Bourbonnais doctor tweaking radiation treatment method

Stories about breast cancer generally fall into two categories.

• Tales of hope, told by those fortunate 10 or 20-year survivors, or...

• Sad memories of the last courageous fights, told by the widowers who haven't adjusted to life on their own.

Today, though, there are also the new stories of therapy breakthroughs being told by Dr. Arnold Herskovic, of the Presence St. Mary's Hospital Radiation Therapy Center in Bourbonnais. Employing principles he began studying in the early 1970s, he can now offer an internal breast radiation device custom fitted to each patient, an implant called the five-day SAVI system.

"This is not for every patient, but from my experience, this has produced excellent results for about 25 percent of my patients," he explained, "Yes, there will still be fear, whenever the word cancer is used, but there are so many advances being made."

To that end this product of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago is still developing new tools to wage a war that claims approximately 40,000 American lives each year.

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Consider James Franco: Spring Breakers Oscar Pitch Puts Method Acting Front and Center

Courtesy of A24 Films

James Franco's triumphant return to the Oscars is being plotted already!

A24 Films, the distributor behind the babes-in-excess drama Spring Breakers, has launched a tongue-in-cheek Oscar campaign for Franco, asking the Academy to consider him for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for playing the cornrow-sporting Svengali drug dealer Alien.

The advertisement entreats voters to "Consider This S--t" and then uses a blurb from a review by Village Voice critic Scott Foundas to hammer Franco's qualifications home.

"A full-blown method performance (with an emphasis on 'meth')," reads the bold-faced lead quote, stamped on the ad in bold hot-pink type.

PHOTOS: Would Spring Breakers have been better with sharks—like these movies?

"It's a consistent astonishment. Franco and [writer-director Harmony Korine] are so suited to collaboration—two prankster artists whose straight-faced self-parody can skirt the sublime. You leave the theater with Aliens' growling mantra, 'spring break forevah,' echoing in your head."

So apparently that's supposed to be a good thing!

A24

The "For Your Consideration" campaign ironically comes a day after the premiere of the Comedy Central roast of Franco, which, as expected, was heavy on crappy-Oscar-host jokes.

And then there were the jokes how no one goes to see Franco's films, with perhaps the best being Jonah Hill's crack about how George Clooney says that he makes one movie for audiences and one for himself—as opposed to Franco, who makes "one for them and five for nobody."

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

The much-talked-about Spring Breakers, which also starred Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson, found a small but enthusiastic audience: It cost a reported $5 million to make and grossed $31.7 million, per Box Office Mojo.

As Alien would say, sounds like "the f--kin' American dream."

PHOTOS: Stars at the James Franco roast

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