Stand Up To Cancer

We've received a lot of e-mail from readers this week about the death of 30-year-old singer-songwriter Katie Reider, who lost a two-year battle with a rare form of cancer on Monday. She was an inspiration to the young adult cancer community, keeping her spirits high even after she lost the ability to perform. At a website started by one of her friends, you can pay $1 for nine of her original songs. The proceeds will help her family pay her medical bills.
http://www.500kin365.org/

Cancer also took Tony Snow this week, as you've doubtless heard. He has been remembered fondly by journalists and politicians alike for his sense of humor, his dedication to his job and his love of his family. But did you know he was also a blues flautist?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1PEyzk4ADU

The news isn't all bad, however, and I think we can all derive a little hope from the story of seven-year-old Maya Perrin-Skippen. The cute-as-a-button Brit is facing down cancer for the third time - and beating it yet again.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2305517/Girl,7,-may-have-beaten-cancer-for-third-time.html

We always like to alert you to interesting new research, and this week brings a great example of just how unpredictable the next big breakthrough in cancer treatment could be. Some folks at UCLA have discovered that it's possible to "light up" prostate cancer in the body using a common cold virus, making it easier to assess the effectiveness of treatment. Who knew?
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=173293

Of course all these breakthroughs are academic to the uninsured and underserved, both here and abroad. And access is a more endemic issue than you might think. A recent study in the Journal of Communication found that breast cancer patients with the ability (read: money, time, and technology) to join an Internet support group fared better than those who were just given a list of helpful URLs.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715111447.htm

And a study published just today in The Lancet Oncology shows that the US, France and Japan fare best worldwide in terms of cancer survival rates. Why? You guessed it - we have the best access to screening and treatment. In fact, the authors of the study see a direct link between a country's GDP and its rates of cancer survival. It's not really surprising, but this is the first study to quantitatively prove what so many already suspected.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aHSQIljntY2g&refer=home

There's no doubt about it - the more you educate yourself on the topic, the more insurmountable cancer seems. But everyone has the power to make a difference. Just ask nine-year-old James Kendig, who's spending the summer selling "lemonade for cancer aid" (and yes, he made up that slogan himself).
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.lemonade11jul11,0,6706809.story

That's it for our recommendations this week. But we know this is only the tip of the cancer news iceberg. What else should we be reading? Comment and let us know!

--Cat Vasko, Associate Editor of SU2C Mag