Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

Veterinary students Nicole Bayless, left, and Megan Richards, along with technician Janet Pezzi, prepare an African lion named Tsavo for cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

Dr. James Steeil prepares an African lion named Tsavo for cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

An African lion named Tsavo is seen during cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

Tsavo, a 357 pound African lion, received radiation treatments at the University of Tennessee's Veternary Medical Center on a cancerous tumor near the big cat's mouth.

This was the fourth, and last, of Tsavo's radiation treatments. At his first visit, the tumor measured 10 centimeters — about the size of an orange. At this one, it measured about 6 centimeters, smaller than a lime. With any luck, the radiation has killed the cancer's DNA so that the tumor will continue to shrink over the next four weeks. If not, Tsavo will have surgery to remove it.

--The Associated Press

The photographs were shot on July 6, but made available to msnbc.com today.

Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

Assistant professor of radiation oncology Dr. Nathan Lee prepares an African lion named Tsavo for cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

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The photos show a stout, middle-aged man dressed only in a pink tutu: poised on a diving board, hanging off a tree, wandering through a cow pasture, catching the breeze on a ferry deck - and lying in a bed alone.

Photographer Bob Carey started shooting the quirky, often touching self-portraits back in 2003, right around the time his wife of Linda was told she had developed an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Three years after treatments had apparently obliterated Linda’s cancer, it came back with a vengeance, spreading to her liver. She’s been beating the odds since then, a survivor who lives with her cancer one day at a time.

The photos turned out to be a kind of therapy for the couple, putting a smile on Linda’s face while capturing the vulnerability of everyone fighting a deadly disease. They laugh in the face of death.

"Other people… say 'I wish I could do that because that’s how I feel,'" Bob told Matt Lauer when he and Linda appeared on TODAY Thursday.

Courtesy Of Bob Carey / thetutuproject.com

When Bob initially told his wife that he wanted to do a series of self-portraits dressed only in a pink tutu, she didn’t blink. “I’m used to Bob,” she told Lauer. “We’d worked together on a lot of creative projects. I was like, ‘OK, where do we get the fabric and who do we know that sews?’”

As the photos accumulated, Bob started a website called “The Tutu Project,” and emails have been pouring in since.

“My dad passed away two years ago from cancer,” one person wrote. “On Valentine’s Day my mother passed away fighting metastatic breast cancer. I wanted to say thanks. I haven’t even smiled since. But you made me laugh.”

Just as some people wear pink ribbons or run 5K races, the pink tutu photos have become Bob and Linda’s way of calling attention to breast cancer and helping raise money for women whose insurance doesn’t cover all the costs of battling the deadly disease.

The website had gone viral and has, so far, raised $60,000.

The portraits have also helped cheer up Linda’s fellow patients. Bob brings the latest photos along with him when Linda goes in for cancer treatments every three weeks.

Courtesy Of Bob Carey / thetutuproject.com

High Desert Road

"I was thinking during the time he was showing it to me, this is the fastest my treatment ever went by,” one patient told TODAY. “I immediately felt, 'I can do this.'"

Behind the smiles, though, there is the ever-present knowledge that Linda’s health could suddenly take a turn for the worse.

“I have a very strong reality of what can happen,” Linda told Lauer. “I can go and get my blood test tomorrow and it can be not good.”

But for now, Linda takes heart and smiles through the dark moments with the help of the man in the pink tutu.

Slideshow: The Tutu Project

Courtesy of Bob Carey/thetutuproject.com

To raise awareness and funding for breast cancer, from which his wife is suffering, photographer Bob Carey has spent nine years traveling the country to take portraits of himself wearing only a pink tutu.

Launch slideshow

For more information about the Tutu Project, click here.

Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle via AP

Bo the dog is anesthetized for his radiation treatment in the TomoTherapy unit at Texas A&M's Veterinary Medicine College in College Station, Texas.

Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle via AP

Karan Crooks, of Willis, holds her dog Nutmeg, who received radiation treatment for cancer last year, as she talks about the experience at Texas A&M's Veterinary Medicine College in College Station, Texas.

Texas A&M's Veterinary Medicine College is home to one of the country's two animal TomoTherapy units, a $3 million machine that combines radiation therapy and CT scanning technology to treat tumors once considered untreatable.

This is a place of last refuge, intractable hope and boundless love, the entrance to a battlefield between cutting-edge science and cancer.

--The Houston Chronicle

Continue reading High-tech vet clinic at Texas A&M draws praise at Chron.com.

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Mahesh Kumar A / AP

An Indian Pharmacologist examines the reaction of cytotoxic drugs on a mouse inside a containment facility of the Research and Development Centre of Natco Pharma Ltd. in Hyderabad, India, on March 13. India effectively ended Bayer's monopoly on a patented cancer drug Monday, licensing a much cheaper generic under a unique law aimed at keeping costs affordable. In a decision likely to upset Western pharmaceuticals, the patent office approved Natco Pharma Ltd.'s application to produce the kidney and liver cancer treatment sorefinib.

Mahesh Kumar A / AP

An Indian Pharmacologist removes mice from cages to study the reaction of cytotoxic drugs, inside a containment facility of the Research and Development Centre of Natco Pharma Ltd. in Hyderabad, India, on March 13.

Reuters -- India's move to strip German drugmaker Bayer of its exclusive rights to a cancer drug has set a precedent that could extend to other treatments, including modern HIV/AIDS drugs, in a major blow to global pharmaceutical firms, experts say.

On Monday, the Indian Patent Office effectively ended Bayer's monopoly for its Nexavar drug and issued its first-ever compulsory license allowing local generic maker Natco Pharma to make and sell the drug cheaply in India.

It is only the second time a nation has issued a compulsory license for a cancer drug after Thailand did so on four drugs between 2006 and 2008, also on affordability grounds. Thailand also issued licenses for HIV/AIDS and heart disease treatments.

Krishnendu Halder / Reuters

A pharmacologist checks the toxic reaction on a swiss albino inside the bio safety cabinet at Natco Research Center in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, on March 13. India's move to strip German drugmaker Bayer of its exclusive rights to a cancer drug has set a precedent that could extend to other treatments, including modern HIV/AIDS drugs, in a major blow to global pharmaceutical firms, experts say. On Monday, the Indian Patent Office effectively ended Bayer's monopoly for its Nexavar drug and issued its first-ever compulsory license allowing local generic maker Natco Pharma to make and sell the drug cheaply in India.

"This could well be the first of many compulsory rulings here," said Gopakumar G. Nair, head of patent law firm Gopakumar Nair Associates and former president of the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association.

"Global pharmaceutical manufacturers are likely to be worried as a result ... given that the wording in India's Patent Act that had been amended from 'reasonably priced' to 'reasonably affordable priced' has come into play now."

Read the full story.

Mahesh Kumar A / AP

An Indian scientist works inside a laboratory of the Research and Development Centre of Natco Pharma Ltd. in Hyderabad, India, on March 13.

The AP reports from Managua, Nicaragua: 

In her glowing pink dress and tiara, Maria Jose Martinez looked the part of the excited princess celebrating her 15th birthday as friends and family gathered for her coming-out party.

She and her father entered the ballroom of the Managua hotel in grand style, between two rows of cadets from the Nicaraguan Military Academy standing at attention with bayonets raised. The thin, sad-eyed girl later let out a thrilled laugh as she danced with one of the green-uniformed soldiers.

Esteban Felix / AP

Leukemia patient Maria Jose Martinez tries on the dress she will wear at her Quinceanera, or 15th birthday party, in her hospital room at La Mascota Children's Hospital in Managua, Nicaragua, on Aug. 25.

Esteban Felix / AP

Maria sits in Dr. Mercedes Arguello's office in the oncology area of La Mascota Children's Hospital in Managua on Sept. 20. She is in her second cycle of chemotherapy and has had three operations since she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia six months ago.

Just hours before, Maria Jose had woken up in a different world, with no pink dress and no long, gold-streaked hair. She had sat up in bed with her bald pate and T-shirt pale in the morning sun, one of dozens of girls receiving treatment for leukemia at the La Mascota hospital in the capital of Managua.

Maria Jose had entered the hospital in May suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, meaning her body produced too many white blood cells. Chemotherapy and other treatment often left her weak and in pain, and her weight had fallen to only 84 pounds (38 kilograms).

Esteban Felix / AP

A medicine drip is secured to Maria's hand on Aug. 25 as she tries on the dress she will wear to her Quinceanera.

Esteban Felix / AP

Maria dances with a military cadet as her father, left, looks on during a mass Quinceanera at a hotel in Managua on Aug. 27.

Despite her illness, Maria Jose, along with some two dozen other girls, had dressed up, left their hospital rooms and taken part in the late-August quinceanera party marking their birthdays. An association of parents with cancer-stricken children had organized the party.

"I wanted to cry because she looked so happy despite her illness," said Maria Jose's mother Petrona Guido.

Maria Jose herself acknowledged that her leukemia had slowed her down. She hadn't wanted to stop dancing with one of the cadets after just two songs.

"That was because I felt sick, otherwise I would have swirled him in the air at least three times," Maria Jose said afterward.

Esteban Felix / AP

Maria, center, watches her sisters try on ball dresses to be worn during her Quinceanera in La Cuchilla village during Maria's temporary discharge from hospital on Aug. 29.

Esteban Felix / AP

Maria, sitting left center, poses for a group portrait with other patients from La Mascota Children's Hospital as they celebrate their Quinceanera at a hotel in Managua on Aug. 27.

Associated Press photographer Esteban Felix followed Maria Jose through the day's preparations and celebrations, as she weakly embraced her twin sister Maria Mercedes from her hospital bed and later returned by wheelchair to her room while still in party dress.

Felix returned with Maria Jose two days later to her tropical hometown of La Cuchilla about 115 miles north of the capital. A crowd of well-wishers, some playing guitar, mandolin and violin, tearfully welcomed Maria Jose as she approached.

About two weeks later, Maria Jose donned another pink dress and cloth roses again for a quinceanera held during Mass at a local chapel. With her thin, brown arms protruding from her dress, she cried with head bowed.

By nightfall, her body had reached a limit, and she cried in pain as two male relatives helped her walk back home.

Esteban Felix / AP

Maria, reflected in the car's side view mirror, smiles as she sees her relatives and neighbors awaiting her arrival in La Cuchilla village on Aug. 29.

Esteban Felix / AP

Maria rests in a hammock in her home before celebrating her Quinceanera in Las Cuchillas village on Sept. 11.

A day later, she was back at Hospital Mascota for more treatment. Her quinceaneras had passed. Symbolically, her childhood had ended, and her life as a woman had begun.

For Maria Jose, the hard fight against cancer also lay ahead.

But she said she was happy.

"I thank God that I'm here, that I'm alive."

Esteban Felix / AP

In this combo of two photos taken on Aug. 27, Maria is pushed in a wheelchair by her father Juan Jose through a line of cadets from Nicaragua's Military Academy during her Quinceanera, top, and later through the oncology area of La Mascota Children's Hospital as she returns to her room after the party.

Graphic Warning: This post contains images which some viewers may find disturbing.

Life.com reports: SCAR Project - Breast Cancer Exposed

What started out as an effort aimed at raising awareness about young women with breast cancer has turned into something more beautiful, more provocative and more revealing than fashion photographer David Jay could have imagined. By taking portraits of his subjects and their scarred chests, Jay unlocked a visual world few have seen where grace, guts, pain, and femininity all cross paths to expose a deeply moving side of humanity. LIFE.com spoke to Jay about the culmination of his work -- a book called The SCAR Project -- and about the raw, hard-hitting images that reveal another side of this national epidemic. Editor's note: The pictures on Life.com contain nudity.

 

David Jay / LIFE.com

Jill, 28 years old
"Breast cancer changed me, but it did not make me a better or worse person. I will never know who I might have been had I not gone through this experience. All I know is that the person that I have become has amazing strength and courage mixed with heartfelt sadness and fear."

David Jay / LIFE.com

Cary, 33 years old
"I participated in The SCAR Project because I believe that these powerful images can reach people in a way that words cannot. If one young woman does a self-exam after looking at my photo or one doctor sends a patient for a "just to be sure" scan, then exposing myself for art becomes a life-saving proposition," she says in the book.

Related links:

• The SCAR Project website
• The SCAR Project on Facebook
• The SCAR Project on Life.com

The test uses a microchip that resembles a lab slide covered in 78,000 tiny posts, like bristles on a hairbrush. Read more here.

PNAS Early Edition / AP

This undated image provided by PNAS Early Edition shows a circulating tumor cell cluster isolated using the HB-Chip from the blood of a patient with metastatic prostate cancer. The blood test which is so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor's office. Boston scientists who invented the test and health care giant Johnson & Johnson will announce Monday, Jan. 3, that they are joining forces to bring it to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year.

PNAS Early Edition / AP

This undated image provided by PNAS Early Edition shows the HB-Chip. The herringbone pattern of interior surfaces in the chip brings more circulating tumor cells into contact with the antibody-coated capture surfaces. The inset shows the uniform blood flow through the device.

It would be difficult, but I think worthwhile, work to bring joy to these young patients.

Inti Ocon / Reuters

Clown Ernesto Aguirre (L) jokes with a fellow clown while visiting a young cancer patient at the La Mascota children's hospital in Managua on Dec. 24. Aguirre has been visiting the hospital at Christmas for the last five years to bring joy and gifts to children suffering from cancer.

Inti Ocon / Reuters

Clown Ernesto Aguirre (R) tries to cheer up a boy suffering from throat cancer at the La Mascota children's hospital in Managua on Dec. 24.

Inti Ocon / Reuters

Clown Ernesto Aguirre applies face paint at the La Mascota children's hospital in Managua on Dec. 24.