(The New York Times News Service) -- Dear Dr. Bone: I live in the Philippines and am 26 years old. My mother died of breast cancer when I was only 14 years old. Now I have blood coming from my nipple and I was told that this is usually due to terminal cancer. I am really scared. -- O.P.

Dear O.P.: The good news is that having blood come from your nipple is almost always because of a NONcancerous growth called an intraductal papilloma.

You need to see a surgeon about it. Your risk of breast cancer is higher than other women based on the fact that your mother died young of breast cancer. However, the risk may not be as high as you suspect. Having one first-degree relative with breast cancer increases your risk from about 14 percent to 18 percent, not a very big difference.

Even so, I suggest you have an imaging study done, probably a sonogram (ultrasound) as it may be more helpful than a mammogram at your age. MRI is also a possible option.

I sincerely doubt you have cancer at all, let alone terminal cancer and hope that you tell the person who scared you not to make judgments until all the information is in.

Please keep me posted on what happens.

Dear Dr. Bone: My friend is dying of ovarian cancer. She is almost catatonic. She never made out a will. Is it too late to try to do it when she has a lucid moment? Her family is very concerned.

-- N.B.

Dear N.B.: A challenging question. A will should be done when the patient is deemed sound of mind. If your friend is under the influence of narcotic pain medication she may not be competent to execute a will.

I suggest that her family consults with a lawyer right away.

Hospice and your local Legal Aid Society provide resources to answer these type of questions.

Dear Dr. Bone: I sleep in a bra. Sometimes when I wake up my breasts are sore and I notice lumps. Do you think this is due to the bra?

There is breast cancer in my family so I am worried that these lumps might turn into cancer. -- I.N.

Dear I.N.: Wearing any bra for a long period of time can cause pressure on breast tissue. The pressure can cause soreness and swelling that may feel like a lump when there isn't one there. The good news is that wearing a bra all the time does not seem to predispose a woman to breast cancer.

Simply by taking the bra off and letting the tissues expand should solve the problem.

I am not sure when sleeping in a bra came into vogue, but I certainly see a lot of young women doing it these days.

Perhaps they think that the constant support from the bra will prevent sagging later on in life. How different than the 1960s when bra burning was popular and going without one meant you were liberated!

Dr. Melanie Bone is a cancer survivor and gynecologist who practices in West Palm Beach, Fla. To send questions for her Q&A column, go to www.cancersensibility.org (there is a tab to contact her for questions) or PalmBeachPost.com/health (click on the "ask a question" link). Any questions submitted to Dr. Bone will be considered for her column.

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