A bulb catalogue that arrived in July is impatiently drumming its fingers

A bulb catalogue that arrived in July is impatiently drumming its fingers. It knew it didn't have a hope of being flipped through back then, but now it knows that it's time. Together we will beat cancer."She said her mother's cancer had affected her "in a way I will never forget and it has certainly made me someone who wants to help eradicate this disease".One in nine women will develop breast cancer. The findings, published in Lancet Oncology, suggest the female hormone oestrogen is protective of the brain, heart and circulatory system.. The actress Nicole Kidman visited Madame Tussauds in London yesterday to launch a breast cancer awareness campaign. Kidman, 39, is the face of Cancer Research UK's campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Her mother, Janelle, was diagnosed with breast cancer when Kidman was 17 and went on to beat the disease.

"As someone whose family has personally been affected by the disease, I can't stress enough how important it is that women get to know and understand what is normal for their body," she said. "I am honoured to mark the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I hope that this Cancer Research UK campaign will raise awareness of breast cancer amongst women of all ages and encourage them to report any unusual changes and go for screening if they are over 50. In Leeds, doctors use a different x-ray scanning method and define a normal heart as anything above a 47 per cent ejection fraction. Timothy Perren, consultant oncologist at St James's University Hospital Leeds, said: "The problem is that Nice guidance is gold-plated and unless you follow it in every detail you are in trouble."A Nice spokeswoman said the 55 per cent threshold was laid down in the product licence for Herceptin issued by the European Medicines Licensing Agency.* Women under 45 who have both ovaries removed and do not receive hormone replacement therapy have up to a sixfold increased risk of dying from apparently unrelated causes, researchers have found. Herceptin was approved for NHS use in early breast cancer by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) in July, after studies showed it cut the risk of recurrence in early breast cancer from 18 per cent to 9 per cent.However, the drug only works in the 20-25 per cent of women with breast cancer who have a particular genetic profile - sensitive to the protein Her2 - numbering up to 10,000. In rare cases, Herceptin can cause heart failure and patients must have their heart function checked to see that it is normal.Specialists from St James' University Hospital Leeds said the threshold had been set too high and one in 10 of those who should be treated with the drug could be excluded because different hospitals used different methods for assessing patients.Women could be forced to shop around until they find a hospital that classes them as having a "normal" heart, they said.In a letter to the British Medical Journal, they warned: "A patient could be eligible for trastuzumab [Herceptin] in one institution and refused it in another depending on the method used to assess ejection fraction, resulting in a postcode lottery."The Nice guidance says patients must have at least a 55 per cent "ejection fraction" - a measure of the heart's pumping power - before being prescribed the drug, based on a test using an ultrasound probe. About half of these are thought to be eligible for treatment based on the severity of their disease. There were 36,939 cases in England in 2004, up 81 per cent on 1971. The mortality rate has dropped by more than 30 per cent since 1989, driven by improved drug treatment.

Breast cancer cases have hit a record high, according to latest official figures highlighted in The Independent yesterday, which show the disease is rising in all age groups. Cook the squid for 2-3 minutes on each side only, then serve with a pile of the rocket, a spoonful of the salsa and the bacon on top.. Hundreds of women with breast cancer whose lives might be saved by treatment with Herceptin face being denied the drug because NHS guidance on its use is flawed, specialists say. Season and put to one side.Pre-heat a barbecue, griddle or cast-iron frying pan. Make a vertical cut down the centre of the squid and open it out flat.