Here we go Again. According to 2010 statistics, 207,090 cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in women in the U.S., 2,140 cases in men. Factor in 54,010 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer in women and one out of eight chances says, you are one of those, or know someone who is.

Those statistics alone are sobering, and are what send me (and hopefully you) to do the one thing I know I must do for myself every year, get screened.

While we are intensely proud of the caliber, intensity and depth of the work you’ll see throughout these over 50 well-research pages we’ve brought you again this year, we’re just sorry we had to do it at all. Sorry, that there’s still no cure, but hopeful, really hopeful, that we ARE closer than ever. As a tiny family of magazines, we KNOW it’s coming. It has to be. Our own LIFE staffers have personally spoken with the researchers, scientists and doctors working feverishly to unlock the mystery of breast cancer, and make a cure possible in OUR “LIFE”time.

And then, hopefully a cure for ALL cancers.

We hope you’ll feel the sincerity and the passion with which we do this Oct. issue each year. It ain’t easy, let me tell you. It’s intensely painstaking and heart-wrenching at times. But we hope you see the level of quality in the research, science, the interviews and the information we’ve compiled. It is and has been our gift to the community and to you, our reader for nine years. What has been a surprise is how many people have embraced our October issues. Literally HUNDREDS we get letters from each year, dozens of organizations call us to sponsor their events, and now thousands of people are emailing it to family and friends. We were asked so many times for a link to Life’s Breast Cancer Awareness Issue 2010, so readers could send it to people they loved, that we decided in December of last year to leave it up on here on our website year-round. Right on our home page, so everyone who wants it, needs it or knows someone who does can have it ALL in three clicks 24/7.

Every year, the survivors we interview tell us that while there’s a tsunami of breast cancer info, they wasted valuable time trying to ferret out what they really needed. There was no direction, no road map through all this life-saving information.

We listened, and what you read now is the result of their counsel. Comprehensive, yet streamlined, targeted information representing months worth of passion-driven work to provide a level of important relevant information presented NO where else, in ONE, easy to access place.

We wish with our whole heart, no one ever would need it, but if you do, it’s here and we did it for YOU. All we ask in return is for you to read it, process it and understand that even with all the advances toward a cure, even with all the support, the best way to beat cancer is not to let it progress. GET TESTED EARLY, OFTEN, and NEVER, EVER FEEL SILLY if you think something is wrong. GO FIND OUT. Not knowing will kill you, early detection is our mantra, and now hopefully yours. Be well, stay well. L’chaim! (To LIFE!!)