Marin Man to Man original a 23-year regular

Weekly support group for partners of breast cancer patients losing a key member

Marv and Maria Edelstein

The Marin Man to Man weekly support group for guys whose partners have or had breast cancer will lose one of its key members in a few days.

Marv Edelstein is leaving the San Francisco Bay Area — and the state of California.

One of the four original members of Man to Man, he's been a regular for 23 years, since shortly after his wife, Maria, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

But Marv has found the local traffic and congestion more than he chooses to handle. And Maria apparently is even more bothered by the negative impact those changes have had recently.

It's not easy for them to say goodbye to the area, however.

They've lived in their San Rafael home 37 years.

Marv has been a regular in the weekly support group for 23 years and, in fact, has been vice chair and treasurer for a long time.

He's always been the epitome of the perfect member — particularly helpful to newcomers because he's been willing to be totally vulnerable, open and honest about his own ups and downs with Maria's bout with breast cancer more than two decades ago.

And her second bout earlier this year.

Marin Man to Man began when husbands of women with breast cancer in the First Position ballet support group realized they needed support themselves.

Eight current Man to Man members gathered this past Wednesday to wish Marv a fond farewell, to express their appreciation of his past contributions, and to say they hope he'll drop in again whenever he's visiting the Bay Area.

The Edelsteins intend to vacation in McCall, Idaho, then move either to Oregon or Washington to be closer to their son, who lives in Seattle.

The stories of their fighting cancer and Man to Man can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, have aimed at male caregivers.

Up to 70% of cancers could be prevented

Old research challenged: 'Bad behavior trumps bad luck' when it comes to causes of diseases 

I've always been a believer in preventive medicine and a healthy lifestyle.

And a new analysis published in JAMA Oncology shows I've been on the right track.

The journal says between 40 and 70 percent of U.S. cancer deaths could be prevented if Americans stopped smoking, cut down on their alcohol, maintained a healthy weight and exercised at least 150 minutes each week.

In the meantime, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease, the article indicates.

Findings in the study conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and reported today by Melissa Healy in the Los Angeles Times suggest women who followed the preventive guidelines reduced their risk of breast cancer by 15 percent, lung cancer by 85 percent, other cancers somewhere in between.

Men did even better, as high as 90 percent for lung cancer.

A total of 89,571 women and 46,339 men participated in the analysis, which the Times said "was based on cancer rates and health behaviors in two large and long-running studies of health professionals — the Nurses' Health study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study," and which also used data from the National Cancer Institute.

The findings, according to the article, "present a significant challenge to research published last year that said as many as 80 percent of cancers might be attributable to factors beyond the control of individuals — the 'back luck' hypothesis. Instead the new research offers evidence that bad behavior trumps bad luck as a cause of cancer."

Edward Giovannucci

 Mingyang Song

The Times story quoted Dr. Mingyang Song of Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard T.H. Cohn School, the study's authors, as believing "primary prevention should remain a priority for cancer control."

Unfortunately, American adults remain vested in bad habits and bad lifestyle choices.

Apparently, about 17 percent, roughly 40 million, are still smoking cigarettes; obesity is a problem for 38 percent; almost a quarter of them do no exercise outside of job requirements; and 6.7 percent report they're heavy drinkers (with a full quarter  of adults acknowledging they engaged in binge drinking in the last month).

The top 10 causal factors account for nearly 75 percent of all deaths — with heart disease and cancer followed, in turn, by chronic lower respiratory disease, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer's, diabetes, flu and pneumonia, kidney disease and suicide.

Information and statistics on other studies can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, have aimed at male caregivers.

Gene mutation may portend four times the risk

Men worry about defective breast cancer genes as possible clue to deadly prostate cancer

Holy cow, it wasn't enough that I worried about women I know having BRCA1 and 2 mutant genes that portend breast and ovarian cancers.

Now I'm worrying about the guys, too.

Seems that, according to a recent article in The Washington Post by Laurie McGinley, men (like me) are becoming more aware that the defective genes — "the kind that prompted actress Angelina Jolie to have her breasts and ovaries removed preemptively," the story notes — have also been linked to aggressive, potentially deadly prostate cancer.

McKinley writes that "men with these mutations are more likely than non-carriers to contract aggressive, lethal prostate cancer, to be diagnosed at a more advanced stage and to ultimately die of the disease, researchers say."

A study recently presented to a meeting of  the American Urological Association found 17 percent of patients with BRCA2 "already had advanced [prostate] disease, four times the rate of patients without the mutation," the article states. 

Dr. Bruce Montgomery

McKinley's story quotes Dr. Bruce Montgomery, an oncologist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance-University of Washington Medical Center as saying, "The problem is, everyone associates this with women and their cancers. In men's minds, BRCA is about breast cancer, so they don't see it as relevant."

The implication, of course, is that they're wrong. It is not only relevant, knowledge about the mutation is a crucial part of a health-education learning curve.

Although "an estimated 12 percent of women will develop breast cancer during their lifetimes, according to the National Cancer Institute," McKinley's story says, "that proportion rises to as high as 65 percent of women who inherit a BRCA1 mutation and about 45 percent for those with a BRCA2 defect."

Men with the BRCA mutation also are at a higher risk of getting breast cancer. Currently, more than 2,000 American males contract that disease each year.

To learn even more about the BRCA defects, check out "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," the VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

'Dual duty' digital screenings are lauded

Research finds mammograms can find signs of heart disease at same time as breast cancer

Sure, we all know mammograms can detect early breast cancers and, therefore, save lives.

But we didn't know until recently that the tests may also red-flag heart disease.

And strokes.

Dr. Harvey Hecht

According to a Newsday story by Delthia Ricks, Dr. Harvey Hecht, a professor of medicine at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine in Manhattan, says calcium deposits that show up on the digital screenings can be "a more powerful predictor of heart disease risk than other well-established cardiovascular indicators such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes."

It takes "less than 15 seconds to analyze," he said.

Heart disease kills 10 times more women than breast cancer, the story indicated.

Dr. Laurie Margolies

Dr. Laurie Margolies, chief of breast imaging at Mount Sinai Hospital's Dubin Breast Center, and one of Hecht's co-researchers in a study that involved nearly 300 women, emphasized that "a single mammogram can yield results about cancer and heart disease at the same time."   

The pair presented their findings at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago about the possibilities of the "unappreciated tool" in effect doing double duty.

Questions about the efficacy of mammography? They may be answered in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, have aimed at male caregivers.

Doctor warns of hidden facts, bad memory

Not really knowing your family medical history can cause you cancer woes, oncologist says 

Heredity and cancer are inexorably linked.

Even if you prefer denial.

Theodora Ross

Knowing your family history could save your life, according to a recent story by Theodora Ross, an oncologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in the Washington Post.

Hidden facts can be destructive, Ross indicates, pointing to one of her young patients who joked about her Irish heritage but discovered, through testing for breast cancer gene mutations, that she carried an Ashkenazi Jewish mutation that could spell trouble.

It was learned that her French Jewish family, apparently fearing anti-Semitism during World War II, had converted to Catholicism and made Ireland their home.

Ross, author of "A Cancer in the Family: Take Control of Your Genetic Inheritance," points out in her article that "many illnesses…are at least partly hereditary. One recent study found that 33 percent of cancer diagnoses can be explained by genes."

She also notes that "only one-third of Americans have ever tried to collect their family medical histories from relatives" and that part of the problem "is the fault of the medical profession…physicians [may] devote just three minutes to asking family-history questions during a patient's first visit."

Another difficulty is that many "relatives might never have revealed that they were sick, particularly if they struggled with a disease that carries a stigma." 

For example, she adds, "according to one study, 58 percent of psychiatrists said they wouldn't tell family and friends if they suffered from a mental illness."

Fear, ostracism and shame certainly can become obstacles to the truth.

Ross also cites patients who interpreted histories incorrectly, including one who "denied that he had a family history of cancer because, he said, nobody had died. Another suggested that her sister's breast cancer at age 38 was due to her divorce. One even told me her father had only 'a touch of melanoma.'"

In addition, language can be a barrier to understanding.

"It wasn't so long ago that tuberculosis was known as 'consumption' and epilepsy was 'falling sickness," Ross writes. "Strokes were 'apoplexy,' and 'bad blood' was code for syphilis."

Memory, too, can be faulty. Ross says that rather than factual it can be "a construction of what we think happened. Lung cancer may have, in fact, been colon cancer; ovarian cancer perhaps was cervical cancer."

Research into your family history, Ross indicates, is definitely worth the time invested. And The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be of assistance. So can the National Institutes of Health. 

Both have online guides that might help you get started.

To learn about the links between heredity and breast cancer, particularly BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, you also could check out "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

John Stossel rants about health care system

'Customer service stinks,' complains Fox reporter from lung cancer hospital bed

John Stossel

John Stossel, a 69-year-old libertarian Fox consumer reporter, can be sardonic.

Even when he's in a New York-Presbyterian Hospital bed being treated for lung cancer.

Maybe especially when he's in a New York-Presbyterian Hospital bed being treated for lung cancer.

In a recent opinion piece for Fox, he wrote: "I'll be fine. Soon I will barely notice that a fifth of my lung is gone. But…I have to say, the hospital's customer service stinks. Doctors keep me waiting for hours, and no one bothers to call or email to say, 'I'm running late.'"

Stossel, who says he never smoked cigarettes, goes on to gripe about getting "X-rays, EKG tests, echocardiograms, blood tests," questioning if all were really needed. 

"I doubt it," he answers himself, "but no one discussed that with me or mentions the cost. Why would they? The patient rarely pays directly. Government or insurance companies pay."

The reporter's rant against the health care system continues: "Customer service is sclerotic because hospitals are largely socialist bureaucracies [that] report to government, lawyers and insurance companies," not consumers.

Some of his nurses, he says, "were great — concerned about my comfort and stress — but other hospital workers were indifferent. When the customer doesn't pay, customer service rarely maters."

In a follow-up column, he responds to some who objected in print to his extreme views: "My local supermarket is open 24/7. They rarely make me wait, prices are low, there's plenty of choice and they rarely poison me. That's what competition brings — if people pay with their own money."

Stossel is the host of his own Friday night program on the Fox Business Network that deals with consumer affairs — and also appears regularly on the Fox News Channel and "The O'Reilly Factor" providing a libertarian analysis.

The Princeton grad previously was co-anchor of ABC's newsmagazine, "20/20."

He's won 19 Emmy Awards.

For a non-libertarian point of view of patient care, you can check out "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Big Pharma, insurers, hospitals play blame game

'Financial navigators' helping patients cope with high cost of cancer drugs and treatment 

Laurie McGinley

As soon as you or a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, you concentrate on survival.

Not on what that may cost.

But as soon as treatments and drugs start being prescribed, the money factor is likely to grab your attention.

Which in turn may lead to sticker shock.

Or depression.

A recent story by health-and-medicine writer Laurie McGinley in The Washington Post indicates that out-of-pocket $10,000 per month fees for a single drug isn't that unusual.

A monthly regimen of multiple drugs can run into the thousands of dollars in co-pays.

S. Yousuf Zafar

The Post article refers to patients suffering from "financial toxicity" — a term coined in 2013 by S. Yousuf Zafar at the Duke University School of Medicine — as well as the "mix of economic stress, anxiety and depression cancer patients often endure."

It focuses on "financial navigators [who] help people survive financially as well as medically [by taking] a highly individualized approach, working closely with patients and oncologists from the time of diagnosis and continuing through the twists and turns of a protracted illness."

As cancer costs continue to rise, and the health-care system grows more complex, the piece continues, the navigators'  strategy "is to pull every lever possible to extract maximum assistance from pharmaceutical companies, the government, foundations and…hospitals."

Meanwhile, Big Pharma blames insurance companies for making patients absorb higher deductibles and co-pays.

And in a turn-around, according to McGinley, "insurers say excessive hospital charges, doctor fees and drug prices are the culprits."

Hospitals join the blame game, too. They point fingers at "pharmaceutical companies [that] are inflating prices [and insurers that] are failing to adequately cover needed treatments."

The article also quotes a Seattle researcher to the effect that "people battling cancer are, on average, about 2-1/2 times more likely to file for bankruptcy than people without cancer — and that post-bankruptcy patients are nearly 80 percent more likely to die from any cause compared with others with cancer."

"Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, wrote for male caregivers, addresses the costs of meds and treatments as well as the emotional toll on patients and their loved ones alike.

But be wary. The financial bell can be tolling for thee.

Dying boy gets last wish to be famous in China

Sad tale ends with the death of 8-year-old media darling — but foundation offers upbeat note

I, Woody Weingarten, wrote the VitalityPress book "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," aimed at male caregivers, to show how having cancer can have an upside.

But the sad story of an 8-year-old Rhode Island boy with terminal cancer whose last wish was to become famous may bring with it even more hope.

Dorian Murray died about a month ago, not long after his story went viral and, in turn, led to his becoming an instant media darling.

Dorian Murray

For the most part, Dorian's 15 minutes of fame has already faded, supplanted on feature pages by slightly less meaningful articles about the size of Donald Trump's genitalia, the dwindling effects of El Niño, and Cameron Diaz supporting Drew Barrymore through her third divorce.

The courageous little boy, who lost a four-year battle with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and untreatable soft tissue cancer, initially had garnered world-wide attention through social media — including celebrities such as Justin Bieber, William Shatner, Paula Abdul, Conan O'Brien and Morgan Freeman.

The subsequent media explosion revolved around his seemingly inexplicable wish to become famous in China before he shuffled off to Heaven.

The wish resulted, among other things, in people sending photos of themselves on the Great Wall holding signs promoting his hashtag, #DStrong.

Murray's parents, Chris and Melissa, are now hoping that the Dorian J. Murray Foundation they founded can support research and, moreover, spread awareness of pediatric cancer.

As a result, although the public's appetite for sensationalism apparently is insatiable, Dorian's death may not be the end of the story.

It might become a new, upbeat note of hope.