Cover story:

Women and Living with Breast Cancer Today
A decade ago, a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer was tantamount to a death sentence. But now, thanks to a new arsenal of more powerful drugs and other easier-to-bear treatments, as well as better diagnosis and screening tools, women with breast cancer are living longer and living well. "Today, we're all about having people live well, have a good quality of life and be able to manage a normal lifestyle even while they're in the midst of treatment," says Funmi Olopade, MD, a breast cancer specialist and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Meanwhile, researchers are hard at work on breast cancer vaccines and tools that can accurately pinpoint a woman's individual risk for breast cancer long before it develops. Full story

Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer
There are clear racial divides among African-American women and Caucasian women when it comes to breast cancer. Even though the incidence of breast cancer in African-American women is lower than in white women, overall death rates are significantly higher. Numerous factors are at work, say experts. Full story

Reconstruction After Mastectomy
For women who've had a mastectomy and want breast reconstruction there are several options today: breast implants, which involve surgical implantation of a saline or silicone-gel-filled envelope under the chest muscle, and autologous breast reconstruction, in which a woman's own tissue, fat and, in most instances, muscle, are used to create a new breast. One woman talks about her experience with a new type of breast reconstruction technique, called the DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) flap, which uses fat and tissue - but not muscle - from the abdomen to shape a realistic-looking and feeling breast. Full story