While nobody ever wants to hear those words, I consider myself fortunate. My family, friends and co-workers have been supportive and loving throughout this experience, and I have access to excellent cancer treatment.

Maryanne Kipe, a colon cancer patient, encourages her friends to get regular cancer screenings.

I was not symptomatic, but I knew that I should begin colorectal cancer screening at age fifty. Because of this, my cancer was found in an early, more treatable stage. While I join other patients every month for treatment, my oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center has told me that I should think of mine as a preventive measure. My experience has taught me how important cancer prevention, screening and early detection can be in one’s cancer diagnosis and outcome.

Being healthy and attentive to my health care has always been important to me and my family but since my diagnosis, it has become more of a top priority. For example, I stopped tanning at my tanning salon, which I admit to doing regularly until now. I no longer use tanning beds because I know that avoiding the harmful rays of tanning beds and the sun are vital in preventing skin cancer. I did nothing to cause my colorectal cancer, but if I were to develop skin cancer, I only have myself to blame. I want to do everything in my power to stay healthy and I don’t ever want to hear any doctor say, “you have cancer” again.

One of the other actions I took immediately after finding out that I had colon cancer was to help as many other people as I can learn about what they can do to reduce their risk for the disease. I knocked on the doors of the teachers who were 50 and older at the elementary school I work at and began encouraging them to get their screenings. I told them that despite the fear or displeasure of having the colorectal cancer screening, it’s not all that bad, it’s worth any discomfort and it can save lives. I’ve also made phone calls to friends who should get screened, because they are 50 or older or have a family history of colorectal cancer. I’ve given Prevent Cancer Foundation Buddy Bracelets to strangers that I’ve met at the pharmacy filling the same prescription as me, so that they can share the message of regular screenings with their loved ones. I will also make sure that my children and family talk to their health care providers about when to get screened; since we are now aware of a family history of the disease.

My goal in sharing my story is to help impress upon as many people as possible that there are steps that you can take to reduce your risk for cancer or to find it early. Getting screened, protecting yourself from the harmful effects of tanning and practicing healthy habits, like exercising and eating well, are all ways to help prevent cancer. While you can’t prevent all cases of cancer, there are some that can be prevented or detected early when it can be more successfully treated. I know that I am going to do everything that I can to ensure that the people in my life and community know what they can do to help save their life or the lives of their loved ones.

Editor’s Note: Guest Blogger Maryanne Kipe is a colon cancer patient who works at an elementary school in PA. She is a passionate advocate in her community for promoting colon cancer screening and early detection and knowing your family history in order to reduce one’s risk of the disease.   

Read the Full CBS News Article

From left to right: Rich Monopoli and Diane Legg, Co-Directors New England Chapter of Lung Cancer Alliance; Jason Wolfe, Vice President of Programming at WEEI Sports Radio, Boston; Heather Unruh, Co-Anchor at WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston.

The Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC) Journalism Award recognizes outstanding journalistic efforts in providing lung cancer patients with a voice and promoting public understanding of the disease. This year, on November 13, at the Boston Shine a Light on Lung Cancer Vigil, Boston-based Sports Radio WEEI 93.7 was honored with the award for the station’s coverage of lung cancer during the Jimmy Fund Radio–Telethon. The telethon included interviews with survivors, oncologists and medical experts who provided insight into the burden of this disease and inspired lung cancer patients and their families with hope.

The GLCC is an international coalition that works on a global scale to ensure access to quality prevention and treatment for lung cancer patients, reduce the stigma of the disease and empower patients and their families to be their own health advocates. The four U.S. based organizations of the GLCC – The National Lung Cancer Partnership, Prevent Cancer Foundation, Lung Cancer Alliance and CancerCare – selected the winner for the 2012 U.S. Journalism Award.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that there will be 2 million new diagnoses of skin cancer in the Unites States this year and 76,250 cases of melanoma, skin cancer’s most dangerous form.

Skin cancer manifests itself visibly on the skin and regular checks can help people discover skin cancer in its earliest stages. The mobile app includes a risk assessment survey, periodic reminders to check your body for any signs of skin cancer and pictures of cancerous lesions to make early detection easier.

Read the full Atlantic Article

Q:     Where did you get your inspiration for your work in science, engineering and cancer research?

A: My inspiration for science, engineering, and cancer research comes from a burning curiosity that my parents really fostered when I was a kid. This led me to generally like science and engineering. Before this year though, I really didn’t have very much interest in cancer research, but I was highly interested in these materials called single-walled carbon nanotubes due to their fantastic properties. Then a family friend died of pancreatic cancer and I wanted to use skills from my previous scientific research in order to make a difference for this cancer.

Q:      How would you describe your specific project and focus of research?

Jack Andraka posing next to his award winning project.

A: The focus of my research was to create a new type of sensor that could detect pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancer. Essentially what I did was create a novel paper sensor for these three diseases that costs as little as three cents and only takes five minutes. This new sensor is 168 times faster, over 26,000 times less expensive and over 400 times more sensitive than the current gold standard. The sensor works by detecting a certain cancer biomarker called mesothelin.  It is found in elevated levels in your blood when you have any of those three cancers.

Q:      Were there any obstacles that you had to overcome with your research?

A: Over the course of my experiments I faced a variety of challenges, especially in the development of my sensor. However due to my persistence, I continued my research and eventually created this novel paper sensor. I am currently filing for a patent and I expect a plethora of challenges accompanying this as well.

Q:      How do you feel about accomplishing so much at such a young age?

A: Winning the Intel ISEF has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. I always wanted to attend ISEF, but I did not expect to win the entire fair. The accomplishment I am most proud of is creating this sensor—it just fills me with pride and joy knowing that I will positively impact someone’s life. Being only 15 just sweetens the fact.

Q:      How do your family members and friends feel about this recent accomplishment?

A: My friends and family members are extremely proud and excited for all of the media attention that I have been getting as well as the fact that a 15-year old is helping shape the future of cancer research. I remember that I would always be super excited to see a previous ISEF winner or talk to them, so I suppose it’s the same for my friends and family members now.

Q:      Will you continue to work on cancer research, specifically pancreatic cancer?
A: I definitely plan on continuing my research on pancreatic cancer, I’m super excited about publishing my results in a scientific journal and working more on understanding and fighting this disease!

Brad Coleman

Brad Coleman was a healthy and active 17 year-old boy who enjoyed fishing, hunting and riding ATVs in his native western Tennessee. In October 2008 he began complaining of severe headaches that were initially attributed to a family history of migraines. By the end of December, Brad’s headaches grew more severe and he was taken to the emergency room in nearby Camden, TN. There it was discovered that he had blood in his stool and his blood counts were very low. Brad was immediately rushed to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville. A mass was discovered in his lower left abdomen and tests revealed that Brad had a bleeding ulcer. He was taken into surgery to repair the ulcer and control the bleeding. After this operation more tests were done to investigate the mass. Numerous scans and tests later, it was discovered that Brad had lesions in his liver, lungs and two in his brain that had not been there in the original scan in October.

Brad was diagnosed with testicular germ cell cancer on January 1, 2009. The cancer had metastasized to his lymph nodes, liver, lungs, and brain. John Coleman, Brad’s father, described his reaction when first hearing the diagnosis. “We had no idea. Total shock. Brad had never mentioned anything was wrong.”

Brad began the fight of his life with the love and support of his family and friends. He endured several rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Harvesting stems cells from Brad’s body required travelling back and forth from Brad’s home in Holladay, TN to Vanderbilt in Nashville every day for a month.  He had the transplant on January 18, 2010 and was in the hospital for six weeks. After some initial improvement, his condition began to worsen. Brad underwent surgery to remove the mass in his lower abdomen and participated in a clinical trial at MD Anderson Cancer Center, only to lose his battle against the disease on June 20, 2010.

The Coleman Family (From L. to R.) Brad's father John, Brad, Brad's mother Sheila, and Brad's brothers Brian and Bobby

The devastating loss of his youngest son to testicular cancer spurred John and his family into action. They created the Brad Coleman Cancer Foundation with a mission to bring greater awareness to the disease and to share the facts about early detection that could save lives. John found that the biggest obstacle to fighting testicular cancer is silence. “No one talked about it. Schools didn’t have anything about it,” Coleman said.

To raise awareness about testicular cancer, the Foundation began testicular cancer awareness programs in 20 school systems throughout western Tennessee. The Brad Coleman Cancer Foundation offers testicular cancer awareness DVDs and other educational tools free of charge to school systems across the country to raise awareness to those most a risk. “Early detection is the key. If just one person is helped then all our efforts will be well worth it,” said Coleman.

That’s what I’ve been saying for nearly two decades as the face of Buddy Check 9, WUSA-TV’s breast cancer awareness program. It began 19 years ago in partnership with the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Georgetown University Hospital.

Since the start, I’ve heard from scores of women and men who say after hearing my reminders on the 9th of each month, they do perform monthly breast self exams, get annual mammograms and schedule appointments for clinical exams. Some have even credited me with saving their lives.

Recently my colleague, local broadcast news icon JC Hayward, thanked me for being a faithful breast cancer advocate because the message hit home for her.

While on a cruise through South America, breast cancer interrupted JC’s time in paradise. Always in excellent health, she was proud that she wasn’t always one to run straight to a doctor’s office. And JC was only a “some-timer” when it came to early detection. Yet when she noticed something in her right breast, her gut reaction was that it wasn’t quite right. That nagging feeling did not go away when she came back to the U.S. Upon returning to work, she called me to her office and asked me what I thought. There was definitely something there, so I advised her to see an expert. She called breast surgeon Dr. Colette Magnant’s office. The following day JC was having a mammogram. That was Tuesday.

Wednesday she received the news no woman wants to hear. “You have breast cancer.”

Initially, she didn’t want to tell anyone—not me, not even her best “peeps,” as she calls her dearest friends. But she did tell me and I encouraged her to go public. That was Thursday.

Friday, I was with her live on-set as JC Hayward, anchorwoman, legend and “Buddy” looked directly into the camera and invited her family of viewers to join her on her breast cancer journey. She encouraged them to follow her lead and make early detection a regular part of their health care.

Immediately the word spread like wildfire on social media. Her JC Hayward.com website flooded with 100,000 hits. Sibley Hospital saw a jump in appointments for mammograms directly related to JC’s announcement, and I was getting calls for Buddy Check 9 reminder packets. In just a few hours she had become a powerful catalyst for change, especially among the city’s African-American women who have the highest mortality rate in the nation.

On Monday, I was with JC and her other “peeps” when she learned her cancer was invasive ductal carcinoma, a stage one or two, non-aggressive, estrogen receptor positive. An MRI that same day also detected a second lump. Radiologist Dr. Rebecca Zuurbier, Director of Breast Imagining at Sibley, located and removed the pea sized lesion during an Ultra Sound Guided Core Biopsy. The pathology report came back negative. It was benign.

Now JC had a decision to make–lumpectomy or mastectomy?  Because her breast cancer was detected early, she did have a choice. She chose a lumpectomy.

One week after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, JC’s tumor was removed and the news was all good. Both the tumor and mass had clear margins—and no surprises. Early detection had made a critical difference. Early detection gave JC control over her breast cancer, not the other way around. My Buddy JC  Hayward is saving lives, by example.

Watch Andrea’s interview with JC:

Andrea Roane is now in her 31st year with WUSA-TV 9. Ms. Roane is best known to viewers for her passionate reporting on breast health issues and promoting the importance of early detection in the fight against breast cancer through the Buddy Check 9 program. She currently serves as a Sustaining Director on the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Since spiral CT can detect early-stage lung cancer, cancer-related death could be reduced 20 percent if people at high risk received three annual screenings. Catching cancer in its early stages would result in earlier and lower treatment costs as well as a lower mortality rate.

Read the full News-Medical.net article.

Obesity is a risk factor for both colon cancer incidence and mortality so the low screening rates among this group is especially alarming. One potential reason is obese white women may be embarrassed to undress for screening tests, resulting from a negative body image. If these findings are confirmed by future studies, outreach and education to this group may shift to address it.

Colon cancer is preventable, yet screening rates are low across the board. Only 20-24 percent of men and women over age 50 have received a colonoscopy and only 12 percent have used fecal occult blood testing.

Read the full Newswise release.

However, final guidelines recently published on cervical cancer screening by the USPSTF are being met with general agreement according to recommendations also just made by the American Cancer Society (ACS), the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) and the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). Both the task force and the collaborative groups reviewed scientific literature and came to similar conclusions, that women should reduce the number of tests that they receive over their lifetime.

Cervical cancer used to be one of the most deadliest cancers. Decades ago, it killed more women each year than breast or lung cancer but there have been vast improvements in recent decades due to improved screening, treatment and prevention tools including a vaccine to prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which causes cervical cancer. In 2009, about 4,000 women died of cervical cancer, the vast majority of whom had never been screened within 10 years of their diagnosis.

The USPSTF’s revised guidelines say women, on average, should undergo cervical cancer screening no more than once every three years. Specifically, they call for Pap tests every three years for women ages 30 to 65. Women who add testing for HPV can lengthen the interval to once every five years. The USPSTF recommends against cervical cancer screenings in women younger than 21 or older than 65. They also recommend that women under age 21 should not be tested.

There are slight differences in the sets of recommendations, but you should talk with your health care provider about when you and family members should start screening. Pap screening, coupled with other preventive measures, can save lives!