Hmm. Now the University of Michigan has found that certain women with estrogen-positive breast tumors were not helped by the vile chemo drug Taxol. These women had tumors that did not express a protein called HER-2. This is a crude rendering of the findings, which you can read about more...

Waiting for the L train today I saw a guy in a very dark suit, white shirt, red tie with diagonal red and white stripes. Something odd about his outfit -- so very severe, formal and self-conscious. He had opened a black leather folder to reveal a list, handwritten on...

Last night I was walking home from the L, toward Wrigley Field , just as the Chicago Cubs game was letting out. There were crowds on the street and sidewalk walking toward me. As I got near our place, I started to get vigilant. We've had problems with...

After my latest chemo session I saw a baby bird, almost naked, curled up, on the sidewalk. My husband, L., and his friend, R., was with us. L. said the kindest thing would be to kill it, but none of us could bring ourselves to stomp it to death. We...

I went to a funeral today, my third in the past year. In Jewish law, one of the best things you can do for someone is help with the burial, because that person can never pay you back. I knew of the custom of the assembled people lining up to...

I was going to write about fashion and art and whimsy (and death and depression and cancer) inspired by the obit page, but then I read something really scary and important on The New York Times front page. It's about doctors being paid ("rebates") to prescribe and administer anti-anemia...

Because she might die.

Because she didn't find her lump in 2004 until it was the size of a half dollar.

I hate her because she smiles. She smiles and she is dying, the cancer is in her bones, it is eating in her bones, and though there are drugs...

I teach creative writing at the university level and since Wednesday morning I've thought about how I would have reacted if I'd had Cho Seung-Hui in a creative writing class. Famed poet Nikki Giovanni did. He was silent in her intro class, hiding behind sunglasses and a hat, turning in...