Second Leading Cause of Lung Cancer May Be in Your Basement

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAwareness). In this blog, guest writer Erica Voll discusses the lesser known, but all too common lung cancer risk of radon. Learn what steps you can take at home to help protect your family in this Focus on Cancer blog post. Learn more about radon from Oncolink here.  Knowing the FactsWhen we think of lung cancer, and lung cancer-related deaths, we immediately think of smoking and tobacco use. And,...

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Friend of the Basser Research Center for BRCA Helps Raise Awareness

Emmy-award winning Emily Frances hosts “a premier online parenting community providing parenting tips, valuable information, advice for new mothers and more.”Emily recently blogged about the important work of college friend, Mindy Basser Gray who founded the Basser Research Center for BRCA with her husband, Jon Gray in 2012.Read the post on Raising Cancer Awareness: Mindy Gray & The Basser Research Center for BRCA from How to Mom TV. The Basser...

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Proton Therapy for Lung Cancer at Penn

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAwareness). To recognize this, Focus on Cancer highlights Kathy, grandmother of 8, who learned about treatment options for lung cancer when she was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma. Learn about surgery, chemotherapy, and proton treatment from her experience with Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center.Lung cancer is the most common form of the disease in the world, claiming more than 1.3 million lives each...

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New Research in Nicotine Addiction

Nicotine addiction is like any addiction - difficult to treat without the right tools or resources. Often times, people who use nicotine have tried to quit numerous times. For some, it is easy. But for others, overcoming their nicotine is difficult.At the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction (CIRNA), faculty conducts numerous studies to understand the nature of nicotine addiction and identify effective methods to treat nicotine dependence.Robert Schnoll, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the...

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Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAwareness). Dr. Gregory Beatty, MD, PhD, discusses immunotherapy and it's relationship with cancer from last year's Focus on Lung Cancer Conference. Learn about the ways lung cancer tumors are being studied to create new treatments - then join us 11/15 for the 6th Focus on Lung Cancer Conference.Demystifying the Immune System"Lung cancer is a formidable foe with many ways of eluding the immune system--but...

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Cancer-Fighting Recipe: Wilted Kale and Roasted Potato Salad

This powerhouse recipe has kale, sweet potatoes and the sesame seed paste called tahini. An equally delicious substitution is with sunflower seed butter which also is a good protein, vitamin E and iron source.For the calorie conscious the olive oil can also be reduced to 2 1/2 tablespoons.Wilted Kale and Roasted Potato SaladServes 4 as a main dish, or 6 as a side dishIngredients1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces1 lb of sweet potatoes,...

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Foods That Lower Lung Cancer Risk

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. To recognize this, Carly Roop RD, CSO, is a registered dietitian at the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine Pennsylvania Hospital. Here, she provides nutrition education and support to patients while addressing nutrition-related side effects from chemotherapy and radiation. Dietitians at ACC provide educational nutrition programs that are open to patients as well as the community.The American Institute...

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Pancreatic Cancer Treated with Vaccine and Proton Therapy: Kim's #CureIsWithin Story

A vaccine therapy helped shrink Kim's pancreatic cancer tumor so that surgeons could take it out. When the cancer recurred, proton therapy proved to be the one-two punch that took out her cancer for good. Please share this video and help us tell the world.The Cure is Within the Abramson Cancer CenterLearn about the Pancreatic Cancer screening and treatment options available tod...

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Survivor Strong: My Rearview Mirror

Donna-Lee ListaNovember is Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAwareness). Donna-Lee, a lung cancer survivor and advocate for lung cancer research talks about lung cancer research, and her hope for lung cancer treatment in the future. When I see all that has transpired in the last few years regarding lung cancer research, I can’t help but hope that maybe all the work the advocates are doing has something to do with it. I want to believe we are making...

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Great American Smokeout on November 21st

Penn Medicine is proud to join the American Cancer Society in promoting the Great American Smokeout on Thursday, November 21 as part of Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAwareness).Did you know that tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States? In fact, tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths in this country.Why Quit? Research shows that if you smoke and pick a quit date in the...

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Targeted Molecular Therapy for Lung Cancer

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAwareness). In this Focus on Cancer blogpost, learn about the benefits of targeted molecular therapy at Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center. Targeted molecular cancer therapy is a type of personalized lung cancer treatment designed to interrupt the unique molecular abnormalities that make cancer grow.Targeted molecular cancer therapy uses personalized drugs that are designed for each individual through...

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Cancer - Fighting Nutrition: Tuscan Ribollita

This is a wonderful one pot meal utilizing two cancer-fighting ingredients: greens and beans. The variations are boundless.Two forms of cruciferous vegetables are in this recipe which provide powerful immune enhancers and anticancer fighting compounds. And the beans are high-protein vegetables. Plus this is just delicious.Change up the beans and add your own herbs as you see fit, and feel free also to add in some dried herbs such as herbs de provence...

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Before Angelina: Portraits of Breast Cancer Previvors and Survivors in Time Magazine

Sandy Cohen, photo courtesy of Miller Mobley for TIMEIn this series of stunning photos, Time Magazine features the many women who elected prophylactic double mastectomy long before the news of Angelina’s BRCA1 mutation and surgery broke in Spring 2013. Penn Medicine’s Basser Research Center for BRCA works closely with many of the women featured, including Sandy Cohen, Karen Kramer, Lisa Schlager, and Diane Rose of Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered...

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Save the Date: 6th Focus On Lung Cancer Conference

The Abramson Cancer Center, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Lung Cancer Partnership is pleased to present the 6th Focus On Lung Cancer and CANPrevent Lung Cancer Conferences, a day-long conference dedicated to lung cancer topics including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, genetics and living well after lung cancer treatment.This conference was one of the first in the country to address the issues and concerns of breast and gynecologic cancer...

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Learn About the Basser Research Center Through ShareWik

Have you heard of the Basser Research Center? Until recently, neither had Jan. Even as a seven-year cancer survivor, she continues to learn about the available resources. Jan Jaben-Eilon discusses how a friend introduced her to Penn Medicine’s Basser Research Center for BRCA over lunch. She encourages you, too, to get acquainted with the Basser Center. Read her post on ShareWik, a website aimed at using the power of personal storytelling to engage,...

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The Cure is Within: Lauryn's Breast Cancer Story

My mother’s sister, my aunt, had breast cancer and I started mammograms early because of her diagnosis. I had my daughter at 41, and nursed her for almost two years – so I missed a few mammograms in between. At 43, I had my first mammogram since having my daughter, and that’s when I learned I had cancer. I’ll never forget the moment in September 2012 when I got the call from my gynecologist, Dr. Bernadette Wheeler. My 2 year old was running around...

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Hope and Support From a Young Widow

Jessica Bemis is a full-time, working mom of two who lost her husband to testicular cancer in November 2011. Since then, Jessica has been sharing her story on her blog, Hope for Young Widows and working to bring awareness and hope to women and men who have lost their spouses to cancer. In this blog, she discusses her life with her husband before and after his diagnosis, kids, marriage, 4jim5k , resources and creating a new normal.Read Jessica's...

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Prostate Cancer and Proton Therapy at Penn Medicine

When Frank McKee was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he wanted to find the best possible treatment to fight his disease. Frank did extensive research about prostate cancer treatments and learned about proton therapy for prostate cancer, the world’s most advanced form of radiation therapy."For me, I wanted to treat the cancer. I wanted to be done with it," Frank said. "And, I wanted to be done with it in a way that had a minimum amount of side effects and affect my life the least.""That’s why I picked proton therapy."In this video, Frank...

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Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Study Information from ASCO 2013

Christine Wilson, cancer survivor, shares her experiences from the The American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) national conference in 2013. Every year, over 30,000 cancer specialists and researchers from around the world gather to present their latest findings on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of science. At a recent continuing medical education meeting, experts from the Abramson Cancer Center summarized some of the most important...

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