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Stacy Alexander, a home schooling super Mom of eight, was admitted to the ER On January 21, 2012 and on January 25th she was diagnosed with stage 4 Esophageal Adenocarcinoma which had spread to her lymph nodes and liver. This diagnosis was bleak. The tumor was HER2 positive meaning that it was overproducing a growth factor that made the cancer especially aggressive and it was also inoperable. A Cancer Treatment Centers of America study showed that only 6% of patients with this diagnosis survive 2 years and only 3% survive 5 years or more. Walt, Stacy's husband, who is a...

Tom Telford ’s stomach ached. The New York City teacher had been drinking cup after cup of coffee as he labored to finish year-end grading and coach his high-school baseball team through the playoffs. He worried he might have an ulcer. When school let out, though, Mr. Telford looked forward to relaxing on a 25th anniversary cruise with his wife. But once in the Caribbean, he struggled to swim and climbing from one deck to another exhausted him. Back at home, he collapsed while running a TV cable in his bedroom. His family doctor told him he had lost two...

Diem Brown hated to lose. She had an irreverent sense of humor. She loved to dance. More than anything, she never wanted to be seen as a quitter. All of those qualities were on display in the last days before her death on Friday at age 32, a time during which she fought to reconcile her devastating cancer diagnosis with her unyielding will to live. "We kept telling her, 'This is not giving up. You have fought enough,' " says her close friend Julie Rotondi. When the MTV Challenge star finally decided to forgo any further treatment on Thursday, she...

A man diagnosed with the same form of brain cancer that led Brittany Maynard to kill herself last weekend says he chose a different path because of his faith in God. Thirteen years ago, David Williams of Newport, Arkansas was told by his doctors that he had a progressive brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme, and that he had 6 months to a year to live. Williams told WMC TV that although he trusted his doctors, he refused to believe that he couldn't fight the disease and live. As a result of his determination he's undergone surgeries, chemotherapies, takes daily medication,...

Brittany Maynard, the Oregon woman who had become an outspoken advocate for patients' rights following her terminal cancer diagnosis, died on Saturday, the Oregonian reported. She was 29. "Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love," she wrote in a Facebook post, according to People. "Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness... the world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers... goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!" Earlier this year, Maynard...

A 29-year-old terminal cancer sufferer who had previously spoken of her right to die has ended her own life surrounded by her family. According to friends and family of Brittany Maynard, she passed away in her Portland, Oregon, home after her condition worsened and the tumor took over. However she was able to choose to die before she lost her ability to function. People.com said she wrote on Facebook : 'Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love. 'Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness,...

There is an explanation for Vladimir Putin’s hurry to invade Ukraine — it is rumored he has cancer. News outlets from Belarus to Poland have reported for months that the Russian strongman has cancer of the spinal cord. But my sources say it’s pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal forms of the disease. Putin is allegedly being treated by an elderly doctor from the old East Germany whom Putin met decades ago while serving in Dresden for the KGB. The doctor has been trying various treatments including steroid shots, which would explain Putin’s puffy appearance. The physician, who is...

"A 29-year-old terminal cancer sufferer who had previously spoken of her plan to take her life on November 1 has had a change of heart. In a video released on Wednesday, Brittany Maynard said she hasn't decided when she'll end her life, but it remains a decision that she's determined to make before getting too ill. ‘I still feel good enough and I still have enough joy and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn't seem like the right time right now,’ she said." "‘But it will come, because I feel myself getting...

Medicaid chiefs from red and blue states are urging Congress to stem the cost of revolutionary new drugs for hepatitis C, cancer, and other diseases. In a letter Tuesday to key congressional committees, the National Association of Medicaid Directors said lawmakers should consider everything from outright price controls on manufacturers to federal help for states trying to pay for the new medications. The bipartisan group did not endorse any particular course of action. …

Having an impressive love-making record may protect you against prostate cancer, as new evidence from Canadian scientists suggests. According to new research published by the University of Montreal, men having sex with more than 20 women, have a 29% lower chance of developing prostate cancer, as opposed to men who have gone through 20 similar sexual experiences with other men.

Starting Monday, millions of people who have avoided colon cancer screening can get a new home test that's noninvasive and doesn't require the icky preparation most other methods do. The test is the first to look for cancer-related DNA in stool. But deciding whether to get it is a more complex choice than ads for "the breakthrough test ... that's as easy as going to the bathroom" make it seem. On one hand, the test could greatly boost screening for a deadly disease that too few people get checked for now. On the other hand, it could lure people away...

But...She should think of her fellow sufferers. Brittany Maynard is a 29-year-old woman who learned not long after her wedding that she had an aggressive brain tumour. She has therefore announced that she has chosen to die on November 1, taking advantage of Oregon’s assisted suicide law. A video that she made with the help of the leading assisted suicide organisation in the US, Compassion and Choices, has been a huge hit on YouTube. An Australian whose wife died of a similar disease, Denis Strangman, has written her an open letter below. * * * * * I am...

The thing about cancer is that you need to catch it early. Once it spreads, it becomes harder and harder to treat. But part of the problem is making yourself go to the doctor in the first place; a lot of people would rather avoid finding out really depressing news, in some cases via invasive poking. But what if you could detect cancerous cells and various other diseases in 60 minutes using your phone? A new start-up named Miroculus has made a device, "Miriam," that hopes to allow you to do just that. In hugely simplified terms, cancer happens when a cell...

Danielle Spencer, who played the bratty little sister Dee on the 1970s sitcom, "What's Happening!!" revealed that she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Speaking out for Breast Cancer Awareness month, Spencer, 49, who is now a veterinarian, told Black America Web that her diagnosis last month took her by surprise.

In the spirit of October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, women across the country on Monday are “setting their girls free.” October 13 is National No Bra Day, an annual holiday reportedly created in 2011 by breast cancer supporters that’s now sweeping social media. Breast cancer survivors and supporters on Twitter and Facebook are encouraging women not to wear a bra for a day to raise awareness and support breast cancer survivors. ...

Researchers from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute have made an exciting discovery for cancer patients everywhere. A chemical found in a rare plant from Australia has the ability to "eat" cancerous tumors and completely eradicate them within days. The tumor-eating chemical is found in the seeds of berries of the Blushwood plant. The chemical, which is being called EBC-46, takes three weeks to extract and the process is quite difficult. Experts are even saying that they still don't completely understand why the chemical is in the seed of the Blushwood berry in the first place. Farming Blushwood in large quantities...

Every year, as October comes around, many breast cancer victims like me find themselves inwardly groaning. How can efforts purportedly for our benefit be so tragically off the mark, and even immoral? Yet every year, it seems that the public is somehow transported into a fake pink world of good intentions.Instead of telling you my particular story, or that of my daughter, IÂ’d like to share some thoughts and facts with you. Perhaps, slowly, we can get the charitable care of cancer victims out of the merchandising field and into the human support arena. Most of all, I urge you...

A terminally ill 29-year-old woman has chosen November 1 as the day she will die. Shortly after her wedding in 2013, Brittany Maynard of Portland, Ore., began experiencing debilitating headaches. While on vacation with her husband in January, Brittany was diagnosed with grade II Astrocytoma, a severe brain tumor. Doctors told her she had 10 years left to live. “I have to tell you,” she says in the video, “when you’re 29 years old, being told you have that kind of timeline still feels like being told you’re going to die tomorrow.” Following the original diagnosis, doctors said her cancer...

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a new report that highlights the potentially lethal dangers of anal sex. In their most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the health agency said that while men with same-sex attraction make up only 2 percent of the total population, they accounted for 63 percent of all newly-diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in 2010.  More than half of all AIDS-sufferers in the U.S. are homosexual, and most of them contracted it by engaging in anal sex. “Most gay and bisexual men acquire HIV through anal sex, which is the riskiest type of sex for...

For those of you who might not know, this is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. September’s color is gold, which is symbolically apt in a number of ways. Most importantly, because it represents something of great and lasting value. Emma Grace Mitchell was just such a treasure, even though she preferred pink and purple herself. Nine days ago, she succumbed to a disease she had heroically fought for nearly half of her life, a life that was marred not only by the disease itself, but by the treatments-and side effects thereof-which sap the health and alter the lives of the patients...