Cancer Victims

More than 130 people who raised $38,000 in donations took to the track at Ventura High School's Larrabee Stadium this weekend to participate in an all-night walkathon benefiting cancer victims. Relay for Life was a first-time event for the Greater Ventura unit of the American Cancer Society. Thirteen 10-person teams started walking about 6:30 p.m. Friday and stopped at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Justin Bieber has turned to Twitter to express his sorrow over the death of Avalanna Routh -- a 6-year-old who was one of his biggest fans and became a Web sensation, dubbed "Mrs. Bieber," because of her love for the pop star. Bieber, 18, typically uses his Twitter account to promote upcoming performances, or his new "Believe" album, or to retweet the likes of Kim Kardashian and members of his Bieber Army. But Bieber's most recent tweets to his more than 28 million followers tell a different story -- underscoring just how hard-hit he was by news of the death of the little girl from Merrimac, Mass.

Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, in a hurried pre-dawn TV interview, was cut short today by new $750,000-a-year CBS anchorwoman Phyllis George while he tried to reassure "alarmed" cancer victims that his Vitamin C treatment really works. George, who joined "The CBS Morning News" as a regular anchor this week, bowed to network scheduling pressures, told Pauling she had already taken her Vitamin C to ward off a cold, then broke off the interview after just under three minutes.

For American smokers, her portrait is a glimpse of a future frightening to ponder and, for U.S. health officials, perhaps too powerful to foist on the public: an unsparing photograph of a person scarcely recognizable as a woman, her body wasted by cancer, her hair gone, her blue eyes fixed in a thousand-mile stare. She was Barb Tarbox, and she died on May 18, 2003, of lung cancer at the age of 42. From October 2002, two months after she was diagnosed, to the moment of her death, the Edmonton, Canada, homemaker set about making her ordeal a lesson to others about the dangers of smoking.

The Proposition 128 campaign began airing a gut-wrenching television commercial Wednesday that features two cancer victims, one of them a bald, 4-year-old girl who tells viewers, "I can't vote but you can." Backers of the environmental initiative hope the emotional appeal from actress Tracy Nelson, who stars in television's "Father Dowling's Mysteries," and little Colette Chuda will provide the boost they need to win the election Tuesday. "I had cancer three years ago.

When Selma Schimmel discovered a lump in her breast at the age of 28, she was horrified. Her mother and an uncle had just died of cancer within the previous two years, and her grandmother had died of the disease before that. She wasted no time visiting her physician, who informed her that she was too young to have breast cancer. Later, a gynecologist and radiologist echoed that statement.

A group of cancer victims and their families has sued IBM Corp., alleging that the computer company's San Jose plant exposed employees to fatal levels of cancer-causing chemicals for some three decades, a lawyer for the group said Monday. Amanda Hawes said the suit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court last week also named several other companies that make the chemicals used by International Business Machines Corp., including Shell Oil Co. and Union Carbide Corp.

My compliments to The Times' editors for placing Jim Schachter's article about workplace discrimination against cancer victims in the business section. The article should offer some enlightenment to employers who are biased against cancer victims. Only through such reporting will the world of business begin to utilize these very capable people. What hope does a victim of any disease have of getting back to a normal life when all that awaits is frustrating job discrimination? How can an employer hire a person with a history of cancer when such an action could jeopardize the business' group health coverage?

We've been conditioned to believe that there's no grimmer world than cancer. That is the case for many of its victims. However, the mood is refreshingly upbeat in a KHJ-TV Channel 9 documentary at 8 p.m. Sunday called "Is There Life After Cancer?" The answer is yes. Hosted by Richard Crenna, produced by Bobby Conlan and Ridge Conlan and written by co-producer Ed Parker, the hourlong program is a recital of success stories from cancer victims now living relatively normal lives.

Matthew Morrison of "Glee," Teri Hatcher of "Desperate Housewives," Wayne Brady of "Let's Make a Deal" and Eric McCormack of "Will & Grace" are scheduled to perform at a "Broadway Tonight!" fundraising event Oct. 4 for weSPARK , a Sherman Oaks-based cancer support center. Others on the bill at the Alex Theatre in Glendale include Michael Chiklis, Megan Hilty, Randy Jackson, Camryn Manheim, Marc Cherry, Adam Pascal and Alonzo Bodden. Proceeds will benefit weSPARK, founded by the late actress Wendie Jo Sperber to provide free support services to cancer victims and their families.

Matthew Morrison of "Glee," Teri Hatcher of "Desperate Housewives," Wayne Brady of "Let's Make a Deal" and Eric McCormack of "Will & Grace" are scheduled to perform at a "Broadway Tonight!" fundraising event Oct. 4 for weSPARK , a Sherman Oaks-based cancer support center. Others on the bill at the Alex Theatre in Glendale include Michael Chiklis, Megan Hilty, Randy Jackson, Camryn Manheim, Marc Cherry, Adam Pascal and Alonzo Bodden. Proceeds will benefit weSPARK, founded by the late actress Wendie Jo Sperber to provide free support services to cancer victims and their families.

Two bills making their way through the Legislature have the support of many Californians as a legitimate way to help ease the state's budget crisis while also discouraging smoking. One would raise the tobacco tax by $1.50 a pack, and the other would increase it by $2.10. The justification for the tax increase is the negative effect smoking has on public health. I do not object to a tobacco tax. Yet little, if any, of the revenue generated under these bills would actually go toward lung cancer research for early detection and a cure.

In 2005, veteran Los Angeles County firefighter Crystal Golden-Jefferson died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At first her death was a mystery: The 41-year-old Inglewood mother had always prided herself on her fitness. But now Jefferson's parents believe long-term exposure to brominated chemicals used as flame retardants in household furniture foam caused their daughter's death. Studies show that when burned, such compounds convert to brominated dioxin. Firefighters inhale the fumes and are exposed through soot contact with the skin.

Re "Ashcroft Wants Oregon Suicide Law Blocked," Nov. 10: President Bush and the religious conservatives should leave the "death with dignity" debate alone. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer three years ago, my mother rapidly declined from an active 58-year-old businesswoman to a helpless victim of paralysis as the cancer spread to her brain. Confined to a bed without control of her arms, legs, bladder or bowels, she cried out every day for us or her nurses to put an end to her misery.

Re "A Son Crusades for Mom," Feb. 11: Physicians at Kaiser Permanente acted responsibly by referring Zevart Yedalian to the City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center, to be considered for an autologous stem cell transplant. Kaiser Permanente had no role in establishing or applying the criteria for the City of Hope's clinical trials involving autologous stem cell transplantation. The City of Hope clinical investigators decided upon the specific criteria that needed to be met in order to ensure patient safety while attempting to determine whether in fact this unproven treatment had clinical benefit.

A unit of giant British American Tobacco has admitted destroying thousands of internal documents, leading an Australian court to award damages to a lung cancer victim on grounds she was prevented from getting a fair trial. The verdict Thursday, involving the biggest case of document destruction acknowledged by a tobacco company, is likely to trigger a surge in smoker lawsuits in Australia, along with deeper scrutiny of cigarette makers' document retention policies worldwide.

The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life will be held at four Orange County campuses Friday night and Saturday morning, with volunteers competing in track events to raise money for cancer research and camping out overnight. Participants and their families will gather at 7 p.m. Friday. Competitors will walk, run, jog, crawl and roll around a track at each site to earn contributions pledged by sponsors. Each individual is asked to raise at least $100 in pledges.

Two bills making their way through the Legislature have the support of many Californians as a legitimate way to help ease the state's budget crisis while also discouraging smoking. One would raise the tobacco tax by $1.50 a pack, and the other would increase it by $2.10. The justification for the tax increase is the negative effect smoking has on public health. I do not object to a tobacco tax. Yet little, if any, of the revenue generated under these bills would actually go toward lung cancer research for early detection and a cure.

About 50 people attended a rally Saturday in support of those who believe they received diluted chemotherapy drugs from a local pharmacist. Patients who may have gotten the drugs have had to cope with the realization that the treatment they were counting on to beat their cancer may have been mostly saltwater. Robert Courtney, 48, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he misbranded and adulterated the drugs. Federal authorities have said he admitted diluting the drugs to increase his profits.

A Los Angeles lung cancer victim has agreed to a record $100-million damage award against cigarette maker Philip Morris, rather than seeking an even larger possible verdict in a new trial. Richard Boeken, 57, announced Tuesday his approval of the massive award, reduced from $3 billion by a Los Angeles judge earlier this month. His attorney, Michael Piuze, filed his client's consent in Superior Court late Monday, four days before the court's deadline for his decision.