Battling Cancer

Put this on your calendar!

The stars will be out Friday, September 5, at 8pm Eastern time in a joint network special. The ABC/NBC/CBS  networks will donate one hour of primetime for a history-making interactive television special, uniting the nation as we Stand Up To Cancer. This network special will feature all three evening news anchors, and will air commercial free.

Are you ready for this line up of stars?

Casey Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Christina Applegate, Lance Armstrong, Josh Brolin, David Cook, Dana Delany, Fran Drescher, Kirsten Dunst, Elizabeth Edwards, Jon Favreau, America Ferrera, Neil Patrick Harris, Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johansson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Masi Oka, Danica Patrick, Christina Ricci, Robin Roberts, Commissioner Allan H. Bud Selig, Homer Simpson, Marge Simpson, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Goran Visnjic, and Forest Whitaker–AND, Jessica Alba, Charles Barkley, Halle Berry, Jack Black, Abigail Breslin, Kate Bosworth, Sheryl Crow, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Garner, Brad Garrett, Angie Harmon, Tony Hawk, Marg Helgenberger, Diane Keaton, Rob Lowe, Mandy Moore, Don Newcombe, Sharon Osbourne, Josh Peck, Mekhi Phifer, Keanu Reeves, Jimmy Smits, David Spade and Carrie Underwood.

It doesn’t stop there…

Check this out!

Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes, and Carrie Underwood –  have joined together for “Just Stand Up,” a charity single.

The single will be available exclusively at the iTunes Store September 2.   “Just Stand Up” produced by Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds and Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid More →

Here’s what’s new in cancer news around the world.

They’re back!! Harry and Louise that is.

Check out the AP article and you can see Harry and Louise circa 1993/94 on You Tube here and now

Harry and Louise have returned to promote a new multi-million dollar ad campaign that will air on national television throughout the Democratic and Republican conventions. In light of ever increasing health care costs and increasing numbers of people without health insurance coverage, Harry and Louise will urge the next President and Congress to put health care at the top of the domestic agenda.

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Events fighting the Cancer Battle:

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The National Call to Action on Cancer Prevention and Survivorship is an initiative set into motion by Lance Armstrong, four former attorney generals and a variety of cancer facilitators who have spearheaded a campaign to make battling cancer a national priority.

At a July 23 press conference the NCTA outlined their goals:

• Empower Health Lifestyles to Prevent Cancer
• Apply What We Know About Cancer Screening and Early Detection to All People
• Ensure that All People Can Navigate Through the Health Care System
• Provide Survivorship Care Plans and Systems of Support for All Cancer Survivors

Read the press release here.

National Call To Action brings together The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Canyon Ranch Institute and leaders of the cancer community including four former attorney generals including; Dr. Richard H Carmona, Dr. David Stacher, Dr. Joycelyn Elders and Dr. Antonia Novello–the 17th through 14th Surgeon Generals of the United States respectively.

As you may recall, in May of this year seven-time Tour de France winner and testicular cancer survivor Armstrong testified before Congress calling on Congress to renew the nation’s war on cancer.

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Here’s a heads up on a virtual community called Second Life.

Second Life is that 3-D virtual world where people create mini versions of themselves and interact. There are about 13 million registered Second Life accounts world wide and at any given time about 38,000 people are using the social network.

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Author Appearance!

Author Liz Holzemer will be speaking at three branches of the Colorado, Douglas County Libraries, May, 5-8-10, as part of the Author Series.

The topic is Healing with Humor.

Holzemer’s book Curveball:When Life Throws You a Brain Tumor (2007) is a Denver non-fiction bestseller about her battle with not only a brain tumor (meningioma), but also a breast tumor. She is the founder of Meningioma Mommas, an online support group that raises funds for meningioma research and advocates meningioma awareness.

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Actually you are all winners, but specifically book drawing winners.

Congratulations to Hannah, Ann W., Mary C, Gina and Missy.

Let’s do this again soon.

Thank you to New York Times best-selling authors Wendy Markham, and Sherryl Woods, and and the very generous professionals at

Nancy Berland Public Relations, Inc. for making this first drawing a success.

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Thanks to Lesly Maranan, for passing this along!

From the desk of Dan Ollendorf, MPH, ARM, Chief Review Officer, Institute for Clinical & Economic Review

I am writing concerning the efforts of a new initiative known as the Institute for Clinical & Economic Review (ICER), a new initiative of Harvard Medical School, that seeks to provide an impartial review of new or emerging healthcare technologies that involves ALL relevant stakeholders (including patients). We are currently evaluating permanent brachytherapy and proton beam therapy for prostate cancer, and would like to include patients who have undergone each of these treatments in our discussion.

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Goodbye Lesly and Thank-You

I would like to publicly thank Lesly Maranan for her fine work maintaining the Battling Cancer blog since mid-October 2007. I believe she did a GREAT job writing for this blog and I would like to thank her for being part of the HART-Empire Network.

Unfortunately, for personal reasons .. she had asked to resign from this position as a full-time blogger and I have accepted. I will not be going to explain her reasons and leave it up to her.

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I’ve had the opportunity to make many wonderful friends with Battling Cancer readers who email me.

However, we have another opportunity to foster community discussion at Battling Cancer — our comments!

Here’s what former Battling Cancer readers have had to say recently:  More →