Joseph Ho/Guardian Protesters at the University of California, San Diego, are lobbying school administrators to address a “cancer cluster” linked to a campus building.

A building on the University of California, San Diego, campus is being blamed for a cluster of breast cancer cases, raising new questions about the risks of exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Last week, students and professors marched and carried signs to protest what they called a “crisis of safety,” claiming that the university has failed to address worries that the campus literature building is the site of an inordinate number of cancer cases. The protesters delivered a petition signed by more than 1,300 people to the university chancellor, Marye Anne Fox, according to a report in the university’s newspaper, The Guardian.

At least eight workers in the campus building have been diagnosed with breast cancer since 2000, and a handful of other cancers, including ovarian and salivary gland cancers, have also been reported. Read more…

Studies show that many berries, including these Olallie blackberries, are packed with nutrients and may be a weapon against cancer. (David Karp for The New York Times)

Several studies show that people who eat diets high in fruits and vegetables have lower cancer rates. Now a large body of research suggests that berries may be among the most potent cancer-fighting fruits. Read more…

For years, newspaper columnist Al Martinez has shared stories about his children with readers. In today’s Los Angeles Times, Mr. Martinez is asking his readers to share their own stories of hope.

Mr. Martinez reports that his eldest daughter, Cindy, has been diagnosed with cancer that has spread to her liver. The diagnosis has him reflecting on the day he first met his daughter in 1952, when she was nearly a year old. He had missed the birth because he was a marine stationed in Korea. A Red Cross worker had originally told him he was the father of a baby girl named Sarah. Weeks later he learned her name was actually Cinthia.

I still call her Sarah occasionally; it’s a joke we share, Sarah and I. I write about her today because she, and all of our family, is involved in a different kind of war; more insidious in a way. Cindy has cancer.

It was discovered some weeks ago, a finding that took a part of her large intestine during subsequent surgery. The surgeon noticed that it had spread to her liver. Soon chemo will begin to shrink the tumor, and then it will be removed.

We discover in adversity what we are composed of. We suffer the shock of painful news, cry tears of self-pity and then, if there is steel in us, we march on. Cindy is going forward like a warrior into the fray with a toughness that I had expected from her. I know this girl….

I’m putting her name in print today so that you can tell me stories of your own fight against cancer; so you can help our family find the strength and courage to defeat the enemy within…. Cindy was handed to me a long time ago and occupies a special place in my life and in my heart, and I’m not about to hand her back.

To learn more, read “Looking For Strength to Fight Cancer.”

People with more lean muscle mass may have an advantage when it comes to fighting cancer, new research suggests.

The study, published in the medical journal Lancet Oncology, is the latest to suggest a patient’s body composition may play a role in cancer survival rates. Researchers from the University of Alberta used body scan imaging to study 250 obese cancer patients. The scans showed that 15 percent of the cancer patients had very low muscle mass relative to their weight.

The obese patients with the lower levels of lean muscle mass lived an average of 10 months less than patients with more muscle mass, even after controlling for other variables like cancer stage and severity.

Other studies have shown that people who exercise have lower rates of some types of cancer. Although the study suggests that higher levels of lean muscle mass help the body better cope with cancer, it’s not clear whether lifting weights prior to or after a diagnosis would improve a patient’s odds for surviving the disease. “That would be the next experiment,” said Dr. Vickie Baracos, a professor of oncology and adjunct professor of human nutrition at the University of Alberta, and lead author on the study. “This intervention has not been tested.”

The data also raise questions about whether body composition should be considered as doctors make treatment decisions and assess a patient’s prognosis. A patient with very low lean body mass, for instance, may be given a more tailored dose of chemotherapy, Dr. Baracos said.

Patients who have been treated for cancer should talk to their doctor before embarking on any exercise routine. For instance, patients who have undergone lymph node removal are at risk for a severe swelling disorder called lymphedema and may be advised against lifting weights.

The majority of people diagnosed with cancer are over 65, but most major cancer studies exclude them, leaving a wide gap in knowledge about how best to treat older patients.

The knowledge gap about older cancer patients was highlighted recently by researchers from Barcelona who studied the role that age played in the prognosis of 224 cancer patients.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 60 percent of newly diagnosed cancers are found in people over the age of 65. Overall, people in this age group are 10 times more likely to get cancer, and 15 times more likely to die from the disease, than are people under the age of 65.

But even though most cancer patients are older, age is typically not the deciding factor in whether someone survives the illness, the Spanish researchers showed. Read more…

Many people gobble big doses of vitamin C in hopes of boosting their immune system and warding off illness. But new research shows that in people with cancer, the vitamin may do more harm than good.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York studied the effects of vitamin C on cancer cells. As it turns out, the vitamin seems to protect not just healthy cells, but cancer cells, too. The findings were published today in the journal Cancer Research.

“The use of vitamin C supplements could have the potential to reduce the ability of patients to respond to therapy,” said Dr. Mark Heaney, an associate attending physician at the cancer center, in a press release. Read more…

People with a family history of colon cancer carry the emotional burden of knowing they have twice the risk of developing the disease themselves. But now, a new study may ease some of their anxiety. Patients with a family history of colon cancer are also more likely to survive the disease.

The surprising paradox, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, may ultimately steer researchers toward new treatments and a better understanding of the disease. Read more…

Years ago, a friend and co-worker of mine with ovarian cancer lost all of her blonde hair during treatment. She donned a red wig and declared, “I’m going to do cancer as a redhead!”

Her upbeat nature made it easier on the rest of us to accept her illness, so it was that much more shocking the day I walked into the newsroom to see a pink wreath on her desk.

Senator Kennedy has appeared upbeat after a cancer diagnosis. (Neil Hamburg/Reuters)

I was reminded of my friend when I read the article “When Thumbs Up Is No Comfort” by my colleague Jan Hoffman, who writes about our cultural expectations of cancer patients to be upbeat, stoic and ready for battle. But often the reality is that people with cancer are scared, sad and depressed — and rightly so.

“That optimism reassures anxious relatives, the public and doctors, regardless of whether it accurately reflects the patient’s emotional state,” Jan writes. But she asks whether the game face maintained by high-profile cancer patients, such as Senator Edward M. Kennedy, really inspires others or simply reinforces unrealistic expectations that everyone should approach cancer with stoicism and courage. Read more…

Hamilton Jordan, the former White House chief of staff for President Jimmy Carter, was a well-known force in the health community. During the past 24 years he battled four different forms of cancer and urged cancer patients to empower themselves with information.

Hamilton Jordan, left, walked the White House grounds with President Jimmy Carter in this undated photo. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

After bouts with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, prostate cancer and skin cancer, Mr. Jordan, 63, yesterday died as a result of mesothelioma, another form of cancer. Mr. Jordan often speculated that his lymphoma may have resulted from exposure to the chemical Agent Orange while serving as a volunteer during the Vietnam War. Mesothelioma also has been linked to the chemical.

In his 2001 memoir, “No Such Thing as a Bad Day,” Mr. Jordan outlined his “Top 10 Tips for Cancer Patients.” He spoke about them during this undated interview with WebMD. Here they are: Read more…

A mouse study suggests diet affects prostate cancer risk. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

Cutting back on fried foods and baked goods may lower a man’s risk for prostate cancer, a new animal study suggests.

Scientists at Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, focused on fat from corn oil, which is made up primarily of omega-6 fatty acids. That’s the type of polyunsaturated fat typically used in high levels in processed baked goods and fried foods. The healthiest fats are omega-3 fatty acids, like those found in fish, or monounsaturated fat, the kind found in foods like almonds, pecans, cashew nuts, peanuts, avocados and olive and canola oil. Read more…

A survey of 500 cancer survivors found that more than half of them delayed seeking treatment for two months or more despite having symptoms of their disease.

The report, from the Tower Cancer Research Foundation in Los Angeles, found that the biggest reason people waited to see a doctor was because they were simply waiting to see if symptoms disappeared. However, 15 percent of respondents waited one to five years after their symptoms appeared before finally seeking medical advice. Read more…

Cancer patients and their doctors often focus on beating the disease first. But new research shows they also benefit by early monitoring for lymphedema, a devastating side effect of cancer treatment that can show up years later.

Lymphedema is a painful swelling of an arm or leg that can occur months or even years after cancer treatment. Breast cancer patients, who often have lymph nodes removed during diagnosis and treatment, are particularly susceptible. But any cancer patient whose lymphatic system has been damaged by radiation or the removal of lymph nodes is vulnerable. That includes patients treated for prostate and gynecological cancers, head and neck cancers, testicular cancer, bladder cancer, colon cancer and melanoma.

The lymphatic system normally helps transport body fluids, but in someone with a compromised system, fluid can build up in an arm or leg, depending on where the lymph nodes were removed. If lymphedema sets in, a limb can swell far out of proportion to the rest of the body, and if not treated quickly, the condition can be irreversible. Read more…

Several studies have shown a link between exercise and lower cancer risk. However, the message often isn’t well received by patients who think it blames the victim by suggesting they wouldn’t have cancer had they just been more active.

That’s what I learned this week when I blogged about a new study suggesting cancer patients don’t exercise any more than the rest of us. The finding is troubling because some studies suggest exercise improves cancer survival, signaling that cancer patients have much to gain from exercising after a diagnosis.

But more than 100 readers responded to the article, and many of them complained that it was judgmental and blamed cancer patients for their plight. They added that exercise and calorie-counting are not priorities to a cancer survivor. I invited Leslie Bernstein, a noted cancer and exercise researcher from the City of Hope cancer center in Duarte, Calif., to talk about it.

To listen to our conversation, click below.

Listen to the Podcast (mp3)

Most cancer survivors are just as overweight and inactive as everyone else, a new study shows.

An analysis of data collected from more than 114,000 adults in Canada shows that overall, a cancer diagnosis doesn’t appear to prompt significant changes in eating habits or increase physical activity, according to a report in Cancer, the medical journal of the American Cancer Society. The big exception is men who survive prostate cancer, who appear to be far more active than similar men without cancer.

But the overall findings are troubling because studies have suggested that cancer patients have much to gain from a healthful lifestyle. Obesity and physical inactivity are linked with a lower quality of life among cancer survivors and may increase the risk of the cancer coming back or death from the disease.

“These findings tell us that we need to look at ways to better support cancer survivors to become more active and to maintain a healthy body weight,” said Kerry Courneya, professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, in a press release. “We know that physical inactivity and obesity are risk factors for developing cancer. These are also risk factors for the recurrence of cancer. Lifestyle is just as important after diagnosis.”

The researchers compared data on activity and weight to national averages among the Canadian population. There were surprisingly few differences, suggesting that a cancer diagnosis doesn’t necessarily encourage more healthful living. The main exception was among prostate cancer survivors, who were 27 percent more likely to be active and about 30 percent less likely to be obese than the general population. The study authors didn’t have an explanation for the difference except that men may have been influenced by recent studies suggesting a link between exercise and better quality of life for prostate cancer survivors.

However, it’s not clear if the lower body mass index among prostate cancer survivors is a good thing because some data suggest prostate cancer treatments can lead to loss of lean body mass.

Other findings of the study showed:

• About 21 percent of cancer survivors are physically active, compared to about 25 percent of Canadians in general.
• Among cancer survivors, about 18 percent are obese and 34 percent are overweight. By comparison, about 15 percent of Canadians overall are obese and 37 percent are overweight.
• Male cancer survivors were more likely to be overweight or obese than female cancer survivors (62 percent versus 47 percent).
• The lowest levels of physical activity were among colorectal cancer survivors, breast cancer survivors and female melanoma survivors.
• Male skin cancer survivors were more active than the rest of the population, but that difference may simply reflect the fact that active people who spend a lot of time outdoors are more likely to develop skin cancer.

Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who has terminal pancreatic cancer, has attempted to distill a lifetime of parental advice for his children because he knows he won’t be around to deliver it in person. The result is “The Last Lecture,” an inspirational new book that outlines Dr. Pausch’s ideas for achieving one’s childhood dreams.

The book is based on a final lecture Dr. Pausch gave his students and colleagues last fall that later became an Internet sensation. (To see the video, click here.) As Dr. Pausch told me when I met with him recently, he has been surprised how many parents have written to him, letting him know that his lecture inspired meaningful conversations with their own kids.

Dr. Pausch is the focus of my Well column this week in Science Times. Talking with him made me think about the advice my own parents gave me, and the advice I want to give my own child. In honor of Dr. Pausch, the Well blog is hosting a contest seeking examples of great parental advice, either dispensed or received. What is the best advice your parents gave you? If you were diagnosed with a terminal illness, what wisdom would you want to leave with your kids?

Post your answers below, and please keep them brief. The best entries will win a signed copy of Dr. Pausch’s new book.

Update: This contest will close at midnight Sunday, April 13, 2008, and the winners will be announced next week.