Cancer Corner

During 2010 the staff of the Scientific Library featured a different cancer topic each month in a section known as the Cancer Corner. In addition, we offered programs and created web bibliographies on each topic. 

Below is a list of the Cancer Corner topics that we covered in 2010. Although the programs are over, we feel that the information available here is still valuable and relevant today.  

JANUARY - National Cervical Cancer Screening Month

• Bibliography

FEBRUARY - National Cancer Prevention Month

• Bibliography

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed two informational DVDs that are available for checking out.
  
  
  • CANCER PREVENTION - BREAKTHROUGH! (DVD, unrated, 45 mins.)
    Dr. Norton Fishman, a Washington, D.C. physician, discusses the latest scientific findings from a government study about cancer prevention.
    
    
  • CANCER AND DIET -- USING FOOD TO ELIMINATE CANCER AND PROMOTE RECOVERY (DVD, unrated, 36 mins.)
    Using our diet we can create an environment within our body that is inhospitable to cancerous cells. This program empowers patients to choose foods that slow the growth and naturally remove cancer cells from the body.
  
  
  

MARCH - National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

• Bibliography

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed two informational DVDs that are available for checking out.
  
  
  • COLON CANCER (DVD, unrated, 28 mins.)
    Colon cancer is an abnormal (or malignant) growth arising from a specific cell type (polyps) in the lining of the large intestine. It is graded according to how it looks under a microscope and how far it has spread. This program, part of the award winning public television series Healthy Body/Healthy Mind, provides much information about this treatable disease.
    
    
  • NEW TESTS, NEW TREATMENTS: BETTER OUTCOMES FOR PATIENTS WITH COLORECTAL CANCER (DVD, unrated, 88 mins.)
    Dr. George Fisher, from Stanford Hospital and Clinics, explains some of the advances that have improved the ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat this serious, often curable, and sometimes preventable disease.
    
    

APRIL - Brain Cancer Awareness Month    

• Bibliography

MAY - National Cancer Research Month

• Bibliography

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library discussed a nonfiction and a fiction book about Cancer Research. The nonfiction book is available for checking out.
  
  
  • CURING CANCER: THE STORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF OUR DEADLIEST ILLNESS by Michael Waldholtz (Nonfiction)
    The startling discovery that a single gene prevents the cells in the body from becoming tumors marked a dramatic turning point in cancer research. Taking readers into the labs where researchers have determined that cancers are caused either genetically or environmentally by destroying this newfound gene, CURING CANCER brings to life the race to unlock cancer's genetic code.
  • EXPERIMENTAL HEART: A NOVEL by Jennifer L. Rohn (Fiction)
    Andy O'Hara, a post-doctoral researcher in a London cancer research institute, agrees to help an attractive colleague, Gina, who is collaborating with a pharmaceutical company. She is working on a virus-based vaccine but has discovered the company is planning a clinical trial of the vaccine in Africa without preliminary animal tests. Andy gets a tip-off that Gina's corporate collaborator has a shady past, but also discovers a scientific reason why the vaccine may be doomed to failure.
    

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed a movie and hosted a panel discussion, both of which are available for checking out..
  
  
  • MOVIE: LIVING PROOF (2008, unrated, 91 mins.)
    Dr. Dennis Slamon (Harry Connick, Jr.) has helped to develop a new experimental drug called Herceptin, which he hopes will become a revolutionary treatment in the fight against breast cancer. However, when funding for his project is cut, Slamon must turn to philanthropists Lilly Tartikoff and Ron Perelman to help make his life's most important work a reality. This gut-wrenching true story explores one doctor's difficult struggle to find a cancer treatment that can save thousands of lives while giving meaning to his own life.
  
  
  • PANEL DISCUSSION - "Cancer Research Through the Years @ Frederick National Lab"
    What kinds of changes have occurred here at Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) in the last 10-20 years? How has the research process changed? What does the future hold? A number of FNLCR employees tried to answer those topics, and more, when they joined a panel of their colleagues and talked about "Cancer Research Through the Years at FNLCR."

JUNE - National Cancer Survivor's Day    

• Bibliography

JULY - National Skin Cancer Awareness Month      

• Bibliography

AUGUST - Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month    

• Bibliography

SEPTEMBER - National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month AND Prostate Cancer Awareness Month     

• Ovarian Cancer Bibliography

• Prostate Cancer Bibliography

• PROSTATE CANCER PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed two informational DVDs that are available for checking out.
  
  
  • WINNING THE BATTLE AGAINST PROSTATE CANCER (DVD, unrated, 28 mins.)
    The blood test called prostate specific antigen, or PSA, helps doctors to discover prostate cancer early. As a result of early detection, over eighty percent of patients with prostate cancer can be cured. This program, part of the award winning public television series Healthy Body/Healthy Mind, explores the new ways to help the immune system recognize prostate cancer cells, and hopefully destroy them.
    
    
  • ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER AND BONE LOSS (DVD, unrated, 28 mins.)
    This episode of the award winning public television series Healthy Body/Healthy Mind discusses the treatments for Advanced Prostate Cancer, with a focus on bone loss associated with this disease.
  
  

• OVARIAN CANCER PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed one informational DVD that is available for checking out.
  
  
  • FACING OVARIAN CANCER (DVD, unrated, 2 hour running time; We will show 60 minutes of this program.)
    This program is a woman's guide to ovarian cancer - symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and support. It has been split into 12 practical chapters for easy access. We will show 7 chapters during this 1 hour program.
  
  
  

OCTOBER - National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

• Bibliography

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed a documentary and hosted an invited speaker, both of which are available for checking out.
  
  
  • DOCUMENTARY: IN THE FAMILY (2008, unrated, 83 mins.)
    At 27, filmmaker Joanna Rudnick tested positive for the BRCA mutation. She now faces an impossible decision: remove her healthy breasts and ovaries or risk incredible odds of developing cancer. Armed with a positive test result that leaves her essentially "a ticking time bomb," she balances dreams of having her own children with the unnerving reality that she is risking her life by holding on to her fertility. IN THE FAMILY follows Joanna as she connects with other women trying to navigate their way around the wrenching decisions associated with predictive genetic testing.
    
  
  
  • INVITED SPEAKER: Amy McGreevy, Rn, CRNP
    Ms. McGreevy will speak informally about breast cancer and the various treatments available to patients.
  
  

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library discussed a nonfiction and a fiction book about Breast Cancer.  The nonfiction book is available for checking out.
  
  
  • ICE BOUND: A DOCTOR'S INCREDIBLE BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL AT THE SOUTH POLE by Jerri Nielsen (Nonfiction)
    During the winter of 1999, while living at the South Pole, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the only physician on a staff of forty-one people, discovered a lump in her breast. Consulting via satellite e-mail with doctors in the United States, she was forced to perform a biopsy and treat herself with chemotherapy in order to ensure that she could survive until conditions permitted her rescue. She was eventually rescued by the Air National Guard. Dr. Jerri Nielsen's story of her transforming experiences is a thrilling adventure and moving drama.
  • GOOD HARBOR: A NOVEL by Anita Diamant (Fiction)
    Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.
  
  
  

NOVEMBER - Lung Cancer Awareness Month

• Bibliography

• PROGRAM - The Scientific Library showed two informational DVDs that are available for checking out.
  
  
  • LUNG CANCER: A RISK FOR SMOKERS AND NON-SMOKERS (DVD, unrated, 28 mins.)
    In the United States approximately 170,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer annually. This program, part of the award winning public television series Healthy Body/Healthy Mind, explores the challenges patients living with lung cancer face everyday. While smoking is a major risk factor for many patients with lung cancer, non-smokers are also at risk. With advancements in chemotherapy and targeted therapies many patients with lung cancer are living longer fuller lives - making the goal of reaching and surpassing the 5-year survival mark more of a reality.
    
    
  • LUNG ABLATION: NEW HOPE FOR LUNG CANCER (DVD, unrated, 28 mins.)
    Combining the latest image-guided radiological and surgical techniques, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) uses a thin wire probe, inserted directly into tumors, to heat and kill cancer cells with electrical current. Employed successfully for years in liver, kidney and bone cancers, RFA has only recently been tested in lung cancer cases, with positive results. This fascinating episode of the award winning public television series Healthy Body/Healthy Mind features Dr. Damian Dupuy, who has pioneered the use of ablation to treat lung cancer in the United States.
  
  
  

DECEMBER - American Childhood Cancer Organization