help newly diagnosed cancer patients improve their appearance and self-image with hands-on beauty techniques. Women will learn about hair-loss options, such as wigs, turbans and scarves, and will receive a free kit of cosmetics.

Tears come into Carol Dawkins' eyes as she talks about her mastectomy, a result of breast cancer. At first, she didn't want to look at her chest, she says. Now, when she does, she experiences a sense of loss. "I look at myself and I see two scars where my breasts were," the 54-year-old woman from West Philadelphia says. "There is a certain sadness. . . . " Unable to go on, Dawkins wipes her eyes as Mattie Wilkerson, whose lymphoma is in remission, holds and pats her hand. Dawkins and Wilkerson, who is 58 and lives in Northeast Philadelphia, are sitting in a cancer support group at the Wellness Community of Philadelphia, a nonprofit center in West Fairmount Park that offers free weekly group meetings for cancer patients and, separately, for their families and friends.

Maybe not enough administrators at Chestnut Hill College know what it's like to fight cancer. If they did, how could they deny a student named B. Elizabeth Furey? In July, Furey, 28, will finish the final three credits required for her master's degree in clinical and counseling psychology. She had hoped the school would allow her to hear her name called as she strode across the graduation stage on May 12, to the cheers of her family and friends. However, Chestnut Hill has a policy that no student may cross the stage until his or her courses are complete.

Oncologist Ubaldo Martinez doesn't have enough time to address all the special needs of the growing number of elderly cancer victims who seek his help, even though he spends 90 minutes with patients the first time and 30 during subsequent visits. It's all he can do to explain their disease and its treatments to them, but so many other things can affect how they'll do. How many drugs are they taking? Are they frail? Or robust enough to race their grandkids up a hill? Do they have dementia?

Beginning Sunday, The Inquirer and Philly.com will present 21 profiles over the next 21 days of participants in the Broad Street Run. The race, on May 6, is considered the country's most popular 10-mile run, attracting more than 40,000 people . They will race downhill from near Einstein Medical Center to the Navy Yard. Brian McShane felt his relationship with his father-in-law, Jim McDonald, was unlike any one else's. "A friendly basketball game would turn into an all-out do-or-die match," said Brian.

PSST, Taylor Swift, I know a boy who likes you. He loves your music and thinks you're really sweet. He thinks you're really cute, too. No wait, he actually said "beautiful. " His name's Kevin McGuire, and yesterday he poured his big, romantic heart out to me from his room on the third floor of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. That's the oncology unit. He's dealing with a relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He's very tired and a little homesick. But when I asked what he'd say to you if he saw you in person, he perked up a little and said he already had something prepared.

ST. LOUIS - For a lot of people, weathering the winter is no fun. Cold temperatures. Shorter days. More colds and flu. Weathering it all with cancer is worse. Before Jerry Miller was diagnosed with Stage 3B colon cancer last summer, he walked pretty much everywhere, year-round. And he loved it. "My car was stolen 12 years ago, and I never bothered to replace it," said Miller, 44, of St. Louis. Not anymore. In addition to fatigue and weakness, chemotherapy has wreaked havoc on his immune system and caused extreme cold sensitivity in his hands, feet and other parts of his body.

While people commonly think that cancer patients lose weight because chemo makes them so sick, many patients actually have the opposite problem. It is true that some people with end-stage cancer get very thin, but, earlier in the course of treatment, many may find themselves surprised by unwanted flab. Cancer Support Community of Philadelphia has taken on the issue in several programs this winter. One late Monday afternoon will focus on fitness and weight management for cancer survivors.

Fox Chase Cancer Center will become part of the Temple University Health System, officials announced Thursday. The combination, which is expected to close next summer, will join two prominent Philadelphia health-care institutions, both of which have faced fiscal difficulties lately. Temple, based in North Philadelphia, will get a nationally recognized research partner that could help it compete with other academic medical centers in the region. Fox Chase, which will keep its name, will get a bigger referral base for patients, room to expand at Temple's Jeanes Hospital next door, and a chance to save money as health-care reform further squeezes the dollars available for clinical care and research.

When Angela Cordisco and Elisa Guida were young girls together, endlessly playing "Yesterday," "Twist and Shout," and other cherished Beatles 45s in the basement of Guida's Drexel Hill home, their lives stretched before them. Cordisco didn't know she would marry a guitar-playing doctor, raise three music-loving children, and make a home in Moorestown. Guida, always an artist, might have been surprised to learn that she would settle in Erie, start a jewelry business, and marry happily at 39. She didn't suspect she would battle breast cancer not once, but twice, and live to rock on. "In so many ways, music has bonded us for over 50 years," Cordisco said of the women's enduring friendship.

DEAR ABBY: I have been battling breast cancer and have been blessed to have a lot of support from family, friends and some awesome medical providers. My husband's best friend and his wife socialize with us quite often, and the friendship is important to him. I recently celebrated a birthday and these friends had us over for a belated birthday dinner. They bought me beautiful flowers and a gift. The card attached made a joke about my "aging breasts," which she found quite funny. Abby, I had a mastectomy, which she knew about!