Talking to Your Kids About Your Spouse's Death

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. This is such a tough subject for me.Telling my boys about the death of their father was very difficult for me and it took me two days after Jim died to tell them...

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Foods That Fight Gynecologic Cancer

The World Cancer Research Fund, along with the American Institute for Cancer Research, analyzed research on nutrition and its role in cancer, and published the “Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective."The recommendations for the general public are as follows:Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight.Be physically active as part of everyday life.Limit consumption of energy-dense foods.Avoid sugary drinks.Eat...

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Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing: What’s all the Fuss?

A mother testing her adopted child’s genome...A young woman learning from a spit-and-send test that she is at markedly increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer...A reporter who sends samples to multiple direct-to-consumer genomics companies, each with unique and variable results...These are just a few of the stories to surface around the recent warning letter sent by the US Food and Drug Administration to a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genomics testing...

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In 2014, Heirloom Is The New Black

Carly Roop RD, CSO, is a registered dietitian at the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine Pennsylvania Hospital. Dietitians at the Abramson Cancer Center provide educational programs about nutrition that are open to patients as well as the community. Cancer-fighting recipes on this blog are the product of the quarterly series "Cooking Nutritious and Delicious Foods," which promotes seasonal healthy foods with cancer fighting properties. Move over...

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Cervical Cancer Awareness Month: HPV and its Link to Cervical Cancer

January is cervical cancer awareness month.According to National Cancer Institute, there were more than 12,000 women who received a cervical cancer diagnosis last year.About half of the women diagnosed with cervical cancer are between the ages of 35 and 55. The majority of cases are caused by exposure to the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted disease. HPV affects up to 80 percent of females and males in their lifetime. Many...

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BRCA Beat: 2014 Winter Issue

Happy New Year from the Basser Research Center for BRCA.Basser's quarterly e-newsletter reports on donors Herbert and Betty Adelman, the latest in BRCA research, the announcement of the Basser External Research Grant, upcoming BRCA educational events, and other important center updates:Herbert and Betty Adelman live in Virginia and first read about the Basser Research Center for BRCA in the New York Times. A 1952 graduate of the Wharton School and...

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What If...

Jane E. Herman, a BRCA2 mutation carrier, is the executive writer and editor at the Union for Reform Judaism. She also volunteers as an Outreach Coordinator for the New York City chapter of FORCE: Facing our Risk of Cancer Empowered and blogs regularly about her BRCA journey and other slices of her life at JanetheWriter Writes…Two weeks ago, in the midst of staffing the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial Convention in San Diego,...

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The Saracini Family’s Own Miracle on 34th Street

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the world became a very different place. For Ellen Saracini and her daughters, the events changed the course of their lives forever. Ellen’s husband Victor Saracini was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, the plane that flew into the second tower of the World Trade Center.After that day, Ellen’s priority was helping her family heal, not her own personal health and well-being, and she went...

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Cancer-Fighting Recipe: Chicken and Pear Salad with Mint Dressing

This light and refreshing salad delivers more than a serving of fruits and vegetables it also provides cancer and cold fighting properties too. One pear provides ¼ of the recommended daily value of fiber per day, which can help protect against colorectal cancer.Honey acts as a prebiotic in the large intestine which supports gastrointestinal health as well as aids calcium absorption. Last but not least,  mint and cinnamon contain anti-microbial...

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