Mumford & Sons, Adele among winners at Brit Awards

LONDON (AP) — British music put on a confident show at the Brit Awards on Wednesday, celebrating a resurgent industry whose bands and artists are topping charts around the world.

Winners ranged from established acts such as Coldplay and Adele to surfing English folk singer Ben Howard, who was named British breakthrough act and British male artist of the year.

"I'm not very good at speeches," 25-year-old Howard said, accurately — though he may have to get good at it if his career continues to take off.

American artists Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey were among the non-British winners at a ceremony that embraced the mainstream while rewarding artists with distinctive personalities.

Long derided as dull, the Brits have become a lively celebration of "Cool Britannia" music and style, featuring a dinner for hundreds of artists and industry figures followed by a televised concert and awards show for thousands of paying fans.

Hard rockers Muse opened the show at London's O2 Arena with a typically robust performance of their song "Supremacy"— all thundering music, dazzling light show and 60-piece orchestra. Other performers ranged from world-conquering boy band One Direction to American artists Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake.

Timberlake, dapper in a tuxedo as he performed "Mirrors," was described by host James Corden, in a nod to Europe's horse meat scandal, as "95 percent beefcake with just a little touch of horse."

One Direction performed a mashup of post-punk classics "One Way or Another" and "Teenage Kicks," their single for Britain's Comic Relief charity.

Chanteuse Emeli Sande took the first award of the evening, for British female artist, while Mumford & Sons were named best British group.

Both had an outstanding 2012. Singer-songwriter Sande topped the British charts with her debut album "Our Version of Events" and performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Mumford & Sons topped U.K. and U.S. charts with their second album "Babel," which was named album of the year at the Grammys earlier this month.

Soul singer Amy Winehouse — who died in July 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning — was among the other nominees for British female artist, eligible thanks to her posthumous "Lioness: Hidden Treasures" album. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, arrived for the awards ceremony at London's O2 Arena wearing a waistcoat emblazoned with a picture of his daughter.

Coldplay was named best British live act, beating nominees including The Rolling Stones, who celebrated their 50th anniversary with a series of sold-out shows last year.

Adele won the best British single prize for her James Bond theme "Skyfall." The soulful singer sent a message from Los Angeles, where she is rehearsing for Sunday's Academy Awards.

There was no repeat of last year, when she was cut-off mid-speech because the show was running late — an incident Corden referred to in mock-embarrassment several times.

The Black Keys were named best international group, while Del Rey took the trophy for international female solo artist. The U.S. singer, who began as an Internet sensation, won a breakthrough Brit award last year and on Wednesday thanked Britain for supporting her.

The international male trophy went to R&B star Frank Ocean, who said it was "definitely a long way from working fast food in New Orleans" — and was the only winner to thank artist Damien Hirst for creating the polka-dot Brit Awards statuette.

Contenders for the biggest award of the night, best album, include Sande's "Our Version Of Events," Alt-J's "An Awesome Wave," Mumford & Sons' "Babel," Plan B's "Ill Manors" and Paloma Faith's "Fall To Grace."

This year sees the introduction of a new category recognizing global success, with nominees including One Direction, Mumford & Sons and Adele.

Most of the awards are chosen by more than 1,000 musicians, critics and record industry figures, with several decided by public vote.

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Online: www.brits.co.uk

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Well: Effects of Bullying Last Into Adulthood, Study Finds

Victims of bullying at school, and bullies themselves, are more likely to experience psychiatric problems in childhood, studies have shown. Now researchers have found that elevated risk of psychiatric trouble extends into adulthood, sometimes even a decade after the intimidation has ended.

The new study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday, is the most comprehensive effort to date to establish the long-term consequences of childhood bullying, experts said.

“It documents the elevated risk across a wide range of mental health outcomes and over a long period of time,” said Catherine Bradshaw, an expert on bullying and a deputy director of the Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence at Johns Hopkins University, which was not involved in the study.

“The experience of bullying in childhood can have profound effects on mental health in adulthood, particularly among youths involved in bullying as both a perpetuator and a victim,” she added.

The study followed 1,420 subjects from Western North Carolina who were assessed four to six times between the ages of 9 and 16. Researchers asked both the children and their primary caregivers if they had been bullied or had bullied others in the three months before each assessment. Participants were divided into four groups: bullies, victims, bullies who also were victims, and children who were not exposed to bullying at all.

Participants were assessed again in young adulthood — at 19, 21 and between 24 and 26 — using structured diagnostic interviews.

Researchers found that victims of bullying in childhood were 4.3 times more likely to have an anxiety disorder as adults, compared to those with no history of bullying or being bullied.

Bullies who were also victims were particularly troubled: they were 14.5 times more likely to develop panic disorder as adults, compared to those who did not experience bullying, and 4.8 times more likely to experience depression. Men who were both bullies and victims were 18.5 times more likely to have had suicidal thoughts in adulthood, compared to the participants who had not been bullied or perpetuators. Their female counterparts were 26.7 times more likely to have developed agoraphobia, compared to children not exposed to bullying.

Bullies who were not victims of bullying were 4.1 times more likely to have antisocial personality disorder as adults than those never exposed to bullying in their youth.

The effects persisted even after the researchers accounted for pre-existing psychiatric problems or other factors that might have contributed to psychiatric disorders, like physical or sexual abuse, poverty and family instability.

“We were actually able to say being a victim of bullying is having an effect a decade later, above and beyond other psychiatric problems in childhood and other adversities,” said William E. Copeland, lead author of the study and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center.

Bullying is not a harmless rite of passage, but inflicts lasting psychiatric damage on a par with certain family dysfunctions, Dr. Copeland said. “The pattern we are seeing is similar to patterns we see when a child is abused or maltreated or treated very harshly within the family setting,” he said.

One limitation of the study is that bullying was not analyzed for frequency, and the researchers’ assessment did not distinguish between interpersonal and overt bullying. It only addressed bullying at school, not in other settings.

Most of what experts know about the effects of bullying comes from observational studies, not studies of children followed over time.

Previous research from Finland, based on questionnaires completed on a single occasion or on military registries, used a sample of 2,540 boys to see if being a bully or a victim at 8 predicted a psychiatric disorder 10 to 15 years later. The researchers found frequent bully-victims were at particular risk of adverse long-term outcomes, specifically anxiety and antisocial personality disorders. Victims were at greater risk for anxiety disorders, while bullies were at increased risk for antisocial personality disorder.

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Japan traces Boeing 787 problem to improper wiring, report says

Japan’s investigation into a burning lithium-ion battery aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight found it was improperly wired, according to an Associated Press report.

The country’s Transport Safety Board had been looking into the circumstances that led the All Nippon Airways flight to make an emergency landing in southwestern Japan.

All 137 passengers and crew were evacuated from the aircraft and slid down the Dreamliner's emergency slides. Video of the event captured by a passenger has been viewed worldwide.

According to the AP, the Transport Safety Board’s report said “the battery of the aircraft's auxiliary power unit was incorrectly connected to the main battery that overheated, although a protective valve would have prevented power from the APU from doing damage.”

More analysis was still needed, the report said.

The announcement was the latest update of the safety investigation into the 787 after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded the aircraft Jan. 16 following two incidents within two weeks involving the batteries.

The technology was also implicated in a Jan. 6 fire aboard a parked 787 in Boston operated by Japan Airlines. The National Transportation Safety Board is still probing the root cause of the event, but said this month that investigators had found a short circuit in one of the aircraft’s batteries.

Boeing has delivered 50 787s to eight airlines worldwide. Six of the planes are owned by United Airlines -- the only U.S. carrier that has 787s in its fleet.

Boeing said that it is unable to comment on the Transportation Safety Board's findings, "as it is part of the investigation in Japan."

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Airbus scraps battery plans after Boeing's 787 struggles

NASA observation satellite blasts into orbit from Vandenberg

Boeing 787 Dreamliner fire traced to battery cell, but questions remain

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O.C. shootings: Plumber was chased, gunned down, co-worker says

One of the victims in Tuesday's shootings and carjackings in Orange County was identified by co-workers as a plumber who was working at a hotel construction site in Tustin near the scene of one of the fatal confrontations. Another plumber at the site was shot and wounded as he apparently attempted to aid his co-worker.

Three people have been reported killed and at least two seriously injured in the morning's violence, which apparently started in a residential compound in Ladera Ranch and ended in a center median in Orange where a man believed to have been the assailant got out of a vehicle and shot himself to death with a shotgun, authorities said.

Employees at the construction site in Tustin said a plumber working at the under-construction Fairfield Inn on Edinger Avenue near the 55 Freeway was chased and killed by the gunman.

The man was shot at an overflow parking lot, across the street from the construction project, workers said. Workers said the victim was one of 70 to 80 people finishing off the hotel and a neighboring Marriott Residence Inn.

Tom Van Schindel, a project superintendent at the site, said he heard the gunfire but -- given the noise in the construction zone -- wasn't initially certain what it was.

But he said another plumber later told police that he heard some noise and glanced through a third-story window at the Fairfield. That man spotted the victim running across the overflow parking lot.

Van Schindel said the second man told police that he scampered down from the third story, jumped in his white utility vehicle and sped across the street to come to the aid of his fellow plumber.

The would-be rescuer, Van Schindel said, was apparently shot once and wounded when he reached the overflow parking lot. The other plumber, he said he was told, was killed.

An employee with KBL Plumbing in Rancho Cucamonga, where the two men were said to be employed, said one of its workers was killed and one was injured Tuesday. There were no further details.

The suspect's alleged series of killings appeared to begin early Tuesday at a home in Ladera Ranch, where Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said deputies found a woman shot to death about 4:45 a.m.
Deputies were called to the house on Red Leaf Lane when someone inside reported a shooting, Amormino said. It was unclear whether anyone else was home at the time, but no other injuries were reported.

The suspect, initially described as a man in his 20s, fled the area in an SUV to Tustin, where "multiple incidents" occurred in the city and near the Santa Ana border, Amormino said.

"There's a lot to sort out," he told The Times.

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McCartney, Mumford top eclectic Bonnaroo lineup

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — There will be a British invasion of the main stage at Bonnaroo this year.

Paul McCartney and Mumford & Sons are among the headliners for the 2013 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn.

The four-day festival, held on a rural 700-acre farm, always features an eclectic roster, but the June 13-16 event is even more varied than usual.

Returnees Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers also hold down a headliner spot. Then things get a little crazy with R&B star R. Kelly, alternative queen Bjork and Wu-Tang Clan celebrating its 20th anniversary. Wilco, Pretty Lights, The Lumineers, The National, The xx, Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Nas and ZZ Top also top the list announced Tuesday by "Weird Al" Yankovic via Bonnaroo's YouTube channel.

Tickets go on sale at noon EST on Saturday.

McCartney, the former Beatle and recent frontman of Sirvana, will be making his first appearance at the event.

Mumford & Sons, fresh off its album of the year win at the Grammy Awards, return to Bonnaroo after a memorable 2011 second-stage performance that stretched more than an hour, drew friends Old Crow Medicine Show and had fans hanging off fences to get a better view.

Other top-of-the-list performers include Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Animal Collective, Daniel Tosh, David Byrne & St. Vincent, Passion Pit and Grizzly Bear.

The festival hosts more than 120 acts. More will be announced later.

There are a few curiosities on the list. Glam-punk Billy Idol and Odd Future member and mystery man Earl Sweatshirt are scheduled to perform. Jim James will host a Soul SuperJam with John Oates, Zigaboo Modeliste of the Meters and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Fans of roots rock, Americana and folk-leaning acoustic music will have more than Mumford and The Lumineers to focus on. Also scheduled to perform are Dwight Yoakam, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, John Fullbright, Of Monsters and Men, Calexico, JD McPherson, Father John Misty and The Tallest Man on Earth.

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Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

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DNA Analysis, More Accessible Than Ever, Opens New Doors

Matt Roth for The New York Times

Sam Bosley of Frederick, Md., going shopping with his daughter, Lillian, 13, who has a malformed brain and severe developmental delays, seizures and vision problems. More Photos »

Debra Sukin and her husband were determined to take no chances with her second pregnancy. Their first child, Jacob, who had a serious genetic disorder, did not babble when he was a year old and had severe developmental delays. So the second time around, Ms. Sukin had what was then the most advanced prenatal testing.

The test found no sign of Angelman syndrome, the rare genetic disorder that had struck Jacob. But as months passed, Eli was not crawling or walking or babbling at ages when other babies were.

“Whatever the milestones were, my son was not meeting them,” Ms. Sukin said.

Desperate to find out what is wrong with Eli, now 8, the Sukins, of The Woodlands, Tex., have become pioneers in a new kind of testing that is proving particularly helpful in diagnosing mysterious neurological illnesses in children. Scientists sequence all of a patient’s genes, systematically searching for disease-causing mutations.

A few years ago, this sort of test was so difficult and expensive that it was generally only available to participants in research projects like those sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. But the price has plunged in just a few years from tens of thousands of dollars to around $7,000 to $9,000 for a family. Baylor College of Medicine and a handful of companies are now offering it. Insurers usually pay.

Demand has soared — at Baylor, for example, scientists analyzed 5 to 10 DNA sequences a month when the program started in November 2011. Now they are doing more than 130 analyses a month. At the National Institutes of Health, which handles about 300 cases a year as part of its research program, demand is so great that the program is expected to ultimately take on 800 to 900 a year.

The test is beginning to transform life for patients and families who have often spent years searching for answers. They can now start the grueling process with DNA sequencing, says Dr. Wendy K. Chung, professor of pediatrics and medicine at Columbia University.

“Most people originally thought of using it as a court of last resort,” Dr. Chung said. “Now we can think of it as a first-line test.”

Even if there is no treatment, there is almost always some benefit to diagnosis, geneticists say. It can give patients and their families the certainty of knowing what is wrong and even a prognosis. It can also ease the processing of medical claims, qualifying for special education services, and learning whether subsequent children might be at risk.

“Imagine the people who drive across the whole country looking for that one neurologist who can help, or scrubbing the whole house with Lysol because they think it might be an allergy,” said Richard A. Gibbs, the director of Baylor College of Medicine’s gene sequencing program. “Those kinds of stories are the rule, not the exception.”

Experts caution that gene sequencing is no panacea. It finds a genetic aberration in only about 25 to 30 percent of cases. About 3 percent of patients end up with better management of their disorder. About 1 percent get a treatment and a major benefit.

“People come to us with huge expectations,” said Dr. William A. Gahl, who directs the N.I.H. program. “They think, ‘You will take my DNA and find the causes and give me a treatment.' ”

“We give the impression that we can do these things because we only publish our successes,” Dr. Gahl said, adding that when patients come to him, “we try to make expectations realistic.”

DNA sequencing was not available when Debra and Steven Sukin began trying to find out what was wrong with Eli. When he was 3, they tried microarray analysis, a genetic test that is nowhere near as sensitive as sequencing. It detected no problems.

“My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘The good news is that everything is fine; the bad news is that everything is not fine,' ” Ms. Sukin said.

In November 2011, when Eli was 6, Ms. Sukin consulted Dr. Arthur L. Beaudet, a medical geneticist at Baylor.

“Is there a protein missing?” she recalled asking him. “Is there something biochemical we could be missing?”

By now, DNA sequencing had come of age. Dr. Beaudet said that Eli was a great candidate, and it turned out that the new procedure held an answer.

A single DNA base was altered in a gene called CASK, resulting in a disorder so rare that there are fewer than 10 cases in all the world’s medical literature.

“It really became definitive for my husband and me,” Ms. Sukin said. “We would need to do lifelong planning for dependent care for the rest of his life.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 19, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a medicine taken by two teenagers who have a rare gene mutation. The drug is 5-hydroxytryptophan, not 5-hydroxytryptamine.

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CalPERS to sell all its stock in two gun manufacturers

SACRAMENTO -- The nation's biggest public pension fund is taking a stand against gun violence by voting to sell all its investments in two firearms manufacturers: Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm, Ruger & Co.

On Tuesday, the Investment Committee of the California Public Employees' retirement System voted to sell about $5 million worth of the gun makers' stock and other securities. The full CalPERS board, which has the same 13 members as the Investment Committee, is expected to ratify the vote on Wednesday.

Some of the two companies' products -- particularly assault weapons and cheap handguns, known as Saturday night specials -- are illegal in California.

They "present a significant danger to the health, safety and lives of California residents, including our members, no matter where such weapons are sold or trafficked in the United States," read the motion approved by the CalPERS board's Investment Committee in a 9 to 3 vote.

Representatives of Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger did not respond to requests for comment on the CalPERS vote.

Sale of the stock should not affect the financial health of CalPERS' $254-billion investment portfolio, staff said in a report to the board.

The move to divest gun securities was the second by a California public pension fund since the December massacre of 20 Sandy Hook Elementary School children and six adults in Newtown, Conn. Last month, the $154-billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, the country's second largest government retirement plan, took a similar action.

CalSTRS and CalPERS took up the divestment issue at the request of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a member of both boards. Lockyer called the vote "largely symbolic" but stressed that it's an important way to spur incremental change.

"We're limited by the constraints of our responsibility and the rules that CalPERS has," said Lockyer. "There's only one way that we speak and that's with money.

Board members Dan Dunmoyer, Richard Costigan and Bill Slayton, who opposed the move, questioned the wisdom of sellling stock in companies for nonfinancial reasons. "The premise we are taking is one that is fraught with tremendous peril," said Dunmoyer, an insurance company executive.

The divestment actions by the two California pension funds are expected to encourage other large government employee pensions to sell their gun securities. Funds in Chicago, New York state, New York City, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have publicly said they are exploring such divestments.

The California funds have a long history of using divestment as a tool for social and political change. Their decision to sell investments in companies operating in South Africa played a role in ending the white supremacist regime and its apartheid policy of separating the races.

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Jerry Buss dies at 80; Lakers owner brought 'Showtime' success to L.A.

Longtime Lakers owner Jerry Buss has died at the age of 80. Last week, it was revealed that he was hospitalized with an undisclosed form of cancer.

When Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979, he wanted to build a championship team. But that wasn't all.

The new owner gave courtside seats to movie stars. He hired pretty women to dance during timeouts. He spent freely on big stars and encouraged a fast-paced, exuberant style of play.

As the Lakers sprinted to one NBA title after another, Buss cut an audacious figure in the stands, an aging playboy in blue jeans, often with a younger woman by his side.

PHOTOS: Jerry Buss through the years

"I really tried to create a Laker image, a distinct identity," he once said. "I think we've been successful. I mean, the Lakers are pretty damn Hollywood."

Buss died Monday of complications of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to his longtime spokesman, Bob Steiner. Buss was 80.

Lakers fans will remember Buss for bringing extraordinary success — 10 championships in three-plus decades — but equally important to his legacy was a sense of showmanship that transformed pro basketball from sport to spectacle.

Live discussion at 10:30: The legacy of Jerry Buss

"Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today," NBA Commissioner David Stern said. "Remember, he showed us it was about 'Showtime,' the notion that an arena can become the focal point for not just basketball, but entertainment. He made it the place to see and be seen."

His teams featured the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard. He was also smart enough to hire Hall of Fame-caliber coaches in Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

"I've worked hard and been lucky," Buss said. "With the combination of the two, I've accomplished everything I ever set out to do."

A Depression-era baby, Jerry Hatten Buss was born in Salt Lake City on Jan. 27, 1933, although some sources cite 1934 as his birth year. His parents, Lydus and Jessie Buss, divorced when he was an infant.

His mother struggled to make ends meet as a waitress in tiny Evanston, Wyo., and Buss remembered standing in food lines in the bitter cold. They moved to Southern California when he was 9, but within a few years she remarried and her second husband took the family back to Wyoming.

His stepfather, Cecil Brown, was, as Buss put it, "very tight-fisted." Brown made his living as a plumber and expected his children (one from a previous marriage, another son and a daughter with Jessie) to help.

TIMELINE: Jerry Buss' path

This work included digging ditches in the cold. Buss preferred bell hopping at a local hotel and running a mail-order stamp-collecting business that he started at age 13.

Leaving high school a year early, he worked on the railroad, pumping a hand-driven car up and down the line to make repairs. The job lasted just three months.

Until then, Buss had never much liked academics. But he returned to school and, with a science teacher's encouragement, did well enough to earn a science scholarship to the University of Wyoming.

Before graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, when he was 19 he married a coed named JoAnn Mueller and they would eventually have four children: John, Jim, Jeanie and Janie.

The couple moved to Southern California in 1953 when USC gave Buss a scholarship for graduate school. He earned a doctorate in physical chemistry in 1957. The degree brought him great pride — Lakers employees always called him "Dr. Buss."

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Letters from Lennon killer to NY cop on sale in LA

NEW YORK (AP) — Letters from John Lennon's killer detailing his obsession with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" to the police officer who arrested him went on sale Monday through a Los Angeles auction house.

The four missives from Mark David Chapman to Stephen Spiro are for sale through Moments In Time, which specializes in historical documents and rare autographs, at a fixed price of $75,000, auction house owner Gary Zimet said. Zimet is selling the letters on behalf of Spiro, who arrested Chapman on Dec. 8, 1980, shortly after he shot Lennon outside The Dakota, the ex-Beatle's Manhattan apartment building.

The letters are typed and signed by Chapman. They were written over several months in 1983, after he had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

In the first letter, from Jan. 15, 1983, Chapman says his reason for writing, besides wanting to be Spiro's friend, is to ask for help in locating his copy of "The Catcher in The Rye," which he was reading at the time of his arrest.

"Have you read 'The Catcher in the Rye' yet?" Chapman asks. "I would like you to read it and tell me what you think of it. As you remember, in the copy that was taken from me I had written 'This is my statement.'"

Spiro said he received the first letter at the Manhattan precinct where he worked and wrote Chapman back because he was hoping to get evidence on a possible hit list of other victims and people acting with Chapman.

"I was trying to get information from him to admit why he did it and what his motives were," said Spiro, who had the other letters sent to a post office box.

In one letter, Chapman said he'd let Spiro decide whether Lennon was a "phony" or not, a reference to troubled "Catcher in the Rye" narrator Holden Caulfield, who refers to people as "phonies" in the book, written by J.D. Salinger. Spiro said he re-read the novel on Chapman's request.

"I wanted to try to relate to him in the letters," he said.

The letters stopped abruptly, and Spiro said he believes someone told Chapman not to write to the police department anymore. An injury ended Spiro's job as a New York police officer in 1983, but he said he kept the letters in a file for more than 30 years. He decided to sell them in part to pay off hefty medical bills from cancer and other illnesses and because he thought they should be in the public domain.

"I wanted to publicize them to the world because they're part of history," he said.

Spiro, 66, had no contact with Chapman after the last letter.

Chapman, 57, was denied parole in August for the seventh time. During the hearing, he again expressed remorse for Lennon's killing and spoke of his Christian faith.

Lennon's widow, singer and artist Yoko Ono, still lives in the Dakota apartment she shared with Lennon, who was 40 when he died. She was celebrating her 80th birthday with a concert in Berlin and couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

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Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

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Well: Susan Love's Illness Gives New Focus to Her Cause

During a talk last spring in San Francisco, Dr. Susan Love, the well-known breast cancer book author and patient advocate, chided the research establishment for ignoring the needs of people with cancer. “The only difference between a researcher and a patient is a diagnosis,” she told the crowd. “We’re all patients.”

It was an eerily prescient lecture. Less than two months later, Dr. Love was given a diagnosis of acute myelogenous leukemia. She had no obvious symptoms and learned of her disease only after a checkup and routine blood work.

“Little did I know I was talking about myself,” she said in an interview. “It was really out of the blue. I was feeling fine. I ran five miles the day before.”

Dr. Love, a surgeon, is best known as the author of the top-selling “Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book” (Da Capo Press, 2010) now in its fifth edition. She is also president of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, which focuses on breast cancer prevention and research into eradicating the disease. But after decades of tireless advocacy on behalf of women with breast cancer, Dr. Love found herself in an unfamiliar role with an unfamiliar disease.

“There is a sense of shock when it happens to you,” she said. “In some ways I would have been less shocked if I got breast cancer because it’s so common, but getting leukemia was a world I didn’t know. Even when you’re a physician, when you get shocking news like this you sort of forget everything you know and are scared the same as everybody else.”

Because Dr. Love’s disease was caught early, she had a little time to seek second opinions and choose her medical team. She chose City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., because of its extensive experience in bone marrow transplants. At 65, Dr. Love was startled to learn she was considered among the “elderly” patients for this type of leukemia.

She was admitted to the hospital and underwent chemotherapy. Because her blood counts did not rebound after the treatment, her stay lasted a grueling seven weeks.

She went home for just two weeks, and then returned to the hospital for a bone-marrow transplant, with marrow donated by her younger sister, Elizabeth Love De Graci, 53, who lives in Mexico City.

Although the transplant itself was uneventful, the next four weeks were an ordeal. Dr. Love developed pain and neuropathy from the chemotherapy drugs. Dr. Love’s wife, Dr. Helen Cooksey; daughter, Katie Love-Cooksey, 24; and siblings offered round-the-clock support. Ms. Love-Cooksey slept in the hospital every night. “I wasn’t very articulate during that time, but I always had my family there,” Dr. Love said. “They were great advocates for me.”

The transplant “is quite an amazing thing,” Dr. Love said. Her blood type changed from O positive to B positive, the same type as her sister. She also has inherited her sister’s immune system, and a lifelong allergy to nickel has disappeared. “I can wear cheap jewelry now,” she said. She returned to work last month.

Dr. Love has been told her disease is in remission, though her immune system remains compromised and she is more susceptible to infection. So she avoids crowds, air travel and other potential sources of cold and flu viruses.

While Dr. Love has always been a strong advocate for women undergoing cancer treatment, she says her disease and treatment has strengthened her understanding of what women with breast cancer and other types of cancer go through during treatments.

“There are little things like having numb toes or having less stamina to building muscles back up after a month of bed rest,” she said. “There is significant collateral damage from the treatment that is underestimated by the medical profession. There’s a sense of ‘You’re lucky to be alive, so why are you complaining?’ ”

Dr. Love says her experience has emboldened her in her quest to focus on the causes of disease rather than new drugs to treat it.

“I think I’m more impatient now and in more of a hurry,” she said. “I’ve been reminded that you don’t know how long you have. There are women being diagnosed every day. We don’t have the luxury to sit around and come up with a new marketing scheme. We have to get rid of this disease, and there is no reason we can’t do it.”

People who remain skeptical about the ability to eradicate breast cancer should look to the history of cervical cancer, she said. Decades ago, a woman with an abnormal Pap smear would be advised to undergo hysterectomy. Now a vaccine exists that can protect women from the infection that causes most cervical cancers.

“We need to focus more on the cause of breast cancer,” she said. “I’m still very impressed with the fact that cancer of the cervix went from being a disease that robbed women of their fertility, if not their lives, to having a vaccine to prevent it.”

Dr. Love, who wrote a book called “Live a Little!,” said illness has also made her grateful that she didn’t put off her “bucket list” and that she has traveled the world and focused on work she finds challenging and satisfying.

“It just reminds you that none of us are going to get out of here alive, and we don’t know how much time we have,” she said. “I say this to my daughter, whether it’s changing the world or having a good time, that we should do what we want to do. I drink the expensive wine now.”

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