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Vol. 7, No. 3 · July 2003 · Editor: Martha L. Golar, Esq.
· Annual October Courthouse Alert -- Start-Up Plans · JALBCA Annual Dinner · Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure · Nassau County Mammography Van · Bendheim Integrative Medicine Center · Study Results on Risks of Hormone Therapy · Notes on Members · Calendar of Events Preliminary Schedule of JALBCA Programs for 2003/04 Listed below is a preliminary schedule for JALBCA programs during the September 2003 – April 2004 period. Unless otherwise specified, the program locations will be Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, 4 Times Square, NY, NY 10036. The schedule will be periodically updated as necessary. Please be sure to check the JALBCA website for the most up-to-date information.
Annual October Courthouse Alert -- Start-Up Plans Plans are already underway for this year’s October Courthouse Alert. Each county makes its own arrangements for receptions, literature distribution, and mobile mammography vans. Please note the following events which have already been scheduled: Brooklyn: A kick-off reception is scheduled for September 17, 2003, 5 pm, at the Appellate Division in Brooklyn Heights, through the generosity of Presiding Justice Gail Prudenti. Hon. Ellen Spodek has agreed to serve as the contact for this event. Manhattan: A mammography van will be in the parking lot in front of Civil Court, 111 Centre Street, NY, NY on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 (9 am to 5 pm). Appointments are necessary - call 1-800-564-6868. A mammography van will be in front of the courthouse in Harlem, 170 East 121st Street, NY, NY on October 1, 2003. Appointments are necessary – call 1-800-564-6868. (Manhattan vans have been scheduled through the efforts of Kay Murray, Joyce Hartsfield, and Hon. Shirley Kornreich.) With respect to the Manhattan vans, there is NO cost to women 40 and older who have not had a mammogram in the past year. JALBCA Annual Dinner JALBCA celebrated its 11th anniversary on May 12 at the Water’s Edge in Long Island City. Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye installed the newly elected directors and officers, including our co-Presidents Hon. Shirley Werner Kornreich and Roy L. Reardon.  Former co-President Barbara Ryan introduced Julie Mitnick, M.D., who received the Special Recognition Award for contribution to the community
through her practice at Murray Hill Radiology and Mammography. Dr. Mitnick has been a regular speaker for JALBCA and many New Yorkers rely on
her services for state- of-the-art diagnostic mammography and clinical research.Hon. William C. Thompson delivered the Leadership Achievement Awards to the five law firms which helped JALBCA underwrite the cost of mammographies during the 2002 Courthouse Alert project. Representatives attended from each of the recipient firms, which included the following: Gair, Gair, Conason, Steigman & Mackauf; Godosky & Gentile, P.C.; Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore; Sullivan Pappain Block McGrath & Cannavo, P.C.; and Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. The firms’ generosity enabled JALBCA to subsidize the cost for hundreds of women who benefited from this project.  Hon. Helen E. Freedman was honored for her commitment, hard work and substantial contribution to JALBCA during her two-year tenure as co-President.
Filling her position will be Hon. Shirley Werner Kornreich, who acknowledged the unique role of JALBCA when she reminded attendees that “(w)hat is singular about JALBCA is the community it touches -- lawyers whose instincts and training compel them to be private and isolated in their disease; and the medically
underserved who frequent the courts and who know little about breast cancer.” Judge Kornreich, a cancer survivor, was introduced to JALBCA
through Francine Friedlander, a former JALBCA member who did not survive breast cancer. Judge Kornreich recalled the words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav
from a camp song sung by her kids which, to her, epitomizes the strength with which Fran lived and which JALBCA provides to many people: “The
whole world is a very narrow bridge; and the main thing is not to fear at all.” As in prior years, the space at Water’s Edge was filled to capacity and everyone felt reinvigorated for the coming year.
Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure -- Sunday, September 14, 2003 As in past years, JALBCA is planning to have its own team participate in the Race for the Cure, scheduled for Sunday, September 14, 2003. We are very fortunate to have Lisa Volpe once again spearhead and coordinate the effort for JALBCA, and she and Judge Kornreich will serve as co-captains of the team. The deadline for registration with the JALBCA team is August 4, 2003. To obtain registration forms and other information, please contact the following JALBCA members:
Nassau County Mammography Van On May 12, 2003, the Nassau County Mammography van was available in the Family Court parking lot from 8:30 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. to provide mammography screening. This van comes to the Nassau County Family Court several times a year as a result of arrangements made by Supervising Judge Ruth C. Balkin and JALBCA. Participating in the day’s events were the Nassau County Women’s Bar Association (Andrea Phoenix, President), JALBCA Dorothy A. Phillips), 1 in 9, and the Nassau County Health Department. This was a “no cost” breast cancer screening for litigants and employees at the courthouse. Additionally, a desk manned by volunteers was set up in the lobby of the Courthouse, where literature and self-examination kits were provided to the public. Bendheim Integrative Medicine Center (303 East 65th Street, at the corner of 2nd Avenue, Manhattan) Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center now offers an Integrative Medicine Service located at 303 East 65th Street (at the corner of 2nd Avenue) which provides complementary modalities such as massage, shiatsu, reflexology, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, meditation, nutritional counseling and movement and fitness classes such as yoga, qui gong and pilates mat. The therapies are designed to enhance quality of life, alleviate stress and anxiety, manage symptoms and help prevent health-related problems. For people living with chronic or life-threatening illness, these therapies may transform the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of their lives. Integrative medicine may also be valuable to those who are not ill but wish to increase self-awareness, enhance well-being, and help prevent health-related problems. All offerings are open to the general public. For price information, hours of operation, to schedule an appointment, or to request a brochure, please call 212-639-4700. You may also visit their web site at http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/1979.cfm. As a sampling of the workshops offered, for which there is a charge, please note the following upcoming workshops: AWARE: Living fully while at risk for breast cancer. This is an 8-week program. Focus on health: cancer prevention, nutrition, wellness and fitness, self-awareness and coping, reduced anxiety and stress. Awaken your inner resources: meditation, yoga, self-hypnosis, self-expression. September 8 - October 23, 2003, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Fee $195. Focus on Healing (through movement): This is a therapeutic exercise program for breast cancer patients to help reduce the risk of lymphedema and frozen shoulder. These exercises improve range of motion and enhance physical and psychological well-being. Mondays from 2-3 pm, fee $18/class or 10 classes for $145. Study Results on Risks of Hormone Therapy The medical community and the American public generally learned in July 2002 about the results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), concerning the risks of hormone therapy. WHI is a study, launched in 1991, consisting of a set of clinical trials, an observational study, and a community prevention study, which altogether involve more than 161,000 healthy, postmenopausal women. The postmenopausal hormone therapy clinical trial has two parts. The first involved 16,608 postmenopausal women with a uterus who took either estrogen plus progestin therapy or a placebo. The second involves 10,739 women who have had a hysterectomy and are taking estrogen alone or a placebo. The women in the WHI estrogen plus progestin study were aged 50 to 79. The study was intended to continue until 2005 but was stopped in July 2002 because the Data and Safety Monitoring Board found that, overall, risks from use of the hormones outweighed and outnumbered the benefits. The main adverse effects were more cases of breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. The main benefits were fewer hip and other fractures and cases of colorectal cancer. The New York Times reported that less than half of the approximately six million women who were taking combination therapy before the publication of the study results are still taking it. (June 25, 2003). On June 25, the New York Times, in an article by Denise Grady, reported that another variable to the question has been added. These new findings result from additional analysis of the data from the WHI. This new finding is that, compared with women who are not on hormones, those who take estrogen and progestin tend to develop tumors that are discovered at a more advanced stage and are harder to cure. It is unclear whether this results, for example, from tissue changes which the hormones may cause thereby making mammographies harder to read, or whether the hormones make tumors grow faster. However, Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski, the lead investigator in the study and a medical oncologist at the Research and Education Institute at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Torrance, California, was quoted as saying that “this reinforces the breast cancer data and, for the first time, raises a new concern regarding the risk-benefit ratio of short term use." These study results contradict the prior theory that women on hormones who developed breast cancer tended to develop less aggressive types of cancer and that these cancers could be detected early and would be relatively easy to treat. Many questions remain. The WHI is following women in the estrogen plus progestin clinical trial to see if and when increased risks and benefits decline after use of the therapy ends. In addition, the WHI hopes to release key information about the effects of postmenopausal estrogen-only therapy sometime in 2005. Further, other WHI studies include the following: For additional information concerning WHI, you can go to the NIH website at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/women. Notes on Members On April 2, 2003, Hon. Karla Moskowitz, former co-President of JALBCA, was presented with the Sixth Annual Edith I. Spivack award by the Women’s Rights Committee of the New York County Lawyers’ Association. Friends, colleagues and family all attended to celebrate the event. The award was established to honor Edith Spivack and to mark the 25th anniversary of NYCLA’s Women’s Rights Committee. Calendar of Events JALBCA/THE ASSOCIATION OF THE BAR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK co-sponsor: THE CANCER-RELATED EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION PROJECT If you have had a cancer-related employment discrimination problem, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York is offering free consultations by phone or in person with experienced employment attorneys to discuss your legal rights. Call Jennifer Kwon at 212.382.6708 for further information or to arrange for an expert consultation, by telephone or in person. MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING POST-TREATMENT RESOURCE PROGRAM Call 212.717.3527 to register for the following programs: Men and Cancer: Maintaining Focus (A Men’s Meeting) These monthly workshops will provide tools to help you move ahead with confidence after treatment.
Workshop for Caregivers/Partners of Cancer Patients Learn how to balance your needs, problem-solve and obtain support.
Herbs and Botanicals: Enhancing Your Cancer Survivorship Lecture with Dr. Gary Deng
Surviving Cancer: Influences on Women’s Sexuality and Sexual Expression Coping with the aftermath of cancer, cancer treatment or pelvic surgery
JALBCA does not endorse the content or efficacy of any workshops or programs listed in the Calendar of Events; listings are for informational purposes only, so that our readership is aware of current offerings. |
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