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Mar. 20--JEDDAH -- Saudi academics and lawyers silver necklaces rejected the fatwa of legal adviser Saleh bin Saad Al-Laheedan allowing Saudi women to work as maids, saying such work is humiliating for them.

They said Saudi people in general opposed the idea when Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi issued a decision two years ago allowing Saudi women to work as house managers and servants.

Speaking to Islamonline.net, Suhaila Zainul Abideen, a member of the National Society for Human Rights, expressed her surprise at Al-Laheedan's fatwa or religious edict. She strongly opposed the idea of Saudi women working as maids.

She said the state is responsible for taking care of women if they are in need of financial assistance. "Where is social insurance?" she asked. She also wondered why scholars were not applying the principle of preventing the reason (Sadd Al-Dharai) in this issue in the same way that it is applied in other issues such as women driving and mingling with the opposite sex.

Sheikh Al-Laheedan said it is silver pendants for Saudi women to work as maids if they cannot find other jobs, if they are over 50 and accompanied by a mehram (a close male relative). Suhaila asked whether any family would allow their womenfolk to work along with their mehrams.

Suhaila urged the concerned authorities to take up the matter with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who she said is sure would not accept the humiliation of Saudi women. She said Al-Laheedan should have instead asked the authorities to make monthly payments to poor Saudi women.

Fahd Al-Johani, dean of students affairs at Taif University, opposed the idea, silver rings working as maids would force women to violate certain Islamic principles. He said Al-Laheedan should have considered the present condition of maids before giving his fatwa.

Ibrahim Al-Saqhabi, a Saudi, said it is shameful for the ministry and Al-Laheedan to allow Saudi women to work as maids. "Saudi Arabia has the financial ability to support its poor women by paying them monthly salaries, instead of allowing them to work as maids," he said.

Stevens' company, Stevens Technologies, achieved the silver cufflinks year-over-year increase in gross annual revenue, growing 131% to reach $1,544,262. During this same time, the company also increased the number of employees who have health benefits, 401k packages and paid leave, from 12 employees in 2008 to 21 people in 2009. Revenue and employee growth are the two chief criteria for the highly spirited competition. Stevens Technologies creates reports on how to strengthen information security within organizations, especially with management and operations divisions. Her company serves as a subcontractor to Federal agencies like NASA, Langley Research Center.

In surpassing $1 million in annual revenue, Stevens demonstrated the hallmark of Make Mine a Million $ Business, an initiative launched by Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence and American Express OPEN to inspire and support one million women entrepreneurs growing million-dollar businesses. In addition to the prize money, Stevens will also receive a year of growth-focused resources such as marketing, advertising and media opportunities as part of the grand prize.

"Sarah's story of entrepreneurial achievement in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is a testament to her as a leader as well as our collective will as a movement," said Nell Merlino, founder and CEO, Count Me In. "Together, the entrepreneurs of Make Mine a Million $ Business are helping to right the ship that is the U.S. economy by driving revenue and creating jobs on the way to economic recovery."

"The resources and contacts I made over the course of the M3RACE proved invaluable," said Stevens, who prevailed over the 1,543 competing entrepreneurs. "I could not be prouder to be associated with such an inspirational group of self-starters and resilient business owners."

Make Mine a Million $ Business is the only silver earrings initiative committed to helping post-start-up women entrepreneurs grow million-dollar enterprises. Since its inception in 2005, the movement has empowered women to grow their entrepreneurial ventures, providing more than 75,000 women entrepreneurs nationwide with vital business growth resources.

In 2009, Make Mine a Million $ Business brought its successful growth methodology to the Web through the M3RACE, a business growth marathon designed to support women entrepreneurs and help them realize their revenue goals while connecting them with like-minded women entrepreneurs. M3 Racers' progress was tracked online through a business growth platform developed specifically for the M3RACE. To help track the M3 Racer's progress, a national Leaderboard announced top performers each quarter. Leaders received business-boosting coaching and publicity consultation, all made possible by Count Me In and American Express OPEN.

"The conventional bootstrapping philosophy that you can go it alone no longer applies in the new normal created by the Great Recession," said Michelle Thompson-Dolberry of American Express OPEN. "All business owners, men and women, need to know the rules have changed, and to thrive in the post-recession economy, they need to employ the strategies and tactics that the Make Mine a Million $ Business preaches every day."

Regular counsel via weekly webinars with business experts in finance, strategy, marketing and human resources proved to be critical to Stevens' success. On the heels of Sarah's victory were two runner ups, each strong contenders who were named as second and third place winners in the 2009 M3RACE. silver key rings DeSantis, the second place finisher, is the owner of Gigi Hill in Yorba Linda, CA. Gabrielle's company designs bags that are high quality, stylish, and functional for a mom's everyday life. Participating in the M3RACE compelled DeSantis to internally track her financial goals and aspirations and in doing so, she took advantage of the Web blogs, videos and stories that were provided through the M3RACE platform.

Certain things have a way of making you feel your age: the realisation that the first lady is your peer, the discovery that several people on the Forbes rich list are younger than you, and biopics made about rock stars whom you remember from when they actually were cheap rings stars.

Joan Jett, who reappeared on the pop culture radar last week thanks to the opening of The Runaways , was more of an icon of mine from her "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" Blackhearts days of 1982 than from the later "Cherry Bomb" era in the film, but still - the shag haircut, dark eye make-up, and leather is inked indelibly into my fashion past. So much so that when I first moved to London I embarrassed myself by (mistakenly) getting a Joan Jett haircut and crying to the stylist in horror, "But you've given me a shag!" Ahem.

In truth, it's never been a look I have sought to emulate; more one that I admired from afar (the closest I came to punk as a teenager were skull earrings and black nail polish).

Which is why, earlier this month, I was surprised to find myself during the Paris fashion shows staring at the leather leggings on Gareth Pugh's catwalk and the tunics at Rick Owens' show. I was equally surprised to experience a desire, after viewing Ann Demeulemeester's collection of warrior queen-wear, to run out and buy some bias-cut floor-length noir-ish skirts. And I consciously had to force myself to stop fondling the leather high-tops with embossed skulls at Lucien Pellat-Finet's showroom. The combination of The Runaways and a tougher global economy producing tougher fashion means the Jett aesthetic is returning to the high street.

But then, as The Runaways demonstrates quite graphically, some things that are appealing are not very good for you (even if you haven't seen the film, you can guess what these are). The question is whether or not punk-inspired fashion falls into this category - at least for the happily settled, professional, grown-up, family woman.

Is the desire for leather leggings and motorcycle boots in middle age a sign of latent mid-life crisis that will be glaringly obvious to everyone, or a natural reaction to the turn of the style cycle? There's a fine line between being embarrassed and being cool. But where, exactly, does it lie?

I ask Pellat-Finet, who says: "You know, I get people who come in who love the skulls, and they are everywhere between 16 and 60. It's really nothing to do with age."

Certainly, Rick Owens and everyone who works with him - many of them well into their forties - wear the full look with impunity. There are public figures, too, who have performed dramatic sartorial about-faces: architect Peter Marino, for example, who went cheap tiffany regulation suits to full-on biker leather about 12 years ago, and interior designer Nicky Haslam, who, during middle age, abandoned tweed for hair dyed not unlike Joan Jett's.

One female fashion editor I know was famous for wearing Ungaro (with all the ruches, frills and colour that implies). But after her divorce she started wearing leather leggings and lots of black eyeliner, and was generally regarded by the male population as totally hot. Who wouldn't want those adjectives attached to themselves?

Besides, whatever Pellat-Finet says, the age of the person wearing the clothes does make a difference: what looks like rebellion on a teenager seems like armour on a grown woman. You can wear leather because you have earned it. The clothes that are part of the current fashion moment are for women who don't really suffer fools. They can't; they have to get to the supermarket the board meeting, or whatever is next on the agenda. It's highly efficient to have all this . . . efficiency conveyed by dress. Or is that wishful thinking?

When it comes to this sort of fashion, as with everything else in a woman's life, you can have it all - but not at the same time. Get the Tao motorcycle boots with the ropes and ropes of studs, but don't wear them with the leather trousers; wear them with the flowing dress, the way retailer Ikram Goldman did during the Paris shows (the time spent waiting around for fashion shows to start is time best spent gathering wardrobe intelligence). Wear a Rick Owens jacket with, well, anything except more leather. That's just asking for fetish jokes.

At a recent dinner one guest was wearing hers with a super-girly Alice Temperley dress, and it looked great. If you want to wear leather leggings, pair them with one of Dries van Noten's terrific patchwork jackets or Celine's starched man's white shirts or Malo's thick ribbed jumpers.

Punk was a visual and aural rebellion against the establishment, and once the establishment has co-opted the accoutrements of the genre, then to break them down and use them as you see fit is the mature version of a counter-revolt. That's what I tell myself anyway. Though I am not sure silver bracelets Ms Jett, who appeared at the premiere of The Runaways in midriff-baring leather vest, leather trousers, and heavy black eyeliner, would see it like that.

Vanessa Friedman is the FT's fashion editor. She interviews Rick Owens in this week's How to Spend It magazine

Credit: By Vanessa Friedman

Tacoma gave new meaning to the usual Mardi Gras celebration when 89 underserved and uninsured women were given access to mammograms on Feb. 16 at the Carol Milgard Breast Center. For many, all ranging in age from 40 to 64, this was their first opportunity for a cheap money clips, due to a lack of health care coverage .

In a fun and non-threatening atmosphere these women -- who otherwise would not have access to this critical component in their own health -- received mammograms, important breast health education and pampering spa treatments.

"It's vital that we keep the importance of breast health awareness at the forefront of women's minds throughout the year, not just during one particular month," says Marcy Parsons, clinical operations director of the Carol Milgard Breast Center. "Given the response we had for this particular event, especially during a month that doesn't have an emphasis on breast health and prevention, it speaks volumes to both the success of the event and to the need for preventative health services within the underserved populations of our community."

This is the second such event held at the cheap necklaces in the past four months; last October over 60 women were assisted by the collaborative efforts of the Breast Cancer Partnership of Tacoma.

"This event brings to life the mission of the Carol Milgard Breast Center, which is providing breast health exams for all, regardless of their financial status," adds Parsons. "We thank each of the members of the Breast Cancer Partnership of Tacoma for their commitment to these women."

The Carol Milgard Breast Center is a collaboration between MultiCare Health System and the Franciscan Health System. It is managed by TRA Medical Imaging.

The Breast Cancer Partnership of Tacoma founding members include the Carol Milgard Breast Center; Franciscan Health System; MultiCare Health System; Breast Cancer Resource Center; Breast and Cervical Health Program of Pierce County; Korean Women's Association; American Cancer cheap pendants of Pierce County; and Puget Sound Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

They have marched through the snow cheap earrings a long winter undefeated, basically unchallenged and universally anointed as the best, perhaps the best ever.

And yet, the bounty means nothing more now than a sweep through the Big East, the nation's top ranking and an NCAA Division I record 72-game winning streak for the UConn women.

For most programs, that would be enough to savor, but not for the Huskies. Their spring awakening comes today at the Ted Constant Convocation Center on the campus of Old Dominion. It's a new day and a new time.

No.1 UConn (33-0) plays 16th-seeded Southern (23-8) in the first round of the Norfolk subregional.

"The way I look at games like this is that the other team is spending their time trying to figure out a way to beat us," Geno Auriemma said. "If I'm right, if I've guessed right, then we'll be ready for it. If I'm not right, then we'll have to improvise on the fly. I don't look at it as if they don't have a chance to beat us. If they don't think they can beat us, it doesn't matter what they do. They are going to lose."

The Jaguars, champions of the SWAC, understand the task is enormous. They can sense those around them sensing doom for a program ranked 190th in the RPI. Until today, Alabama State was its big game.

"These kids have never been to the tournament before, so I am excited for them," Jags coach Sandy Pugh said. "I know they are a little nervous, as well as excited; you are playing the No.1 team, a team on an incredible run that's been incredible for women's basketball. It should be a tough game for us, but we'll do what we have to do."

What the Jaguars need to do is cheap jewelry. They have to develop a strategy to stop a team with two first-team All-Americans, Tina Charles and Maya Moore. They need to figure out how an offense averaging only 59.5 points can stay with the Huskies, who average 81.5.

But mostly, they have to believe it is even possible. UConn's last five first-round opponents have lost by an average of 40.2 points.

"There is always a way to beat a team," Southern junior guard Hannah Kador said.

"It's going to be a good experience for [UConn], too," junior Freda Allen said, "because we intend to play hard."

The Huskies begin the tournament well rested; they haven't played since winning the Big East championship game March 9.

They have solved every mystery thrown their way from the small-and-athletic, to the big-and-physical opponents and have managed to beat each by double figures.

"I don't think we're a better team than we were last year," UConn's Kalana Greene said. "But this team has different goals than last year's team did. You can look back; you can't look forward. You have to stay in the moment,

"But if our guards perform better than the guards on the other team, then we'll be fine. And our guards have done it all year. They have brought everything the team has needed, and I am not expecting anything different now."

The Huskies have become well cheap key rings with playing huge underdogs.

"I'm not sure what it must feel like for [Southern]," UConn guard Caroline Doty said. "I'm sure every team we play is looking for the upset in the NCAA Tournament. So that excites them. They are a quick, athletic team, and they aren't going to back down.

"But if I was playing for them, I would get a good night's sleep, eat right and go as hard as you can because you know that you can be gone after one game."

Credit: The Hartford Courant, Conn.

Mar. 21--Jon Olsen and Samantha Schultz won the men's and women's divisions today in the inaugural Modesto Marathon, which began just after dawn in a flurry of leg-pumping downtown and meandered through city streets and the nearby countryside.

The weather was were nearly perfect for the race, which cheap bangles a few minutes after 7 a.m. with a temperature of 50 degrees and ended at mid-morning in bright sunshine with the temperature in the mid-50s.

Before the race, volunteers used flashlights and lamps as they checked in runners in the dark before dawn.

Story continues below video.

The runners stretched, chatted and posed for photos under the starting line banner.

Hundreds of spectators cheered as astronaut Joe Hernandez of Stockton shouted "blast off" to signal the start of the race.

The elite runners, many of them hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon, led the pack eastbound from the starting line on M Street for the first steps of the 26.2 mile race. Half-marathoners and 5k racers followed.

A festival with music, food and other cheap bracelets greeted the runners and walkers as they sprinted or staggered to the finish at 10th and M streets.

Olsen, in his mid-30s, is from Modesto. He ran the course in 2 hours, 43 minutes, 44 seconds.

Schultz, 29, of Stockton, ran it in 3 hours, 19 minutes, 10 seconds.

Check back later today for more details on the race, and be sure to pick up The Bee and cheap cufflinks to on Monday for more coverage.

Video below shows pre-race activity downtown.

Credit: The Modesto Bee, Calif.

This bivalve-heavy addition to the Mermaid empire -- there are Mermaid Inn restaurants serving a broader seafood palette in the East Village and on the Upper West Side -- packs them in with a smart, successful trick: $1 oysters at the bar from 5:30 to 7 p.m. (Sundays from 5 to tiffany silver pendants p.m.). Located at 79 MacDougal Street, next door to the ever-mysterious Italian Rifle Club, the oyster bar tends to draw a downtown crowd, including four women who recently got their business degrees and now work together at American Express.

IN THE SEATS Members of this year's freshman crop at Amex (managerial track): Shanika Strings, 33; Erin Seo, 27; Jane Gu, 28; and Raiquel Cole, 27.

ON THE PLATES A bicoastal mix of a dozen of the house's finest oysters: two Blue tiffanys (that day's $1 special), two Cherrystones ($1.25 each), two Chef Creeks ($2.50 each), two Hog Islands ($3.15 each), two Wellfleets ($2.75 each) and two Royal Miyagis ($2.25 each.)

WHY THEY CAME Ms. Seo, the group's social coordinator, heard about the $1 special and with the help of Ms. Gu -- her designated attendee at all events -- organized an after-work excursion, especially because there were two oyster virgins in their midst: Ms. Strings, who tends to be the life of the party, and Ms. Cole, who tends to pay. After much anxiety over whether to chew or swallow, Ms. Strings, for one, could not make up her mind. "I've been thinking about it, but I'm just not brave enough," she said.

WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT tiffany oyster etiquette, guys. Ms. Gu was squared away: She got married this summer. Ms. Cole was right behind her: She's been dating some dude from Washington long-distance for the last three years. Which left Ms. Seo ("All of my friends are" -- sigh -- "married except for me") and Ms. Strings (who said with candid humor, "I'm old and still single.") Another dozen, please ...

It is for women only, speed is not the point and no prizes are awarded.

The competitors aim to reach the five to seven daily tiffany silver earrings, marked by red flags in the sandy landscape, while covering the shortest distance. The teams of two -- traveling in four-wheel-drive vehicles and trucks, as well as crossovers, motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles -- have only maps from the 1950s and compasses to guide them. Global positioning systems and cellphones are prohibited.

Last Wednesday, 104 teams that had paid up to 14,350 euros (about $19,500) to register embarked on the roughly 2,500-kilometer trek (about 1,550 miles) from Nejjakh to Foum-Zguid. The competitive part of the rally, which includes parts of the High Atlas mountains and the Sahara, ends Thursday.

The field is open to any woman who wants to test her endurance and navigational skills. Clementine Charles, a 26-year-old Frenchwoman who works in fashion and is competing for the third time, did not even have a driver's license in 2008.

"If it were a professional rally, I wouldn't have any participants," said Dominique Serra, the rally's founder, who is based in Paris.

Serra, 54, never took part in a motor event and has no desire to. She said she started the female rally because "I think women are important."

She added: "I thought, if you put them in a context that isn't their habitual context, I'm sure they'll figure it out and get something out of it. And that's what happens."

The teams search for checkpoints from sunrise to sunset. They eat dinner and sleep at a traveling bivouac. The competitors cannot skip a checkpoint, but they can skip the bivouac, sleep in the desert and try to find the previous day's remaining checkpoints in the morning.

At the bivouac, they are given coordinates for each day's first checkpoint, where they receive the rest of the coordinates for the day. Each team pinpoints locations using topographic 1:100,000 scale maps that are distributed on Day 1. (Two of the legs require two straight days of hunting for flags in the desert.)

"There are some days when girls search 10 hours for Checkpoint 2," Charles said. "You spend one day searching for a flag. You're disgusted."

The lone American team this year comprises Wendy Fisher, 38, a former Olympic skier, and Emily Miller, 43, a professional driver who won her classification in last year's Baja 1,000, an off-road endurance event in Mexico.

"The Baja 1,000 is famous as a very hard race, and it is one of the most known races in the world," Miller said. "But I can tell you that I've never done anything as hard as the Rallye des Gazelles."

Drivers must watch out for traps like melting dunes, in which cars can easily flip over, and witch's eyes, depressions filled with soft sand and bushes from which it is nearly impossible to escape. On rocky terrain, they have to keep a steady grasp on the wheel.

Navigators also need to be physically and mentally sharp. Some days, they spend more time out of the car than in it, running along sandy ridges to direct their drivers. Then they have to stop, take out their compasses and calculate where in the world they tiffany silver keyrings.

"It's a race that you want to do with your brain," said Corentine Quiniou, 27, a professional driver who has competed in the rally seven times and won it for the third time last year. She alternates driving and navigating with Florence Migraine-Bourgnon, 37, who works in communication.

Although most of the rally is conducted in French and receives little attention in the United States, it is covered daily in Europe and North Africa. Teams receive financing from sponsors, like women's magazines, that are foreign to motor sports. Seeing images of Penelope Cruz and Vanessa Paradis zipping around on the sides of 4x4s can be as disorienting as spotting tree-climbing goats in Essaouira.

Only nine teams participated in the inaugural rally in 1990. As the field has grown, it has become more international, with 18 countries -- including Germany, Congo and Cambodia -- now represented.

Competitors have included a top European model, college students and a 65-year-old grandmother. Annick Denoncin of France is participating for the 14th time. But about 70 percent of the competitors are first-timers who come for the adventure and challenge.

"The rally is a trigger," Serra said. "There are women who get divorced when they go home, who get married, who change jobs."

She added: "Completing the rally each day demands a little more force, a little more courage, a little more know-how, and they advance. They totally change their points of reference."

The teams exemplify the rally's slogan, Sharing True Values, by giving one another a hand -- towing a vehicle lodged in a dune or lending fuel and parts -- in a bid to win good karma and allies. Mechanics are available on the course, but calling one tacks on penalty kilometers.

The rally, which offsets all of its carbon dioxide emissions, ends with a formal dinner.

"I brought a really beautiful dress and heels and put them in Ziploc bags and packed them in the tiffany silver notes of my suitcase," Miller said. "They go in the truck with me. I mean, where else can you do a race where you're traveling with a formal dress? This rally takes you from some of the finest events to some of the toughest situations."

She added, "It pushes you to the extremes."

Researchers at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School studied tiffany silver accessories from the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) and compared recorded diagnoses of ovarian cancer against rates in the UK cancer registries to see whether there was a difference in how older patients are managed by their GP. The results are published in the British Journal of Cancer.

The researchers found that during the period 2002-06, GPs were less likely to refer patients for gynaecological investigation when they were older. 82% of women under the age of fifty-five years had received at least one relevant investigation in the year before their diagnosis; this figure fell to 75% for women aged between fifty-five and sixty-nine years, and 66% for women aged over seventy years.

GPs were also found to be slower to refer elderly patients than their middle-aged counterparts. Women aged between forty-five and sixty-nine years tended to be referred for gynaecological investigation within ten weeks of presenting to their GP with their first symptom. This figure steadily increases, peaking at twenty weeks for women aged seventy-five to seventy-nine years.

"Ovarian cancer is a relatively rare disease but, as with all cancers, early diagnosis is important for improving the chances of successful treatment," says Dr Rosemary Tate, lead author of the study. "Our research suggests that age plays a role in how quickly diagnosis and referral occurs - the older the patient, the later this appears to happen.

"As we only looked at one type of cancer, we don't know if our results will generalise to other cancers. However, if this is the case, then such delays could be an important cause of avoidable illness and mortality, and could contribute to the lower survival rates and higher mortality rates experienced in the UK compared with other European countries."

Survival rates for cancer in the UK are amongst the lowest in Europe, particularly for older people (see note 1). Despite significant advances in cancer treatment, these developments seem not to be benefiting older people as much as they could. A comparison of data from the World Health Organization registry database suggests that there has been little or no improvement in cancer mortality rates for the UK elderly during the last decade (see note 2).

The researchers also found that the rates of tiffany silver bangles diagnoses of ovarian cancer in the GPRD were lower than those recorded in UK cancer registries for all age groups. However, these differences were much larger for patients over sixty; for example, for women aged forty-five to fifty, the difference was only 5% as compared with 22% for those between seventy-five and eighty.

The researchers stress that the reasons for the discrepancy between the GP database and the UK cancer registry are not clear, but may be explained in part by how and when data is recorded. Similarly, it may be possible that GPs are less motivated to record cancer diagnoses in older people if they have other serious illnesses, or to investigate them for other problems first.

"Electronic patient records provide a valuable opportunity for disease surveillance and for monitoring and improving," explains Professor Jackie Cassell. "It is important that we understand why there is a discrepancy between rates in the GP databases compared to cancer registries. This will help ensure that the information available to our health services is accurate and fit for purpose."

Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, which owns the British Journal of Cancer, said: "Ovarian cancer symptoms can be vague and suggestive of other, less serious conditions. But it's important that the disease is diagnosed at the earliest possible stage, whether the patient is young or old, as it is then easier to treat and there is a better chance of survival. Ovarian cancer is more common in older women, with four out of five cases in women over 50, so it's concerning if these older women are indeed less likely to be investigated.

"All too often cancer is found at a late stage, which is why we're working with the Department of Health, NHS and others on the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative (NAEDI) to address this problem. These results reinforce the importance of NAEDI's work, which includes raising public awareness of cancer, promoting earlier presentation and supporting doctors with the most up-to-date evidence and decision support."

Keywords: Ehealth, Electronic Patient Record, Gynecology, Medical Device, Oncology, Ovarian Cancer, Ovarian tiffany silver bracelets, Rare Diseases, Women's Health, Wellcome Trust.

This article was prepared by NewsRx Health & Science editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2010, NewsRx Health & Science via VerticalNews.com.

2010 MAR 21 - (VerticalNews.com) -- Among breast cancer patients, surgical removal of the opposite breast is associated with a small increase in 5-year survival, specifically for younger women with early-stage, estrogen-receptor negative tumors, according to a study published tiffany ring February 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

To prevent subsequent breast cancer, some women with cancer in one breast will have the other breast surgically removed. This study was undertaken because it is unknown if this treatment increases a woman's lifespan.

To determine this, Isabelle Bedrosian, M.D., and George J. Chang, M.D., of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and their research team used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, identifying 107,106 women with breast cancer who had undergone mastectomy between 1998 and 2003 and a subset of 8,902 women who also underwent contralateral prophylactic mastectomy during the same period. The associations of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy on breast cancer-specific survival were estimated, with further analyses by age, disease stage, and estrogen receptor status.

Improved breast cancer survival was observed mainly among younger women (aged 18-49 years) with early-stage (I-II), estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. Among this subset of women who comprise < 10% of the study population, contralateral prophylactic mastectomy was associated with a nearly 5% increase in the 5-year breast cancer-specific survival rate, a small improvement, according to the authors. However, for the majority of women with breast cancer, no clear breast-cancer specific survival tiffany rings was observed.

"Our observation that the association between contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and survival is most relevant among young women with early-stage ER-negative breast cancer is consistent with the survival benefit of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy being inversely related to the risk of death from the index cancer and directly related to the cumulative lifetime risk of death from a contralateral breast cancer event," the authors write.

Keywords: Breast Cancer, Breast Carcinoma, Endocrinology, Epidemiology, Estrogen, Hormones, Oncology, Prophylactic tiffany silver, Surgery, Women's Health, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This article was prepared by NewsRx Health & Science editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2010, NewsRx Health & Science via VerticalNews.com.