One of the most difficult things about receiving the gold standard of chemotherapy for your specific cancer is the fact that the cancer cells are not being tested to actually see if that chemotherapy will work for you. In 2001 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer they didn't test my cancer cells to see if the chemotherapy regimen would be effective. It is known which chemotherapy drugs work for breast cancer but breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease.

An article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology says that with head and neck cancers they can now know which patients will benefit from the chemotherapy drug Platinol (cisplatin).

Platinol is a commonly given to head and neck cancer patients but it doesn't always work for everyone. The researchers found out that SNP's (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can help determine a head and neck patient's response to the drug.

SNP's are genetic variations within genes that repair DNA among patients with advanced head and neck cancer. The study included 103 patients that were treated with Platinol. Anticancer responses were increased by nearly three-fold among patients with these genetic variants compared to those without.

I like reading about chemotherapy being more tailored to the individual instead of just the type of cancer.

Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine expected to receive FDA approval any day now, and proven to provide women 100 percent protection against cervical cancer, might also offer the same level of protection against vulvar and vaginal cancers. Finnish researchers of the study that made the discovery note that while vulvar and vaginal cancers are less common than cervical cancer, more younger women are being diagnosed with vulvar and vaginal cancers.

The cervical cancer vaccines set to be approved this year guard against human papillomavirus, HPV -- a virus known to lead to cervical cancer. HPV is responsible for all cases of cervical cancers and is present in 80 percent of the 6,000 cases of vaginal and vulvar cancers diagnosed in the United States each year.

In a separate study, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have announced that the cervical cancer vaccine might lead to less cancer of the head and neck. "If we vaccinate everybody in the U.S., we could probably impact head and neck cancer in approximately 20 years," said Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

By sharing her personal family story with the media in an effort to raise awareness for a cancer that devastated her family, Blythe Danner has partnered with The Oral Cancer Foundation by Bristol-Myers Squibb and ImClone Systems Incorporated to speak out about head and neck cancer. Danner shares that she lost her husband Bruce Paltrow to oral cancer. "When Bruce's voice became hoarse, we didn't realize this was a sign of this disease. By the time we spoke to a doctor, his cancer was very advanced," states Danner. She wants to educate the public to the signs and symptoms of head and neck cancers in the hope that other families will not have to suffer the same loss of a loved one.

Most people probably do not know that the death rate for oral cancer is higher than cervical cancer, brain cancer, liver cancer, testicular cancer, kidney cancers, or skin cancer. Tobacco use in all its forms is the number one risk factor. Biological factors include viruses and fungi, which have been linked to oral cancers. The human papilloma virus, particularly HPV16 and 18, have been implicated in some oral cancers. A diet low in fruits and vegetables can be a risk factor. Head and neck cancers are usually not diagnosed in the earliest stages because it is so easy to miss or dismiss. What might appear as a simple white or red patch of tissue in the mouth or a common canker sore can be nothing more than a temporary irritation -- or it can be an early sign of cancer. Other cancer symptoms can include: a lump or mass which can be felt inside the mouth or neck; pain or difficulty in swallowing, speaking, or chewing; any wart like masses; hoarseness which lasts for a long time; or numbness. Other than the lips, the most common areas for oral cancer to develop are on the tongue and the floor of the mouth. You can hear Blythe Danner at Speak Out Learn About, read the Speak Out Learn About Head and Neck Cancer Fact Sheet -- available as a PDF document -- or visit The Oral Cancer Foundation for more information.

During Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week, beginning April 17, Major League Baseball, MLB, and Brett Butler will join the Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation, YBF, to raise awareness about the importance of early detection in head and neck cancers by offering free screenings.

"I'm living proof that early diagnosis and treatment can improve your chances of surviving oral, head and neck cancer," said Butler, throat cancer survivor. "That's why I'm encouraging everyone who is at risk for this potentially deadly disease, especially tobacco and alcohol users, to take advantage of the free screenings throughout the country on April 21. You owe it to your family and loved ones to get yourself checked."

Sponsored by the YBF, you can find information at the MLB website regarding oral, head and neck cancer; a directory of the participating sites throughout the U.S. that will offer free screenings on April 21 and a videotaped message from Butler.

Lou Gehrig Award winner, Butler started his major league baseball career with the Atlanta Braves, and played for the Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. The doctors found his cancer while performing a tonsillectomy. Diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the tonsil, Butler credits his early diagnosis and treatment with saving his life.

According to the YBF, twenty years ago, Yul Brynner, dying from lung cancer, made a television commercial that said, "Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke, whatever you do, just don't smoke."  The public service announcement remains one of the most memorable anti-smoking statements ever made.

"I go in every morning and let them pour this crap into me, and feel pretty bad about it -- until I see some 17-year-old going through it all, too," says Bobby Hamilton, regarding the first two weeks of cancer treatment. While visiting his son, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., at Martinsville Speedway yesterday, he was also promoting a charity event he will participate in to benefit the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and the Victory Junction Gang Camp. On May 23, 2006, Hamilton will host a four-hour fan festival at NASCAR SpeedPark at Concord Mills.

Hamilton began treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for cancer of the neck. He hopes to return for the season’s final truck race in November in Homestead, Florida. In the meantime, Hamilton is turning his truck over to his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr.

When asked how his treatments were going, he said, "The first week was nothing, I just felt different. Like I'd drunk five gallons of mud. But I felt fine. So this week, me being the arrogant guy I am, I decided I'd go to the Kentucky track with my team testing, changing springs and gears, doing my merry thing. But after a while I was about ready to have them call the ambulance. It knocked all the steam out of me. This is pretty bad stuff." Hamilton is down-to-earth real, and tells it like it is -- cancer treatment is a tough track to drive -- even for a champion.