Sheryl Crow says has benign brain tumour

LOS ANGELES: Grammy-winning US singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow has been diagnosed with a benign brain tumour, she said in comments published on Tuesday.

The country-pop star, who survived breast cancer diagnosed in 2006, said doctors found the tumour in November, after she had a brain scan because she was concerned about memory loss.

"I worried about my memory so much that I went and got an MRI (scan). And I found out I have a brain tumour," she told the Las Vegas Revue Journal newspaper. "And I was, like, 'See? I knew there was something wrong.'"

"I haven't really talked about it," she said. "In November, I found out I have a brain tumour. But it's benign, so I don't have to worry about it," added the 50-year-old.

The singer recalled how she forgot part of her hit "Soak Up the Sun" on stage in Florida last month, using an expletive to tell the crowd: "I'm 50, what can I say? My brain's gone to ..."

But she told the newspaper: "I have a history of forgetting my lyrics," relating one time in the 1990s when she forgot the intro to "A Change Would Do You Good."

"Not only could I not remember the first line, I couldn't remember the first line to any of the verses... I started laughing so hard! And I looked over at my guitar player, and he's bent over ..."

Crow, whose hits also include "All I Wanna Do" and "Leaving Las Vegas," was engaged to cyclist Lance Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer before going on to win the Tour de France seven times consecutively.

The couple dated from 2003 and announced their engagement in 2005, but split shortly before she was diagnosed with breast cancer the following year. She overcame it with minor surgery and radiation therapy.

In May 2007, she announced that she had adopted a two-week old baby boy, named Wyatt Steven after her father and brother. She adopted another boy, named Levi James Crow, in 2010, according to media reports.

Crow has won nine Grammys, including best new artist and best female pop vocal and record of the year in 1994 for "All I Wanna Do," and best female rock vocal in 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2002.

She touched others with her strength

SINGAPORE - She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and doctors gave her only months to live.

Three times she proved them wrong, tackling the disease head-on with a grace that proved inspirational to everyone around her, including her three young daughters.

On Thursday morning, five years after she was first diagnosed, Ms Evelyn Teo Swee Lin's battle with the disease finally ended.

The 39-year-old died in Assissi Hospice, with husband Alan Yong and daughters Sarah, 12, Nicole, 10, and Vera, seven, by her side.

On Friday, at her wake at Eastwood Terrace, Mr Yong, 41, told The New Paper how his wife's blog (evelynfeels.blogspot.com) had inspired many.

Readers would comment that they were touched by her strength and faith, and that they learnt to cherish what they had in life.

The regional IT director for a UK company said: "They became her close personal friends. Some were cancer patients too, and she would visit them."

Ambassador 

Ms Teo, an ex-IT project manager, spoke openly about her illness through her blog, as a presenter with the Catholic marriage enrichment programme and as an ambassador of a National Healthcare Group (NHG) health awareness campaign.

Even while she was touching other people's lives, Ms Teo didn't forget about her loved ones.

Mr Yong spoke fondly about how he and his wife started writing love notes to each other in 2008, when they joined the Catholic programme Marriage Encounter.

The couple later became presenters for the programme.

Mr Yong has about 11 books filled with these notes. Ms Teo even kept a book each for their daughters.

The couple would pen their thoughts at the same time before exchanging books. And they would share excerpts with others at the marriage programme.

"Through her cancer experience, she was able to draw out what our struggles were as a couple," said Mr Yong.

"There were struggles with chemotherapy, end-of-life issues..."

The couple had been discussing such issues for a long time, Mr Yong said.

"But as the time draws nearer, emotion takes over. Things you talk about while your wife is healthy are different when she's sick."

Mr Yong said his wife was a determined person who lived her life in the manner she wanted.

She even planned her wake - for example, on how she would be clad in her favourite Nonya dress.

Mr Yong said he was making good on her request to have a rock band at her wake: the band will play her favourite songs on Sunday, including songs from Snow Patrol and Coldplay.

The band request was just one item on Ms Teo's bucket list, a catalogue of things to do before you die, drawn up when the couple found out in 2009 that her cancer had returned after a year and had spread to her lungs.

Another item on the list was a trip to Europe: Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Paris and Lourdes.

Said Mr Yong: "Doctors said she had six months to live, so we left the kids with our parents and went for the trip of our lives."

Since the couple only had a simple ceremony when they were married in 1999, their friends threw them a big church party to fulfil a third item: To be married in church.

Life as a couple aside, Ms Teo kept busy in her last years.

In 2010, she was approached by NHG to be an ambassador for its "Caring It Forward" campaign, in support of people passing on good health practices.

Photos of Ms Teo and her family were put up around MRT stations and she was interviewed on radio and television talk shows.

She also contributed a recipe to the Nanyang Technological University's "Sharing Plates" cookbook project, which contains anecdotes and recipes for cancer patients.

Mr Yong said that his wife had prepared their daughters well for her death.

Said Mr Yong: "We didn't hide the truth from them, but said it in a way they would understand.

"As for her projects, Mummy did them as deposits into the memory of her children."

He added: "To achieve what she did within a short period of time was amazing. For me, I was proud and privileged to have married her.

"All I did was go along for the ride."

Regular screening, early diagnosis important

From 2006 to 2010, 51,657 cases of cancer were diagnosed among Singapore residents.

Of these, 25,087 (48.6 per cent) affected men and 26,570 (51.4 per cent) women, while 12,680 men and 10,243 women died from the disease.

Colorectal cancer was the most common cancer in men, but lung cancer had the highest mortality rate. For women, breast cancer was the most common and had the highest mortality rates.

Dr Wong Seng Weng, medical director and consultant medical oncologist at The Cancer Centre, said the three top cancers for which screening is encouraged are breast cancer, cervical cancer and colorectal cancer.

As many as eight out of 10 breast cancer cases may be completely cured if diagnosed early, he said.

Ministry of Health recommends women to start screening for breast cancer when they reach 40. A mammogram is recommended every two years for women 50 years and above.

Men and women 50 years and older are advised to go for regular screening for colorectal cancer, through either a screening colonoscopy every 10years, or an annual stool analysis.

Women should also be screened for cervical cancer, said Dr Wong. Sexually active women above 25 years old should go for pap smears every three years, the Ministry of Health recommends.

Asians' breast cancer risk different:Study

Major local study shows using Western model overestimates risk here

A large local study here spanning more than a decade has revealed some startling results: Asian women do not face the same risk of getting breast cancer as women in the West.

Those who have a close relative with this type of cancer are twice as likely to get it, compared with a Westerner. But Asians with no such family history have only half the risk.

So a Singapore woman with a mother, sister or daughter with breast cancer is four times more likely to get it too, compared with someone with no such family history. This appears to be the case across the three major races here.

Background story

Key findings

• A Singapore woman with a mother, sister or daughter with breast cancer is four times more likely to get it too, compared with someone with no such family history. This appears to be the case across the three major races here.
• The study also found that women who had their first period before the age of 12, have had a breast biopsy and had their first child after the age of 30 were at higher risk. Those who have never borne children are also generally at higher risk than those who have.

Previously, based on the Western yardstick, those with family history were thought to have double the risk.

Some vegetables improve breast cancer survival: Study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Chinese women who ate cabbage, broccoli and leafy greens saw improved survival rates after breast cancer than women who did not eat these cruciferous vegetables, said an United States study presented on Tuesday.

The findings came from data on 4,886 Chinese breast cancer survivors aged 20 to 75 who were diagnosed with stage one to stage four breast cancer from 2002 to 2006 and who were part of the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival study.

Women who ate more cruciferous vegetables over the 36 months following their diagnosis saw their risk of dying from any cause decrease by 27 per cent to 62 per cent compared to women who reporting eating little or none of these veggies.

The risk of dying of breast cancer decreased by 22 to 62 per cent for the cruciferous veggie eaters, and their chance of experiencing a recurrence of breast cancer dropped by 21 to 35 per cent.

Light drinkers have higher breast cancer risk, says study

WASHINGTON: Light to moderate alcohol drinkers have an increased risk of breast cancer compared to women who do not drink beer, wine or liquor, said a US study published on Tuesday.

Women who drink three to six glasses of alcohol per week have a 15 percent higher risk of getting breast cancer than women who do not drink, said the research led by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Women who drink on average two glasses daily of alcohol show a 51 percent higher risk of breast cancer, said the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers followed 105,986 women who answered survey questions about their health and alcohol consumption from 1980 until 2008.

The higher breast cancer risk was seen whether the women drank early in life or whether they were drinking after age 40, suggesting that even stopping may not have an effect on lowering risk.

The findings also present a dilemma for women who may choose to drink small amounts of alcohol, such as red wine, for heart health.

"There are no data to provide assurance that giving up alcohol will reduce breast cancer risk," said an accompanying editorial by Steven Narod, a doctor at the Women's College Research Institute, Toronto.

"Women who abstain from all alcohol may find that a potential benefit of lower breast cancer risk is more than offset by the relinquished benefit of reduced cardiovascular mortality associated with an occasional glass of red wine," he wrote.

The study authors said that the reason for the boost in breast cancer risk remains unknown, but hypothesised that it could be due to the elevation of sex hormones circulating in a woman's system after she drinks alcohol.