Bif Naked Photo © Getty Images/Mark Mainz

Bif Naked says women should, "feel your boobs, basically" so they can be aware of their breast health.  The Canadian punk rock singer/songwriter found a breast lump while doing a breast self-exam not long after her wedding.  A biopsy revealed breast cancer for the then 36-year old musician.

Bif Naked is more than back - recovered from 13 months of treatments for breast cancer.  Naked joined a speaker's bureau and since then, has spoken at at the Awareness Day for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, and more recently for the British Columbia's Cancer Agency.  Now 39, Bif Naked tells her survivor story, sharing how she made it through a lumpectomy, chemo with Herceptin, and radiation.  She developed a blood clot, a staph infection, hair loss, and severe fatigue, but kept going, even writing songs while resting in bed.  Writing in her blog, she said, "Yeah...I was nervous and pretty self-conscious about my speaking stuff this week....primarily because I simply wanted to do a good job."  Apparently Bif Naked did a great job, because Dr. Frances Wong of the B.C. Cancer Agency said afterward that "She takes the scare out of people and reminds people the importance of being aware of your body."

The Canadian punk rocker kept busy despite surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation - with all the attendant side effects.  She put together  a new album, The Promise and released it in May 2009, about a year and a half after her diagnosis.  Her last CD was titled Superbeautifulmonster and was followed by a two-year world tour.  Bif - born Beth Torbert in India - was put up for adoption and raised by American missionaries.  The family eventually moved to Canada, where she attended college and started her music career.  Naked sports quite a collection of tattoos - and says that her favorite tattoo says "Survivor."  I think that expresses so much about her that is important and telling.  Bif Naked is a survivor in many ways, summed up on her FaceBook page, "it is not in my being to let ANYTHING stop me."

Knitted Breast Prosthesis Photo © Marte

Airport Security agents instructed flight attendant Cathy Bossi to remove her breast prosthesis and show it to them. The seasoned stewardess was given a pat-down after choosing not to do the full-body scan because of her concerns about extra radiation. Bossi told the TSA screener, "It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer." Flight attendants and passengers on airlines will be screened by scanners, hand-held wands, and metal detectors before entering airport boarding areas, in an effort to boost security. But should we also be touched during a pat-down, and required to remove and display substitute body parts? I can't wait for the Transportation Security Administration to include pilots - now excluded from the screenings - to remove dentures, toupees, hearing aids, shoes, pacemakers, infusion ports, personal electronics, and after that - be subjected to a full hands pat-down.  When that happens, you will hear howling in the friendly skies!

Not long after the 9/11 attack on the  World Trade Center, while I was in chemo, I was pulled aside and given extra attention by a TSA screener doing random checks.  I was wearing my blond "cheerleader hair" wig, because I was bald, and had an infusion port under the skin on my right arm as well as a magnet inside my tissue expander, being used for breast reconstruction.  These were not the days of the full hands-on pat-down - the screener used the backs of her hands to gently slide across my arms, and only the expander magnet lit up on her hand-held wand.  This gal was well-trained and experienced.  When she came to the port bump on my arm, she asked me to roll up my sleeve, did a visual check and asked, "Shunt or port?"  She glanced at my wig, told me it was nice, and didn't ask me to slip it off.  I was worried because "Samantha" had metal clips inside her for custom fitting.  Then we came to the magnet in my tissue expander - something she had not encountered before.  I explained what it was for - so the plastic surgeon could find the valve during expansion treatments.  The screener asked if I could remove that magnet and show it to her.  I considered how to reply and came up with, "No, not without some surgery!"  That satisfied her, and relieved me.

There are millions of breast cancer survivors, many of whom will want to fly during the holiday seasons.  A good many survivors are wearing one or two breast prosthesis - some of which are handmade, or commercial models, or fully detailed custom replications of their missing breast.  While I don't think it will come to putting our prostheses in the gray trays and buckets at the airport scanner stations - in order to avoid a pat-down exam - you might consider what you can do to keep your modesty and pass inspection at the same time.  Meanwhile, I wish the TSA would train their screeners on how to respectfully work with passengers and flight attendants - and pilots, someday! - that have removable body parts.  Breasts are not the only items that can be worn as prosthetics, and this issue of how to treat us will not go away.  Please, TSA, come up with good training and respectful policies for dealing with travelers.  Otherwise, the trains, busses, and cars will start to look like better options.  That's just good business policy - if you want to keep our business.

• Airline Travel During Chemotherapy
• Packing Your Wig For Travel
• Be A Smart Patient At The Airport
• Free Air Travel During Breast Cancer Treatment

Have you had problems getting through airport security during your treatment?  Leave your story or comment here.

Rosie O'Donnell Photo © Getty Images/PeterKramer

It's always great to get a negative result - if you're talking about a breast biopsy.  Rosie O'Donnell got to write "CANCER FREE" in her blog yesterday afternoon, upon finding out that her breast lumps turned out to be benign.  The comedienne and former View moderator was ten when she lost her 39-year old mother to breast cancer. So it's very understandable that O'Donnell, now 48, was worried about the results of her breast biopsies.  The openly lesbian Emmy winner was just 30 when she first had a breast lump removed.

O'Donnell is an outspoken celebrity that has lampooned Donald Trump, Danny DiVito, and former president George Bush.  Aware that many people want to see what she will say, and relating to other women anticipating biopsy results, she blogged, "And I see the faces of the women in the waiting room... praying they too got good news today."

What else could Rosie O'Donnell do, to lower her risk of breast cancer?  Her risks are:  family history of breast cancer, extra weight, approaching menopause, lack of regular exercise, and perhaps diet.  Some risks you are born with - if your mother had breast cancer, there's nothing you can do to change that.  But she could get a personal trainer, work out on a regular schedule, clean up her diet  and nutrition plan, and drop some pounds.  Make that lots of pounds, because as we age, our extra body fat stores estrogen - the hormone that fuels 80% of all breast cancer tumors.

O'Donnell has her own radio show now - so she could be wearing a muumuu to work if she wants to.  Her appearance is not the issue, and not the reason she might like to make some healthy life changes.  If she wants to live out a good example of her life before her kids, she could heed the medical warnings her body has given her.  She co-wrote a book on breast cancer, "Bosom Buddies: Lessons and Laughter on Breast Health and Cancer"- but she didn't write the medical content.  Instead, she jokingly supplied replies to serious questions which required serious answers.

I know what I would say to Rosie O'Donnell right now, if I could.  She has an opportunity here to become a leader, a spokesperson, an educator, and a myth-buster.  She could be setting a world-wide example of how to have fun while becoming healthier.  What a great legacy to leave to her kids!  What advice would you give Rosie?

Halaven (eribulin mesylate) has been approved by the FDA for metastatic breast cancer treatment.  Halaven is made by Eisai Inc. and can be used to treat late-stage breast cancer in patients who have already taken two previous chemo regimes.  If a metastatic breast cancer patient has already been treated with an anthracycline - such as Adriamycin, and a taxane - such as Taxol, they can qualify for treatment with Halaven.  This new drug is not a taxane, but is a synthetic version of halichondrin B, which occurs naturally in a marine sponge - Halichondria okadai.

Halaven passed a Phase 3 clinical trial called EMBRACE (Eisai Metastatic Breast Cancer Study Assessing Physician's Choice Versus Eribulin).  The EMBRACE trial showed that metastatic breast cancer patients who took Halaven lived an average of 2.5 months longer than those who were treated with a different drug chosen by their physician.  762 patients participated in the Halaven clinical trial.   "Many women with metastatic breast cancer see their disease progress after receiving multiple therapies," said Linda Vahdat, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the Iris Cantor Women's Health Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. "Now, with the approval of Halaven, we can offer a new option that has been shown to improve survival in women with metastatic disease."

This new drug does come with a price - side effects of Halaven treatment include:  neutropenia, anemia, fatigue, hair loss, peripheral neuropathy, nausea and constipation.  Patients who tried Halaven but decided to stop taking this drug cited discomfort from peripheral neuropathy as their reason.  Other patients complained of severe fatigue or severe neutropenia - sometimes accompanied by fever.  Halaven has a small risk of causing irregular heartbeats, so heart patients who try this drug should be monitored.  For patients who have liver and/or kidney problems, a lower than average dose of Halaven should be used.

Halaven in made in Japan by Eisai Inc. and will not be available in the United States until around November 25, 2010.  If you qualify for Halaven treatment but need help paying for it, the company has a Patient Assistance Program you can call at 1-866-61-EISAI between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.