After six years of battling breast cancer, Elizabeth Edwards died at age 61. According to Amy Goldberg, chief of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at Temple's School of Medicine, Edwards was far from alone: One in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually. "The diagnosis of breast cancer is very serious. Fortunately, the diagnosis can be made very early and patients can be cured....It is important for patients to direct their own medical care and to decide what is good for them and when they want to continue treatment."