October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Learn about your Risk

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Although the incidence rates for breast cancer have decreased in the past several years, it is one of the most common cancers among women. The good news is that with early detection and treatment advances, more women are surviving breast cancer than ever before.

On Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center presents the Penn Women’s Cancer Conference at the Hilton Hotel, 4200 City Avenue, Philadelphia. At this free, event, specialists from Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, an NCI–designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, hold special sessions for women at risk for breast or ovarian cancer as well as information sessions for breast cancer survivors.

• Register for Women’s Cancers Conference: Focus on Your Risk of Breast/Ovarian Cancer
• Register for Women’s Cancers Conference: 20^th Life After Breast Cancer
• Learn more about your risk for breast cancer

Walk with Penn Medicine to Support Awareness of Heart Disease and Stroke

Penn Medicine supports the American Heart Association's 2011 Heart Walk, to be held on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 at Citizens Bank Park. This year, Penn Medicine's team challenge is to recruit the most walkers for the Philadelphia-based walk and raise funds to aid in the fight against heart disease and stroke, the number one and four leading causes of death in the U.S. Participate in the 5K walk with your colleagues, friends and family to help fund groundbreaking research for cardiovascular disease at Penn Medicine and other medical centers throughout the region.

• Register or view the schedule of events
• Penn’s Heart Walk Facebook event page
  

Meet Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, Director of Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center

Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, has joined Penn Medicine as director of Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center and director of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. Over the course of his illustrious career, Dr. Dang has distinguished himself as a highly effective clinical researcher as well as a preeminent scholar and educator in the fields of cancer cell biology, molecular biology and genetics.

“I feel very privileged and excited for the opportunity to lead the Abramson Cancer Center into an era of innovative personalized cancer care through the establishment of disease-specific translational centers of excellence,” says Dr. Dang.

• Watch a video series about Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD
• Download a copy of Penn’s Abramson Report
• Follow Penn Medicine’s “Focus on Cancer” Blog