While Danchura and her husband slept, the cat jumped onto the bed and slowly walked across her body. As the cat stepped on one of her breasts, Danchura was struck by an strong shot of pain.

A lump was discovered.

“I sort of went, ‘Oh geez, there’s definitely something wrong there,’” she said.

The cat was considered a hero by finding a cancerous tumour in Judy Danchura’s breast She made a doctor’s appointment,then there were the tests and ultimately the diagnosis of cancer.

Due to the early detection of the malignant tumour, and since she was able to start treatment right away, Danchura’s possibility of survival is estimated at 95 per cent.

She is grateful to the cat, which she has now adopted.

“I don’t know what my chances of survival would have been without him,” she said. “I know I’d certainly be far worse off.”

Danchura named the cat Sumo but likes to refer to him as her “furry four-footed angel.”

“I sometimes feel overwhelmed because I feel humbled,” she said. “I can’t understand why this animal turned up for me.”

As it turns out BBC News has reported the use of screening tests other than smears may prevent of more deaths caused by cervical cancer. This is so for women who are over 35.

Italian researchers headed by Dr. Guglielmo Ronco of the Turin Centre for Cancer Prevention studied data on over 90,000 women over three and a half years. The findings were that women who have been tested for the human papillomavirus (HPV) suffered less cancers than women who were tested using the more common smear technique.

Testing for HPV can pick up early pre-cancerous alterations to cervical cells, which means that the correct treatment can be started at an early stage. The director of information at the Cancer Research UK,, Dr. Leslie Walker state that “we might be able to spot the warning signs even earlier and it might, in future, mean that women go for screening less often.”

The good news according to the research is that HPV testing does not require the same amount of testing. Once every five years will do whereas smears need to be done once every three years.

Good for women under the age of 35

Unfortunately this type of testing is not the best one for all women. Since HPV testing is generally more sensitive, it also tends to find problems that, when discovered in younger women, often correct themselves over time and are truly better left untreated. Therefore, the testing is not best suited for women under the age of 35 in order to avoid being over-treated.

We encourage you to read more on this.

Doctor Speaks About Cervical Cancer Screenings

Dr. Bernadine Healy speaks about ACOG’s new recommendations for less frequent pap smears to detect cervical cancer in this video.

“I was diagnosed and treated for stage one cancer (two different types) in both breasts. The cancer was detected at an early stage thanks to a mammogram and the work of a remarkable physician who insisted on investigating beyond what the mammogram could show,” she writes, “I have had two operations and my prognosis for a full recovery is good.”

Heinz editorializes that women should ignore new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that stated women at average risk don’t need regular screenings and that mammograms in older women can be reduced to every two years, versus previous annual guidelines.

She opines that the task force is “predisposed to choose numbers over people.”

“Our busy lives are full of those. What we need are more reasons to keep those appointments, more support of the value of prevention and refinement of diagnostic procedures, and more choices.”

The Obama administration has distanced itself from the task force’s recommendations amid backlash from women’s and medical groups. The Department of Health and Human Services did not endorse the findings.

The Associated Press reported that Heinz was treated by a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital that she had recommended to Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Kerry’s 2004 running mate John Edwards, who was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after their failed presidential bid.

Heinz told AP she has not spoken with Elizabeth Edwards since her own diagnosis.

It is interesting to note that the reason men leave a sick spouse is partially explained by their lesser ability to quickly adjust to becoming a caregiver and be the primary homemaker. Links were discovered between age and length of marriage and the probability of separation. Longer marriages seem to remain more stable however the older the woman, the more likely the partnership would end.

The study that Hutchens Cancer Prevention is reporting on was conducted with the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Stanford University School of Medicine. For the study, patients were divided into three diagnostic groups: those with malignant primary tumors, those with solid tumors with no central nervous system involvement, and those with multiple sclerosis. Approximately one half were women.

Chamberlain said the study was begun since doctors noticed that in their neuro-oncology practices, divorce occurred almost exclusively when the wife was the patient, but in all cases the woman was more likely to end up alone. Researchers also looked at the quality of life among the patients who separated or divorced.

They found that these patients used more psychotropics for depression, took part in less clinical trials, had a greater frequency of hospitalizations, were less likely to continue their courses of radiation therapy and it was more common for them to not die in their own homes.

The findings will be published in the journal Cancer. Medical professionals should be sensitive to potential marital problems in couples afflicted by a serious medical illness, especially when the one diagnose is a woman.

“Early identification and psychosocial intervention might reduce the frequency of divorce and separation, and in turn improve quality of life and quality of care,” claimed the researchers.

Cancer and Marriage: Four Couples

Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James told a media outlet that a scare from cancer earlier in the year was “nerve-racking” and had him very nervous for a few days.

James had to wait for biopsy results in January after physicians at the Cleveland Clinic found a growth in the right side of his jaw. He said that doctors didn’t think it was cancer but had to make sure.

His family was on edge as well. James says he was so happy the season was on, so he could focus on the game of basketball.

It turned out that it was a benign growth. James had surgery to remove it in June, a few days after the Cavaliers’ season ended.

He says the week of bed rest following the operation was some of the best sleep he’s ever had.

Top 10 LeBron James Plays of the 2009 Season