By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Medical Writer The advice made her head spin: Have the lump removed. No, let them take the whole breast. Chemo? Radiation? Everyone seemed to have an opinion. "I just shut everyone down around me," said Bernie Brann, a newly diagnosed cancer patient from upstate New York. "You're just so overwhelmed with information." Bad advice, or just too much of it, can compound the trauma and damage done by the disease itself, cancer patients often find. Friends and relatives are important for support, but when these untrained people act as cancer coaches, they can sway people to make poor decisions about their care. This includes survivors, whose opinions are highly valued by patients suddenly facing the scary diagnosis. They may know a lot about cancer, but can do harm if they project their own experiences onto someone else, who may have a different form of the disease that needs different treatment.