Having finished her cancer chemo treatment, Princess Kate plans more public engagements

Britain's Princess Kate says her chemotherapy treatment for cancer is complete, so she intends to do more public appearances.

That information appears in a story by Karla Adam in editions of The Washington Post earlier this week.

The past nine months, Kate Middleton says, "have been incredibly tough for us as a family."

Princess Kate

Kate — more formally known as Catherine, Princess of Wales, has largely been out of public view since Christmas. 

Buckingham Palace insists the royal is entitled to her medical privacy, and she's not disclosed the site of the cancer.

The princess, who's in line to be a future queen, is expected to at least "attend a Remembrance Sunday service, a fixture of the royal calendar that commemorates those who died in Britain's wars," the Post piece notes.

Kate released the chemo information via a three-minute video. "The cancer journey," she says in the voice-over, "is complex, scary, and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you. With humility, it also brings you face to face with your own vulnerabilities in a way you have never considered before, and with that, a new perspective on everything."

She then adds, "To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey — I remain with you."

A spokesperson for the palace says that King Charles III and Queen Camilla consider the announcement details "to be wonderful news" and will continue to offer "love, thoughts, and support to the princess on her continued path to full recovery."

The king, her father-in-law, was diagnosed with his own cancer earlier this year. He returned to a schedule of public engagements in April on a basis more limited than usual.

Additional information about the multi-pronged disease can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed particularly at male caregivers.

Clinical trial of new drug for metastatic breast cancer patient shows 'unheard of' survival rates

A new clinical breast cancer drug trial has resulted in "unheard of" survival rates.

According to a recent story by Gina Kolata in The New York Times, for some patients with metastatic tumors that were not significantly affected by other forms of chemotherapy, the treatment halted their cancer's growth.

The findings of a new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, might "change how medicine [is] practiced," the article indicates.

Dr. Eric Winer, who was not involved in the study but who is director of the Yale Cancer Center and head of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, is quoted as saying that "this is a new standard of care. It affects a huge number of patients."

The Times piece notes that the new treatment, using an experimental drug (trastuzumab deruxtecan, sold as Enhehru) "that targeted cancer cells with laser like precision" was "stunningly successful, slowing tumor growth and extending life to an extent rarely seen with advanced cancers."

The trial, which focused on a mutant protein known as HER2, involved 557 patients. Tumors in those who took the experimental drug stopped growing for about 10 months, twice the length of those who took only standard chemotherapy. Those patients survived for almost two years, compared to less than a year and a half for those who received standard chemo.

Dr. Halle Moore

"It is unheard of for chemotherapy trials in metastatic breast cancer to improve survival in patients by six months," the story quotes Dr. Halle Moore, director of breast cancer oncology at the Cleveland Clinic, as saying.

Dr. Susan Domchek, a breast cancer specialist at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center, also is quoted to the effect that she plans to see — even before the Food and Drug Administration approves the drug, which has a wholesale price of about $14,000 every three weeks — if the data from the study will be sufficient to convince insurers to approve it.

More information about successful clinical trials can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

New artificial intelligence technique may be able to predict breast cancer cases, research shows

Will AI be able to transform the mammogram and "allow patients to avoid aggressive treatments and even save the lives of countless people who get breast cancer"?

Professor Regina Barzilay

According to a recent story by Steven Zeitchik in The Washington Post, Regina Barzilay, an MIT professor and artificial-intelligence expert who endured chemotherapy, two lumpectomies and radiation for that cancer, as well as "all the brutal side effects that come along with those treatments," may have found "a marriage of tech and health care that could alter millions of lives without a single drop of medicine."

The Post article reports that Barzilay and Adam Yala, a student protege, "have built an AI that seems able to predict with unprecedented accuracy whether a healthy person will get breast cancer, in an innovation that could seriously disrupt how we think about the disease."

How it works was laid out in an piece in the Journal of Clinical Oncology: "By analyzing a mammogram's set of byzantine pixels and then cross-referencing them with thousands of older mammograms, the AI — known as Mirai — can product nearly half of all incidences of breast cancer up to five years before they happen."

"If the data is validated, I think this is very exciting," Zeitchik's story quotes Janine T. Katzen, radiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine who specializes in breast imaging. It also quotes Dorraya El-Ashry, chief scientific officer for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, as saying, "This is the next, very positive step forward. There is a lot of work to do. But this is very encouraging."

Meanwhile, breast cancer statistics are discouraging. "While many cancers, such as lung cancer, have been declining in the United States," the Post story says, "breast cancer rates have been going up — an annual average of half a percentage point between 2008 and 2017, according to the American Cancer Society."

More information on out-of-the-ordinary treatments can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at caregivers.

Has Julia Louis-Dreyfus' disease disappeared?

'Veep' star celebrates end of breast cancer chemo by posting humorous video of two sons

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as TV's "Veep"

Emmy-award winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus celebrated the end of her chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer by posting a hopeful, humorous video tribute created by her grown sons.

This week's oft out-of-focus Instagram post featured Henry, a 25-year-old singer-songwriter, and Charlie, 20, a college basketball player at Northwestern University — who the former star of "Seinfeld" calls "my beauty boys" — and drew more than half a million viewers and more than 5,000 comments within about 24 hours.

Louis-Dreyfus posted the light-hearted video in the same timeframe as her 57th birthday.

The tribute to her was titled "Mom's last day!!! BEAT IT!!!" and was a lip-synched version of Michael Jackson's song.

The former star of "Seinfeld" was diagnosed in September the day after she'd won an Emmy for "Veep," and has since "been sharing her journey and support from loved ones and fans on social media," according to the Associated Press.

Louis-Dreyfus has won a record-setting Emmy for the HBO series five years in a row for her role as Selina Meyer.

About the boys, her offspring with her since-1987 husband, comedian-actor Brad Hall, she noted in a caption, "Pretty swell, right? Ain't they sweet?"

After her second round of chemo in October, she'd shared a photo of herself with an over-the-top drawn-on mustache, and before starting her third round, a story in the Sydney Morning Herald validates, she "posted a skit her 'Veep' co-stars, Matt Walsh and Sam Richardson, filmed to help her get 'psyched,' featuring motivational quotes from a range of problematic historical figures like Joseph Stalin and Harvey Weinstein."

Has her breast cancer disappeared? No announcement about that has been forthcoming yet.

But a discussion of the myriad forms that loving reactions can take may be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Risk factors: aging, estrogen, excess weight

2,600 men are facing diagnosis of breast cancer this year, nonprofit says

Politically, the phrase "top 1 percent" has become important — and again was cited recently by Hillary Clinton regarding the imbalance of wealth in our country.

A different 1 percent is equally important.

That's the amount of breast cancers occurring  in men — with about 2,600 expected to be diagnosed with the disease this year, according to the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit, breastcancer.org.

That figure puts the lifetime risk at 1 in 1,000 — small, indeed, but not insignificant.

And life-threatening, perhaps, if you happen to be in that 1 percent.

Because, unlike their female counterparts, men tend not to be screened regularly, the disease is likely to be more advanced when first detected.

Risk factors, according to the breastcancer.org website, can include aging itself (the average diagnosis for men is 68), high estrogen levels resulting from taking hormone meds, being overweight or being a heavy alcohol user.

Or having a strong family history of the disease or a genetic mutation (such as BRCA1 or BRCA2).

Treatments may include surgery, radiation, chemo or hormonal therapy.

Dr. Marisa Weiss 

Experts cited by breastcancer.org include a radiation oncologist, Marisa Weiss of Lankenau Hospital; a surgeon, M. Lisa Attebery of Paoli Hospital; and a Ph.D., Jennifer Harned Adams of the University of Texas.

Another expert, Gerry Bourguignon of Mill Valley, California, one of the regulars in my weekly drop-in breast support group, Marin Man to Man, has also been trying to spread the word about male breast cancer for years.

He, himself, is a survivor.

Want more information about the disease? Consider reading "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," the VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Softening the impact of breast cancer chemo

Humorous photos don't appear in 'Rollercoaster' but helped couple deal with hair loss

Rhoda Draws in her studio.

Humor can help patients and caregivers cope.

So can artistic flights of fancy.

At a time when her breast cancer and chemo-induced loss of hair turned my wife, Nancy Fox, into a portrait of cheerlessness, Rhoda Draws, a painter-caricaturist-friend based in Mill Valley, California, superimposed some playfulness on half a dozen photographs.

Nancy couldn't help but smile.

Nor could I.

Nancy, digitally enhanced.

Rhoda, who's also an author and teacher, presented the re-imagined photos (aka digitally enhanced, or cyber-imaged) to Nancy as a gift.

Immediately, my wife for a while stopped mourning the loss of her shoulder length, red hair — what she describes in my new book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," as "the one part of my body that I have loved unconditionally."

None of the distinctive photos accompany my narrative. Not because Nancy doesn't appreciate them 20 years after her diagnosis and treatment, but simply because I, Woody Weingarten, didn't use any illustrations at all in the book.

Nancy used the six re-imagined, often whimsical photos on a one-page flyer she sent to friends and family members who aided her. She added this text: "Thanks for your helping hands…and your loving heart…during all my changes."

The front of our refrigerator is decorated with two of the images — on magnets. They still make us smile, every day.

And cope.

And remember the ups and downs of the past triggered by passages in "Rollercoaster."

Such as:

• "Her dread of going bald had careened off the charts. Just before turning out the lights she recalled that as a girl with braids down to her waist, she'd panicked when her mother demanded she cut them off."

• "I do wish she could consistently see herself as I do, as a beautiful creature with or without hair."

• Sadness about her missing hair — even though that loss was temporary — remained the biggie for Nancy. A year after her final treatment, she wrote in her journal that it 'was clearly the psychologically devastating part of the cancer."

• It had taken more than two years before she could look at images of her baldness…She agreed at last to put the photos of her hairless stage into two albums…[She] triggered my caregiver button: 'You and I will never see it the same way,' I replied sincerely. 'Your high cheekbones and eyes showed off better when there was no hair to look at. The fact is, you're lovely both ways.'"

Two decades after her breast cancer diagnosis, Nancy's loveliness still makes me tremble.

Even though her hair is draped around her shoulders again.