Embry, who currently lives in Shreveport, La., and grew up in Plano, Texas, often went to Rangers games with her father as a child. This weekend, Embry, 28, returns to Arlington to cheer on her favorite baseball team, as well as raise awareness for breast cancer. Embry’s father nominated her for the Honorary Bat Girl contest, which began in 2009.

“I grew up coming to the ballpark at a young age, that was something that was really special between my dad and I,” Embry said. “It is so humbling and so exciting to be able to represent all the courageous women who have lived through or who are currently battling through breast cancer.”

Read More at MLB.com

The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer tenth birthday season continued with the annual Avon Walk in Washington, D.C. this weekend, which raised $5 million to advance access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer. The Avon Walk Washington, D.C. attracted 2,200 participants from 39 states and Washington, D.C., including 269 breast cancer survivors, who joined together to raise life-saving funds and awareness for breast cancer.

Dr. Marc Hurlbert, Executive Director of the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, announced during the closing ceremony a total of $4.25 million in grants to ten local organizations, ensuring the funds raised immediately benefit the community. “Our beneficiaries are leaders from your communities in the fight against breast cancer,” said Hurlbert. “They represent organizations that offer life-saving services to patients regardless of their ability to pay and they’re doing cutting-edge research to find better treatments, prevention strategies, and ultimately a cure. These new grants will literally help them save lives.”

Following are the Washington, D.C. area grants announced at the Closing Ceremony:

• Johns Hopkins University received a grant of $1,275,000 to assist in the support of the more than 14,000 women who will receive services this year at the Johns Hopkins Avon Breast Center of Excellence.
• Georgetown University Medical Center, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center received a grant of $500,000, to support Avon’s signature program in the District, the Capital Breast Care Center.
• Foundation for the National Institutes of Health received a grant of $710,000 to support a “think tank” and research project to define if viruses play a role in breast cancer development. The grant will also support the Second Collaborative Summit on Breast Cancer Research to encourage collaboration among key stakeholders in the breast cancer research field.
• National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund received a grant of $525,000 to support “Project LEAD,” a program that trains breast cancer survivors to serve as advisors and advocates for breast cancer research; through Avon support the program has already trained more than 1,900 advocates.
• Food and Friends received a grant of $275,000 to support its Avon Pink Ribbon Delivery Program, which provides breast cancer patients and their families with specialized nutrition support and delivered meals.
• Howard University Cancer Center received a grant of $250,000 to assist in the purchase dedicated ultrasound equipment.
• University of Maryland Baltimore received a grant of $240,000 to support the Baltimore City Breast Cancer Patient Navigator Program.
• The Conquer Cancer Foundation received a grant of $250,000, which will support the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium and their IDEA Award Program, which brings doctors from outside the U.S. to ASCO, the largest cancer conference.
• Virginia Tech Foundation received a $150,000 grant, which will continue to support researchers investigating environmental risk factors of breast cancer development.
• The District of Columbia Cancer Consortium received a $75,000 grant to support the development of a Breast Cancer Surveillance System to analyze and understand the number of cancer diagnoses in the District and the barriers for women to get screened.

During the Avon Walk Washington, D.C., participants had the choice of walking a marathon (26.2 miles) or a marathon and half (39.3 miles) over the weekend, which kicked off on Saturday, May 5, with an early morning opening ceremony at the Washington Monument Grounds. Immediately following the ceremony, walkers began their journey trekking through the greater Washington, D.C. area and finished their day with fellow walkers at “Wellness Village” at Meadowbrook Park in Chevy Chase, MD.

The “Wellness Village” featured pink two-person sleeping tents, hot showers, prepared meals, entertainment, volunteer medical services and comprehensive support services. Additionally, leisure activities such as yoga and a spa zone with mini-back-and-foot-massages were available to participants. EBeauty was on site at the Wellness Village, handing out free hand towels to all the walkers and spreading the word about EBeauty’s cause.

On Sunday, May 6, walkers completed another 13.1 miles together, ending back at the Washington Monument Grounds where they were greeted by thousands of family and friends, and celebrated the completion of their journey at a moving closing ceremony that included the awarding of new grants.

Read more at Avonwalk.org.

Working with 12 patients with known malignancies, researchers at the University of Twente and Medisch Spectrum Twente Hospital in Oldenzaal, tested whether they could identify and see breast tumors through a technique called photoacoustics. Although the research, published in the open-access journal Optics Express, isn’t yet ready for clinical implementation, the findings are encouraging, according to some industry experts.

Photoacoustics is a hybrid optical and acoustical imaging technique that uses red and infrared light technology, known as optical mammography, to image tissue and detect tumors. This method can identify cancers because the blood hemoglobin feeding the tumors absorbs red wavelengths, exposing the contrast between tumors with increased blood vessel activity and normal areas of the breast.

“While we’re very early in the development of this new technology, it is promising,” said Michelle Heijblom, a researcher and PhD student at the University of Twente in Enschede, in a statement about the study. “Our hope is that these early results will one day lead to the development of a safe, comfortable, and accurate alternative or adjunct to conventional techniques for detecting breast tumors.”

However, targeting tumors with photoacoustics can be difficult. The limitedbandwidth of the photoacoustic detector can sometimes convey the wrong size or shape of a tumor. To overcome the hurdle, researchers paired the technique’s ability to differentiate between benign and malignant tissues with ultrasound and created the Twente Photoacoustic Mammoscope (PAM).

The device uses a 1,064-nanometer-wavelength laser to scan the breast, and the increased light absorption causes the malignant tumor’s temperature to rise. The result is a pressure wave. An ultrasound detector on the side of the breast picks up the wave and sends it to the PAM system for image reconstruction.

Read More at Diagnostic Imaging. 

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer in men is much less common than it is in women. But new research reported in the Health Day News suggests it may be more deadly for men.

The author of the study, Dr. Jon Greif, a San Francisco breast surgeon, compared about 13,000 men with breast cancer, identified from the National Cancer Data Base, to more than 1.4 million women with breast cancer.

The data covered 1998 to 2007.

Greif found survival rates for men with breast cancer, overall, are lower than those for women, at least when it is diagnosed in the early stages. The investigators evaluated cancer characteristics and survival rates, taking into account age, ethnicity and other factors.

The study found that men’s tumors were larger when diagnosed. It also found men with breast cancer were less likely to get a partial mastectomy and to receive radiation.

Greif and his team warn, however, that some of the differences they found may not bear out in clinical practice.

Read more at WTSP.

Researchers and cancer groups don’t all agree on when women should begin getting regular mammograms, or how often they should be screened.

According to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a federally-funded panel, evidence supports screening average-risk women age 50 to 74 every other year — but women can decide with their doctors to start earlier based how they weigh screening’s risks and benefits.

One in eight U.S. women will developed invasive breast cancer at some point, according to estimates, but less than a quarter of them will die from it.

Eivind and Hans of Eivind and Hans Salon of Georgetown with Carolyn Keller

EBeauty was a sponsor at this years Relay for Life at Georgetown University. As a sponsor, EBeauty distributed bottled water and hand towels to walkers throughout the night. Eivind and Hans were also there cutting hair for anyone who wanted to donate to cancer patients. EBeauty was of course accepting wig donations.

Before the Relay began, Carolyn Keller, President and CEO, said a few words about how EBeauty started and her experiences as a two time survivor.

This year’s Georgetown University’s Relay for Life raised over $157,000 with the top team Hoya Blue raising over $12,000. The event had a $400,000 goal. Since 2006, Georgetown has raised over $1.5 million for the American Cancer Society.

What exactly is Relay? Relay for Life is an overnight event in which teams of people take turns walking around a track in efforts to raise awareness and donations for the American Cancer Society.

Georgetown Students wearing EBeauty Hats

The idea behind the Relay for Life is that “One person can make a difference.” Here’s a little back story to Relay for Life. In the mid-1980‘s, Dr. Gordy Platt, with a desire to support his cancer patients, circled a track in Tacoma for 24 hours. In just those 24 hours, Dr. Platt raised $27,000 to fight cancer. The success of this event inspired the first Relay for Life in 1986.

Why do Hoyas relay? Hoyas relay for loved ones. Hoyas relay for survivors. Hoyas relay for less cancer. Hoyas relay for more birthdays. Because imagine what it’s like to hear the words, “you have cancer.” Listen to these stories and CELEBRATE, REMEMBER and FIGHT BACK.

Read More at The Hoya.

Found in many farm fertilizers, cadmium can make its way into soil and water. Some other main sources of cadmium include cigarette smoke, rechargeable batteries, certain cosmetics, bread and other cereals, potatoes, root crops and vegetables. Once it enters the body, cadmium may mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen.

Unlike previous research, this new analysis looks at lifetime exposure to cadmium, not acute bursts of high levels of the heavy metal.

This research is still in its infancy, explained study author Maggie Louie, an associate professor of biochemistry at the Dominican University of California, in San Rafael.

“We are trying to figure out if it is the cadmium causing cancer or the cancer attracting the cadmium,” she said. “If it is chronic exposure to cadmium that increases breast cancer risk, being aware of other exposures to estrogen and taking steps to minimize these exposures may become important.”

Read more at Philly. 

The study, of 218 women treated for early breast cancer, found that almost one-third had “cancer-related fatigue” at the end of treatment. But far fewer — six percent — still had the problem a year later.

That suggests for most women with the disease post-treatment fatigue will fade with some time, the researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

It’s well known that cancer patients often suffer fatigue. And some studies have concluded it’s common for that weariness to last for years after treatment ends. Among breast cancer survivors, researchers have found that more than one-third have fatigue two to three years after treatment.

The reasons, though, have not been clear. And the new findings support the idea that some cases of chronic fatigue in earlier studies may have had causes other than the cancer itself.

Read more at Fox News.

Mayo Clinic researchers found a class of molecular mutations called fusion transcripts which originated in forms of RNA and may also provide a way to identify tumor subtypes and a way to treat them.

Oncologists currently recognize three basic types of breast tumors estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-positive, and triple negative.

“But breast cancer is much more complex than indicated by these three subtypes, and one of the challenges of treating the disease is to identify gene markers that predict how a tumor will respond to a specific treatment,” Edith Perez, M.D.,senior investigator, was quoted as saying. “The discovery of subtype-specific fusion transcripts in breast cancer represents a step in this direction,” she said. “Our findings indicate that fusion transcripts are much more common in breast cancer than had been realized. They represent a new class of mutation whose role in breast cancer is not understood at all.”

“Fusion transcripts have the power to produce proteins that are relevant to tumor development, growth, and sensitivity to treatment, so we may have a brand new set of genomic changes that may help us understand, and treat, breast cancer in a new way,” E. Aubrey Thompson, Ph.D., professor of Biology at Mayo Clinic’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, and co-director of the Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program, was quoted as saying.

Read more at Ivanhoe.

Doria began working out for the first time three years ago, after recovering from breast cancer therapy. At first, she was so fatigued she had to nap before dance class. Now, she is exercising five days a week.“I feel like I can do things; before, I was talking myself out of things,” says Doria, who works with Tiedge at the YMCA through a joint program with Livestrong for cancer survivors.Researchers have known for years that people who are active and trim are less likely to develop cancer. And survivors like Lu-Ann Doria, who exercise and keep a healthy weight, are less likely to relapse.

Breast cancer survivor Laurens Flanagan, 36, of Greenville, S.C., has made a number of lifestyle changes since having a mastectomy at age 29. One way she stays fit is by cycling long distances. She is shown here cycling along the Jackrabbit Trail near Linky Stone Park in Greenville.“If I can eat better and exercise and keep my weight down, I feel better,” Flanagan says. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking, ‘What if my cancer comes back?’ Now, I think, ‘If my cancer comes back, I’ll just beat it again.’”Flanagan cycles frequently to stay active and healthy, and also helps organize the Lance Armstrong Foundation team in Greenville to raise money for cancer research.

Read More at USA TODAY.