Dog found alive 4 days after Montana avalanche 
 
 A dog that was feared dead after he was swept away in a weekend avalanche that k... 
 
 A dog that was feared dead after he was swept away in a weekend avalanche that killed his owner showed up four days later at the Montana motel where his owners had stayed the night before going backcountry skiing. (Jan. 6) ||||| Gains in cancer fight, but not for young adults 
 
 (CBS News) 
 
 We are making progress in the fight against cancer. The American Cancer Society said Wednesday that death rates are going down. Between 2004 and 2008, they dropped 1.8 percent each year for men and 1.6 percent for women. However, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports there has not been much improvement for teens or young adults. 
 
 When Caroline Hale counsels young people with cancer at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, she speaks from experience. 
 
 Ten years ago, at age 13, Hale complained of back pain. Doctors said it was from her backpack, but she turned out to have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma wrapping around her spine. 
 
 "They hit you with so much poisonous drugs," she said, "so many poisonous drugs, so much chemotherapy, that you just can't help but feel lifeless." 
 
 Hale is part of a largely unknown group in the war on cancer. Adolescents and young adults aged 15-to-39 account for more than 72,000 new cancers every year -- seven times more than pediatric cancers. Unlike other groups, their mortality rates have not improved. 
 
 "Our peers are suffering," Hale said, "because there's not been medical advances that have trickled down to our age group." 
 
 Teen loses cancer battle days after giving birth 
 
 After surviving brain cancer at age 21, Matthew Zachary founded an organization called Stupid Cancer. 
 
 "Young adults don't get cancers that are easily screened," said Zachary. "They get Hodgkin's, they get sarcomas -- usually not detectable cancers. It's not going to the doctor and say, 'Screen me for Hodgkin's,' because there is no such test. By the time you realize what you have symptomatically, it's probably too late or Stage 4." 
 
 Report: Cancer death rates declining in U.S. 
 
 Survivorship at a young age can mean a lifetime of complications from the treatment. Hale needed hip surgery in high school. Last year, Zachary suffered a stroke. 
 
 "What 's your journey been and what have you found out? What has it told you about the system? LaPook asked Zachary. 
 
 "I found out that the system is really broken," he said. "That when the doctor says, 'You're cured, go home,' that's not the end of the story. You have the rest of your life to get busy living through the challenges and consequences of not dying from your treatments." 
 
 For Zachary, those consequences included losing his career and infertility. But after nine years of trying, he and his wife Jessica had twins. 
 
 "When you are 60 years old, you don't care about fertility. When you are 6, you don't really care about fertility. When you are 21 or 28, or you have a child or want to have a child, or your chemotherapy makes you impotent or infertile -- you have the right to live, you have the right to have children, and that should not be taken away from you. This is a unique issue that only faces people in their fertile years, which are largely young adults." 
 
 Both Caroline Hale and Matthew Zachary were initially misdiagnosed. Researchers are just starting to focus on the special needs of this group. Up until now, everything has been lumped together with all non-pediatric cancers. ||||| A breast cancer cell. 
 
 Overall, new stats out today from the American Cancer Society show a slight decline in death rates between 2004 and 2008: a drop of 1.8% per year for U.S. men and 1.6% for women. 
 
 Incidence rates are also falling (in men, at least; they were stable in women). But go beyond the overall figures and you’ll find some cancers are on the rise. 
 
 Those diseases with increasing incidence rates are expected to account for about 245,000 new cancer cases this year, of the more than 1.6 million total cancer cases projected for 2012, the ACS says. Among those on-the-rise cancers: 
 
 Human papillomavirus-related cancers of the oropharynx (the back of the tongue and throat and tonsil area): As we reported last year these cancers are increasing in part because of the increased practice of oral sex. Meantime, the ACS notes, there’s been a steady decline in the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers that aren’t related to HPV; those are mostly caused by tobacco and alcohol use, and smoking rates are down. 
 
 Esophageal adenocarcinoma (among white and Hispanic men) as well as pancreatic, liver and kidney cancers are on the rise, and obesity may play a role, the ACS says. Obesity, for example, is associated with a 16-fold increased risk for esophageal adenocarcinoma. Other factors are also playing a role in some of these diseases: about half of liver cancers in the U.S. are among people with chronic hepatitis C infection, the ACS says, and the increase in incidence is consistent with the aging of the HCV-infected population. 
 
 Melanoma: More older white males and women of all ages are getting the deadliest form of skin cancer, the ACS says. The increase “may reflect changing sun exposure patterns and the use of indoor tanning booths by young women, as well as increased awareness and detection practices.” (The link with indoor tanning has been somewhat controversial.) The good news is that two new drugs were approved last year to treat metastatic melanoma. 
 
 Thyroid cancer: Rates increased in all ethnic and racial groups, except American Indian or Alaska Native men, during 1999-2008. Increased detection of small tumors may play a role, though more recent research suggests there is a “real” increase in incidence as well, the ACS says. 
 
 While progress on the obesity and smoking fronts could reduce the incidence of some of these forms of the disease, “additional research is needed to determine the role of other factors and to develop appropriate screening, early detection and treatment programs to reduce pain and suffering from these cancers,” the ACS says. 
 
 Image: iStockphoto
– Cancer death rates are down overall, the American Cancer Society says, falling 1.8% among men and 1.6% among women between 2004 and 2008. Rates have dropped across all ethnic groups except American Indians and Alaskan natives, the Los Angeles Times notes. But the incidence of some types of the disease is climbing, and the Wall Street Journal has details: Cancers of the oropharynx—around the back of the throat—tied to human papillomavirus are climbing, though oropharyngeal cancers unrelated to HPV are dropping, perhaps thanks to declining smoking rates. Esophageal adenocarcinoma is rising in white and Hispanic men, and pancreatic, liver, and kidney cancer are all up, with a possible link to obesity. The most dangerous skin cancer, melanoma, is rising in women of all ages and older white males, while thyroid cancer is increasing in all ethnic groups apart from American Indian and Alaska native men. Meanwhile, cancer mortality rates among young adults 15-39 haven't gotten any better, CBS News notes. "Young adults don't get cancers that are easily screened," says a survivor.