Friday, November 02, 2007

Cancer Research Carnival #3

Welcome to the third monthly edition of the cancer research blog carnival. Here we discuss anything remotely associated with cancer research in hopes of spreading knowledge and ideas. In this edition we got many submissions related to personal experiences with cancer. It seems blogging is a great way for cancer patients to share their journey. So why not give the people what they want. Hopefully this can help keep research in perspective!

cancer biology

Wenchypoo presents Meet “Epi”—the Ghost in Your Genes posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, saying, "How everything we experience, eat, drink, and take affects our family tree for three generations.". Epigenetics holds a special place in my heart since I've been secretly trying to figure out the histone code while pretending to work on reproduction. I'm especially interested in transgenerational effects such as those explained by Wenchypoo in this post. Indeed you may not be only getting bad genes from your parents, but also transcriptional memory that was imprinted during their lifetime.

CAD presents VWXYNot?: On the Origin of Tumours by Means of Natural Selection posted at VWXYNot?, saying, "The gradual evolution from normal to malignant cells illustrates a very simple natural law. If an individual produces a number of offspring via an imperfect copying mechanism, the result will be a mixed population of individuals with slightly different characteristics. If one of the variants is able to produce offspring faster than its peers, then those offspring will be over-represented in subsequent generations. ". Is transformation then a kind of speciation event?

prevention & management

Alvaro Fernandez presents 10 Highlights from the 2007 Aspen Health Forum posted at SharpBrains, saying, "Check out this overview of the Health and Science trends discussed in this recent policy event.". While cancer was on the agenda, it's interesting to see how it fits in the global health perspective. Many topics are touched, including how successful patient advocacy groups have been in raising money for cancer research, and the importance of lifestyle and prevention for a healthy population.

Andrew Ian Dodge presents Colon update: the red bit is cancer… posted at Dodgeblogium. Andrew shares with us the impact of his diagnosis along with a picture of his colon! It just shows how simple diagnostic methods, such as colonoscopies have drastically changed cancer prevention and diagnosis.



psychology

Kamel presents Depression in cancer survivors and their partners posted at Bayblab. Kamel highlights the emotional aspects of coping with a cancer diagnosis and death. Sometimes depression doesn't come from the contemplation of your mortality but rather the loneliness.


Tiffany Washko presents Crazy Sexy Cancer posted at Natural Family Living Blog. This book comes from a recommendation from Oprah, so you know it must be good. Mostly personal tips for people with the disease.




That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of cancer research blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. Contact us if you are interested in hosting the next edition...


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice edition AC. Short, but definitely a different perspective than the last two issues. You're right though - posts like these help to remind us how important the research really is.

Had I known about edition #3, I would have submitted an article. When I last checked the blog carnival index page, a host for this edition hadn't been posted.

Anonymous said...

Great job as always, AC. If you can't find anyone to host the next one, let me know...you know I'm always up for it.