Posted: 30 Sep 2009 12:09 AM PDT

Robin Roberts, co-host of ABC's Good Morning America and a breast cancer survivor, will be guest announcer Friday during a special Grand Ole Opry show promoting research about the disease.

Roberts, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, will introduce acts during the show. Carrie Underwood will flip a switch turning the Opry's signature red barn backdrop pink in support of breast cancer research.

The shows will include performances by Underwood, Terri Clark, Jo Dee Messina, Lorrie Morgan, Mindy Smith and others. If Oprygoers mention code OPRYPINK when ordering tickets, $5 from the sale will be donated to Women Rock for the Cure and the Greater Nashville affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Details: 800-SEE-OPRY, opry.com.

Roberts wrote the book From the Heart: Eight Rules to Live By, which chronicles her experiences since being diagnosed. A former ESPN star, she also worked in Nashville as a sports anchor and reporter at WSMV from 1986 until 1988. "Nashville is the place I grew up as a journalist," Roberts told The Tennessean in 2007. "It gave me the confidence that I really needed to reach my ultimate goal. People were good to me."

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Nashville has beautiful folks

Who are the 25 Most Beautiful People in Nashville this year?

Nashville Lifestyles magazine threw a party Tuesday to unveil that very list. Gracing the cover: Holly Williams, singer/songwriter artist for Mercury Nashville and owner of Green Hills boutique H. Audrey.

Among those attending the party at Watermark were Titan Kerry Collins, former Titan Eddie George, singer Josh Kelley (who is married to Katherine Heigl) and his brother Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and wife Cassie Kelley. The after-party moved to nearby Sambuca.

To see Heather Byrd's photos from the night, go to Nashville.Metromix.com

Gayle gets Hollywood star

Singer Crystal Gayle will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday.

Gayle has been voted female vocalist three times by the Academy of Country Music and twice by the Country Music Association.

She is also the younger sister of country legend Loretta Lynn.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Luhrmann is 'Dancing' judge

The man who made Moulin Rouge lent his expertise to Dancing With the Stars this week.

Baz Luhrmann served as a guest judge on the hit ABC dance show while head judge Len Goodman took a week off.

The 47-year-old Australian filmmaker wrote and directed Strictly Ballroom in 1992, which launched his film career. Dancing host Tom Bergeron said that movie "was a major inspiration in the creation of this little show."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Danes, Dancy wed

My So-Called Life actress Claire Danes and Confessions of a Shopaholic actor Hugh Dancy have married.

Danes' spokeswoman Jodi Gottlieb says the 30-year-old Danes has married the 34-year-old Dancy more than two years after the couple met while filming Evening.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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FACT CHECK: Flaws in Obama's health care anecdotes - KVIA.com

Posted: 29 Sep 2009 03:38 AM PDT

Associated Press - September 29, 2009 6:45 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - 1 of President Barack Obama's health care "horror stories" is about a Texan who, he says, lost her health insurance on the verge of breast cancer surgery.

Obama said the woman didn't disclose a case of acne to the insurer.

The Associated Press reports that's not what happened.

Robin Lynn Beaton of Waxahachie (wahks-uh-HA'-chee) indeed had her insurance suspended and then terminated.

Beaton did not lose her insurance because she failed to own up to a skin problem in her past.

She lost it because, when enrolling, she didn't report a previous heart condition and did not list her weight accurately.

In Beaton's case, the insurance company opened an investigation after her visit to a dermatologist and just before her scheduled breast cancer surgery. The earlier problems on her enrollment form were discovered. Her coverage was canceled.

Texas Congressman Joe Barton fought the insurer until it restored her coverage, enabling her to get the surgery 10 weeks after it was postponed.

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More Women Having a Healthy Breast Removed - ABC News

Posted: 28 Sep 2009 11:53 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A small but growing number of women with breast cancer are choosing to have the unaffected breast removed in an effort to prevent a recurrence, researchers reported Monday.

Using data from New York State hospitals, the researchers found that between 1995 and 2005, the prevalence of preventive mastectomy among women with a history of cancer in one breast more than doubled.

The procedure was performed in about 2 percent of all women diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and 1996 -- rising to just over 4 percent by 2005.

In contrast, there was only a small increase in preventive mastectomies among women who had no personal history of breast cancer but were considered at risk because of a strong family history of the disease.

The findings suggest that while the number of preventive mastectomies performed each year in New York was small, the procedure is becoming more common, the researchers report in the journal Cancer.

The more marked increase among women with a history of breast cancer raises some concerns, senior researcher Dr. Stephen B. Edge, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, told Reuters Health.

The central issue, he explained, is that there is no evidence that removing the unaffected breast improves long-term survival.

While preventive mastectomy likely cuts the chances of cancer developing in the second breast, the ultimate impact on survival is a more complicated matter.

Edge noted that among women who are not at high genetic risk of breast cancer -- about 95 percent of all breast cancer patients -- the odds of developing cancer in the second breast are between 10 percent and 20 percent over 20 to 30 years.

The large majority of those cancers, he added, are detected early and effectively treated.

So in deciding whether to have a preventive mastectomy, women need to consider the uncertain long-term benefits and the risk of complications -- which include bleeding, infection and nerve damage.