Breast Cancer

Breast cancer program on KNBC MEDIA DISTRICT WEST -- To bring attention to early detection of breast cancer, KNBC-TV Channel 4 launched a year-round program this month called "Friends 4 Life." News anchors will urge women to do their monthly self-exam on the 4th of each month. They will also encourage viewers to call their girlfriends, mothers, sisters and daughters to remind them to do their exams. The anchors will be joined by the station's medical editor in covering stories on breast-cancer prevention, education and medical breakthroughs.

Students, teachers, administrators and staff members at John Burroughs High School this month are putting up a beautiful fight against breast cancer. They are working on a schoolwide project that incorporates art and social action by creating plaster casts of women’s torsos and decorating them to be sold at auction in late October to benefit the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, Passionately Pink for the Cure. “It is so visual,” said Beth Morrison, one of the teachers at Burroughs who is leading the project.

If you find popcorn and movie tickets stuffed in a bra, you must be at Soroptimist International of Glendale's fourth annual Bras for a Cause fundraiser. The event has contestants decorate bras, which they pay $100 to enter in the competition. The bras are then auctioned off to the highest bidder. Funds raised go to breast cancer services at Glendale hospitals and other local charities that help women and children, event founder Kathy Lefkovits said. This year's competition has some innovative ideas depicting the theme Bras for a Cause Goes to the Movies, she said.

BURBANK HIGH — There was a more important issue at stake Tuesday when the Burbank High girls' volleyball team took on Crescenta Valley. Getting a win was definitely important, as the Bulldogs and Falcons are fighting for a top-three spot the Pacific League. However, raising funds to benefit the treatment and research to find a cure for breast cancer took center stage for both squads. With the teams donning pink jerseys for the contest, Burbank and Crescenta Valley took park in a Dig Pink event at Burbank High, where each dig in the contest raised money for the cause.

LA CRESCENTA — Kills, aces and assists played their normal prominent role in deciding the Pacific League girls’ volleyball match between host Crescenta Valley High and Burbank on Thursday afternoon. But by far the most important statistics in the Bulldogs’ 26-24, 25-15, 25-23 win were digs. As part of The Falcons’ Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Rally in conjunction with the Sideout Foundation, money was raised for breast cancer research with each ball dug by both teams.

A Burbank surgeon claims 75% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of it. In response, Dr. Deanna Attai said she uses a test to help her evaluate younger women?s risk of developing the disease. Women 50 and older have the mammogram to help in early detection of breast cancer, but it isn?t part of the annual exams for younger women, unless they or family members have had a history of the disease. In the last two years, Attai, a board-certified surgeon with the Center for Breast Care, has been using the HALO Breast Pap Test for assessing the risk of breast cancer in women ages 18 to 50. It?

Irma Lemus MEDIA DISTRICT NORTH -- Olympic gold medalist and breast cancer survivor Peggy Fleming will be the featured speaker at a special presentation about the disease. The free event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 17 in the Providence St. Joseph Medical Center auditorium, 501 S. Buena Vista Street. Fleming, a former champion ice skater, will deliver a personal account of her battle with breast cancer and bring attention to new breast cancer research, organizers said.

John Burroughs High School art students are selling their busts on eBay. Beth Morrison?s advanced and intermediate students decorated plaster casts of female mannequin torsos this month. They are being sold on the auction website as part of a monthlong fundraiser for cancer research. The busts start at $50 each and went up for auction earlier this week and end on Friday.. There are 28 plaster cast bust pieces up for grabs. All proceeds from the sale of the casts will benefit the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, Passionately Pink for the Cure.

Jenna Bordelon BURBANK -- An extended trip abroad after college changed Sherilyn Canady's outlook on life forever. "My two years in Europe far surpassed my college education in terms of survival skills," the Burbank resident said. "What I realized is that I was very lucky." "What was really important to me was my health and my support system," she said. In her position as coordinator of the City of Hope Walk For Life Against Breast Cancer, Canady uses anything but luck to push for money to fund needed research.

Jeff Tully When Sonya Most was diagnosed with breast cancer more than a decade ago, she thought it was the end of her life. However, despite the pain, the fear and the stigma involved with battling the disease, Most has come to the realization her successful struggle to overcome cancer has signified a new beginning. "When I first got the news that I had cancer, it was horrible," said Most, 73, who has lived in Burbank for 27 years. "I really thought I was going to die. "But now, looking back, although I know this might sound kind of strange but there is actually some good that has come out of me getting cancer.

Getting back into the dating scene "when you're 100 years old - or might as well be," isn't for shrinking violets. Neither is breast cancer, losing your beloved husband unexpectedly, watching two brothers deal with mental illness, and hoping the bikini top that you're expected to wear for a commercial audition will cover your mastectomy prosthesis. Veteran stage and screen actor Annie Abbott shares her years of hard knocks and success, love, loss and new love with high-octane spirit and a great deal of humor in her new one-woman show, “Giving Up Is Hard to Do,” at the Victory Theatre Center in Burbank.

BURBANK HIGH — There was a more important issue at stake Tuesday when the Burbank High girls' volleyball team took on Crescenta Valley. Getting a win was definitely important, as the Bulldogs and Falcons are fighting for a top-three spot the Pacific League. However, raising funds to benefit the treatment and research to find a cure for breast cancer took center stage for both squads. With the teams donning pink jerseys for the contest, Burbank and Crescenta Valley took park in a Dig Pink event at Burbank High, where each dig in the contest raised money for the cause.

WEST BURBANK — Marla Zack lost her mother, stepmother, aunt and several friends to breast cancer, but when she was diagnosed with the illness two years ago, she knew she was going to be different. She was going to survive. Now Zack, a 45-year-old who had to give up her job as the production supervisor on "America's Got Talent" to concentrate on her treatment and recovery, is working hard to raise awareness of the disease and money for cancer charities in the process.

When doctors diagnosed Mary Strauss with breast cancer 10 years ago, the retired bookkeeper was forced to confront a condition that for much of her life went unnamed. ?Growing up, we never talked about cancer,? said Strauss, 76, of La Cañada. ?It was the big C. You didn?t tell people you had the big C, this dreadful, terrible disease. Who tells people about a looming death sentence?? This weekend she joined more than 1,000 survivors, their supporters and people who lost loved ones to cancer at American Cancer Society Relay for Life events in La Crescenta and Burbank.

When doctors 10 years ago diagnosed Mary Strauss with breast cancer, the retired bookkeeper was forced to confront a condition that for much of her life went unnamed. "Growing up, we never talked about cancer," said Strauss, 76, of La Cañada. "It was the big C. You didn't tell people you had the big C, this dreadful, terrible disease. Who tells people about a looming death sentence?" This weekend she joined more than 1,000 survivors, their supporters and people who lost loved ones to cancer at American Cancer Society Relay for Life events in La Crescenta and Burbank.

LA CRESCENTA — Kills, aces and assists played their normal prominent role in deciding the Pacific League girls’ volleyball match between host Crescenta Valley High and Burbank on Thursday afternoon. But by far the most important statistics in the Bulldogs’ 26-24, 25-15, 25-23 win were digs. As part of The Falcons’ Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Rally in conjunction with the Sideout Foundation, money was raised for breast cancer research with each ball dug by both teams.

A Burbank surgeon claims 75% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of it. In response, Dr. Deanna Attai said she uses a test to help her evaluate younger women?s risk of developing the disease. Women 50 and older have the mammogram to help in early detection of breast cancer, but it isn?t part of the annual exams for younger women, unless they or family members have had a history of the disease. In the last two years, Attai, a board-certified surgeon with the Center for Breast Care, has been using the HALO Breast Pap Test for assessing the risk of breast cancer in women ages 18 to 50. It?

Delores Burgess once gave breast cancer the one-two punch. But she?s had to put the boxing gloves back on for a second round of fighting the disease. The Burbank resident has created the ?Loving Me? Women?s Empowerment Seminar to encourage women to be more proactive with their health. The all-day seminar is Oct. 24 at the Pickwick Gardens in Burbank. There will be lectures interspersed with interactive segments, she said, all in celebration of women and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Deanna Attai, a Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center surgeon who this year became one of the first doctors in the country to treat early-stage breast cancer patients using a technique that essentially freezes tumors, can add another first to her list. Attai this month became the first Southland surgeon to overhaul her medical equipment, including a scalpel and traditional electrosurgical device, and replace it with a new tissue-dissection system based on proprietary technology from Stanford University.

BURBANK — A Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center surgeon became one of the first doctors in the country Monday to treat early-stage breast cancer patients using a technique that neutralizes tumors by essentially freezing them. Dr. Deanna Attai began treatment of two Southern California women taking part in the clinical trial that explores the use of noninvasive cryoablation therapy, a technique in which doctors inject liquid nitrogen into the center of a tumor, cooling the tissue to minus 160 degrees Celsius.