Turkey day costs are up by 6 percent. One thing that U.S. consumers won’t be thankful for this Thanksgiving is low food prices this year. That’s because shoppers will pay 6 percent more than last year for a traditional Thanksgiving meal that includes turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. This is the largest in recent years, a U.S. farm group said.  The American Farm Bureau Federation grocery list of 12 items estimated the average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving feast for a family of 10 at $44.61, an increase of $2.35 from last year’s average of $42.26, Reuters reports. “Food prices rode the energy price rollercoaster up during the first half of 2008, and as the year winds down, energy prices have moderated somewhat, but food prices have not come down,” said Jim Sartwelle, a Farm Bureau economist. The only decreases in 2008 will be milk, dropping 10 cents to $3.78 a gallon, and miscellaneous ingredients, down 60 cents to $2.69. A total of 179 volunteer shoppers from 38 states participated in this year’s survey. For ways to save your budget and your diet this holiday, see BET.com/Body & Soul’s “Saving Thanksgiving” feature.

Black lung cancer patients have a different gene.  A lung cancer known as non-small cell lung tumors tend to have a different genetic makeup in Blacks than in Whites, which scientists say may explain why Blacks do not do as well in treatment as Whites, a new study found. Blacks with this type of lung cancer typically do not fare well, based on past studies. Blacks who have this type of lung cancer have a gene mutation that causes it to have fewer receptors that cause the cancer not to respond to the current treatments, according to researchers who presented their findings Nov. 13 at the 2008 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology. “The findings of this study were surprising, since it was not expected that drug-sensitizing EGFR mutations would be so rare in this patient population,” study co-author Dr. Rom Leidner, a clinical fellow in hematology/oncology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said in a news release. “African-American patients remain underrepresented in clinical studies in oncology, and therefore our knowledge base about how to modify our treatment strategies for this patient population remains poorly defined.” The study’s researchers said they hope their findings influence the design of future clinical studies and the future use of EGFR-targeted agents.  However, they said their efforts because they have a hard time finding enough African Americans to participate in clinical drug trials. The American Cancer Society has more about non-small cell lung cancer.
Vitamin C and E pills don’t fight cancer. Stop stuffing down vitamin pills, thinking they’ll protect you from cancer. There’s new evidence that they simply don’t work that way. Vital Signs has the latest research and what to do instead of popping pills.

Here’s help for saving Thanksgiving. With costs for the Thanksgiving meal up by at least 5 percent, and uncertainty about the economy looming over the holidays, eveyone is trying to cut expenses wherever they can. BET.com’s Body & Soul has some suggestions for saving Thanksgiving.