Many of us have heard of Geraldine Ferraro, who ran with Walter Mondale in a failed U.S. presidential bid in the 1980s. What you may not know is that Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma almost a decade ago.

Today, she is living a full life and has seen her cancer go into remission after being given not that long to live when her cancer was first discovered. She gives credit to the Velcade drug, which controls the blood cancer she has without the nasty side effects that can come from traditional chemotherapy.

Velcade was not available when Ferraro was first diagnosed, but she swears by it now, saying that her cancer is "a chronic disease instead of a death sentence." The one thing that concerns Ferraro is the cost, since each Velcade injection costs $1,000 -- putting it out of the reach of many Americans (and others).

Keyboardist and songwriter Richard Bell, one-time member of Janis Joplin's band, died one June 15 of multiple myeloma in a Toronto hospital. He was 61.

Bell, who began playing with Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band in 1970, was diagnosed with cancer one year ago. He received intensive treatment and made a comeback, despite his poor prognosis. This past spring, however, his cancer returned.

Bell is also known for his musical work with artists such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joe Walsh, Paul Butterfield, The Cowboy Junkies, Bruce Cockburn, and Bonnie Raitt. His most recent gig was with the Toronto jazz and blue group Pork Bellies Futures.

He is survived by his mother, his sister, and his nieces and nephews.

Former Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Vern Ruhle died Saturday after a year-long battle with myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. He was 55.

Ruhle, who missed the entire 2006 season following his diagnosis, had recently undergone stem cell transplants in hopes the procedures would successfully treat his cancer. But complications of the disease rendered the attempts unsuccessful.

Ruhle served 12 years as a major league pitching coach and worked in Houston, Philadelphia, and New York before joining the Reds in 2004. He had a career record of 67-88 with a 3.73 ERA.

Ruhle is survived by his wife, Sue, his daughter, Rebecca, his son, Kenny -- and his Cincinnati Reds family.

"The baseball and Cincinnati Reds families mourn the loss of an excellent coach, wonderful husband, and loving father," the Reds said in a statement. "In his 35 years in professional and collegiate baseball, Vern touched many people inside and outside the game. We are privileged to have been a part of his life. He will be greatly missed."

The two drugs Velcade (bortezomib) and Revlimid (lenalidomide) are designed to treat the bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma. A Phase I clinical trial has shown that the drugs may be more effective together than when used individually.

The trial was led by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. It included 38 patients who had their cancer recur despite other therapies. The patients were divided into groups that received successively higher doses of Velcade and Revlimid. Some patients also received the drug dexamethasone which can add to the anticancer effects of these two drugs.

Fifty-eight percent has responded to the combined treatment, six percent achieved complete remission. Researcher Dr. Paul Richardson said in a prepared statement "We are hopeful that this combination will prove to be a key therapeutic backbone in improving outcomes for our patients, both early and later in the course".

Emmy award-winning actor and curmudgeonly patriarch of Everybody Loves Raymond Peter Boyle, who recovered from a stroke almost two decades ago, passed away last night after a battle with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow.

On Everybody Loves Raymond, Boyle played the inflexible, narrow-minded, and often abrasive yet somehow lovable Frank Barone, whose signature "holy crap" comment to so many family events and his own antics made the character most memorable.

Boyle began his acting career in theater, going on to appear in movies such as Young Frankenstein, Johnny Dangerously, While You Were Sleeping, Monster's Ball, Malcolm X, Taxi Driver and most recently as Father Time in Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.

Boyle is survived by his wife Loraine and daughters Lucy and Amy. He was 71.

The drug sildenafil, better known as Viagra has been shown in mice to support the immune system's response to cancer cells. Mice with colon and breast tumors showed that the tumor size decreased two and threefold when treated with sildenafil compared with the mice that did not receive the drug. The researchers also believe that they have evidence that sildenafil is effective on the immune system because in mice engineered to lack an immune system the tumors were unaffected. Tissue samples taken from head and neck cancer and multiple myeloma patients showed similar results.

Viagra is a class of drugs used to treat impotence. It is known to stimulate nitric oxide which hinder the effects of a specialized cell that can divert the immune system away from the tumor. The researchers are trying to figure out how cancer cells can avoid detection by the immune system. T-cells that mount the attack on cancer cells are manipulated by the cancer cells and prevent them from being seen by the immune system. Viagra can unmask the cancer cells and let the immune system recognize and attack them.

The treatment combination of Revlimid (lenalidomide), Oncovin (vincristine), Doxil (pegylated doxorubicin) and dexamethasone appears to be highly effective in multiple myeloma that has recurred or progressed following prior therapies.

According to an article published in the Annals of Oncology, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic conducted a clinical trial to evaluate this combination of drugs. The trial included 62 patients, 75 percent of the patients achieved an anticancer response and 29 percent of patients achieved a complete or near complete disappearance of detectable cancer.

The researchers note that determining treatment choices for those patients who recur after initial therapy is more challenging than treating patients that have not received prior therapy. Multiple myeloma is usually treated with chemotherapy -- however -- new treatments are evolving that are better tolerated, especially in older patients who cannot handle aggressive chemotherapy. The researchers continue to evaluate strategies in order to offer patients individualized treatment options.

The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has opened a new clinical study today using a vaccine strain of the measles virus to attack recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The Mayo Clinic's research has grown from the most basic laboratory science to the sophisticated therapy being tested today on several tumor types, including GBM, recurrent ovarian cancer and multiple myeloma.

The study is designed to test the safety of the virus for the treatment of gliomas and enable monitoring of anti-tumor activity. Eligible candidates for the therapy will have GBM that has progressed after surgery and radiation therapy. They also must be immune to measles, either having had the disease or been vaccinated against it.

Many cancer cells, including glioblastoma cells, overexpress a specific protein which allows tumor cells to avoid destruction by the immune system. Strains of the measles virus seek out this protein and enter the tumor. When it enters the virus begins to spread infecting nearby tumor cells which increases cancer cell death.

Back in the1970's it was noted that measles infections could cause regression of cancer tumors in children. Nothing was done about studying this phenomenon until late in the 1990's when the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center's Molecular Medicine Program began looking into it. The researchers are now also looking at ways to use the measles virus to combat breast and pancreatic cancer, they already have plans to open up another clinic study this fall to test the effectiveness of a version of the measles virus on multiple myeloma.

Actress Mariska Hargitay lost her father on Thursday to multiple myeloma. Mickey Hargitay, the 1955 Mr. Universe, Mr. America, Mr. Olympia, and one-time husband of late sex symbol Jayne Mansfield died at the age of 80 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Born Miklos Hargitay in Hungary, Mickey emigrated to the United States after World War II. Here he entered the world of bodybuilding and then landed a role in Mae West's Las Vegas Revue. Mansfield, who saw the show in 1956, married Hargitay in 1958 -- and the two later had daughter Mariska and two other children. Mansfield and Hargitay divorced in 1964 -- and Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.

Family members shared in a statement to the media, "words cannot express how saddened we are by the loss of Mickey. At the same time, we are so grateful for who he was and is to all of us, and for the love he gave us in our lives. He will continue to be our source of inspiration and strength."

Hargitay, also know for a few Hercules-style movies, is survived by his wife of 38 years, Ellen, a daughter, a stepdaughter, two sons, a brother, a sister, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

I found a book called Cancer Etiquette. The book was written by a woman who is a survivor of multiple myeloma and breast cancer. In this manners guide to cancer you can find advice on what to say to a cancer patient and what not to say. For example, only say "you look terrific" if the person really does look terrific.

The author Rosanne Kalick also tells us that we should be more specific when offering help to a cancer patient. Don't just say that you're there for them. Offer to do something tangible like cook a meal or baby-sit the kids. Rosanne talks about the distressing comments sometimes said to cancer patients and offers helpful advice on what should be said instead.

This book would be very helpful to caregivers, friends or family members of loved ones dealing with a life threatening illness.

I wrote another post a few days ago called Things not to say to a cancer patient. Well, here are some great things that were said to me when I was going through my cancer journey. These things helped tremendously!

• I will drive you to your chemo treatment.
• Here is some dinner I made for you and your husband.
• I would love to go wig shopping with you.
• Call me any time and I'll be here to talk.
• You still look beautiful to me bald.
• Here are some xanax!
• Can I give you a foot rub?
• Sure, I can take your nipple off and move it to where it belongs (plastic surgeon).
• I'll drive 2 hours to your house and go with you and stay while you get your breast biopsy and wait for the results.
• Hang in there.
• I love you.

Ralph Ginzburg, American author, editor, publisher, photojournalist and outspoken advocate of free speech, has died after battling multiple myeloma. According to the Washington Post, among his supporters were playwright Arthur Miller, journalist I.F. Stone and attorney Melvin Belli.

While Ginzburg earned a degree in accounting, it was journalism that he pursued as a career, working for Esquire magazine, NBC, Reader's Digest, Collier's, LOOK -- and was known for his unorthodox methods of using disguises including that of a clergyman to gain entrance to news events. Ginzburg's first publication was An Unhurried View of Erotica, which explored the undercurrent of pornography in English literature. He went on to publish Eros, a periodical containing articles and photo-essays on love and sex, and later still The Housewife's Handbook on Selective Promiscuity. Ginzburg, self-described as a brandied fruitcake of a publisher, was convicted in 1963 for violating federal obscenity laws for promotional activities in publishing books and magazines on erotica and art.

In 1962, Ginzburg was granted an exclusive interview with 17-year-old Bobby Fischer, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master published by Harpers. According to all accounts, the interview of the reclusive chess genius is still a popular read today. Ginzburg was 76.

I woke yesterday morning to voices on the Today Show telling me that the use of hair dye is linked to incidences of lymphoma -- a general term for a group of cancers that originate in the lymphatic system. I know I've heard in the past about the possible link between cancer and the chemicals that add color to hair -- but the connection has never been revealed as very strong and the topic did not ever apply to me so I filed the information in the back of my mind. But now, it appears the link may be stronger than originally thought -- and I recently dyed my own post-chemo brown hair -- so I listened more intently this time and learned about the study that implies that touching up my roots may not be a wise practice.

The results of a European study, appearing in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, reveal that roughly 10 percent of lymphomas in women could be caused by the use of hair dyes. The data suggest a small increase in risk -- and clearly more research is necessary -- but what researchers have found is that for the women who have dyed their hair more than 12 times, the risk is highest. And those who colored their locks before 1980 have the greatest risk. Since 1980, chemicals thought to be cancer-causing were eliminated from dyes -- although it is still not definite whether or not current hair dyes are risk-free. It is definite, say researchers, that further study of this topic is important. In the meantime, I think I will let my artificial reddish chestnut hues fade away while I enjoy the plain brown hair that covers my once-bald scalp.

During the late 1950s, Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women in many countries around the globe as an antiemetic to combat morning sickness. As it turns out, the drug, which had passed safety tests necessary to gain approval, was a nightmare of unimaginable proportion when it was discovered that babies born to mothers who took the drug suffered extreme birth deformities and missing limbs. Many of the babies did not survive the first year of life. If it were not for Frances Oldham Kelsey, a reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration, who refused to grant approval for a drug she knew was not safe, many babies in the United States would have suffered the same tragic fate. Thalidomide was pulled from the market when it became clear what was causing a sudden epidemic in birth deformities. The drug was later introduced in the treatment for leprosy.

Drug makers have found a new use for thalidomide, being marketed as Thalomid, in the approval for treatment of multiple myeloma -- a blood cancer. It sounds like everyone is being very cautious about this drug, and with good reason, given its history. According to reports, it will be strictly controlled to prevent pregnant women from access to the drug. Thalomid also will carry a black box warning about an increased risk of blood clots for multiple myeloma patients.