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March
06, 2009
News
Headlines
Prostate Cancer Anxiety Tied to Early Use of
Androgen Deprivation
Preventative
Mastectomy on The Rise in The US
Maintenance Rituximab Useful for Advanced
Indolent Lymphoma
Genetic
Counseling Reduces Cancer-Specific Distress
Patient-Physician Connection Results in Closer
Adherence to Guidelines
Cancerpage news is updated daily, Monday
through Friday, and on the weekends as
warranted. More than 14 new
articles have been added to cancerpage news since the last newsletter.
To see ALL the latest stories, go to the
cancerpage.com search page and click on Submit (but
leave search field black.)
Healthcare Summit - Hottest Ticket in
Town
President
Barak Obama opened the White House Health
Reform Summit in Washington Thursday saying it's not just a moral imperative
to fix the nation's broken healthcare delivery system, it's a fiscal imperative.
He said every 30 seconds, someone declares bankruptcy in the U.S. because
of medical bills. He told those gathered every option "except the status
quo" is on the table, every idea must be considered; "the perfect must not
be the enemy of the essential," he said. Read more about the Obama Reform
agenda here .
Watch video of the events, etc. at this web site.
March is
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
The third most
common cancer in American men and women is cancer of the colon and rectum.
Nearly 150,000 cases are likely to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year. The
good news about colorectal cancer is that screening advances makes
it possilbe to detect pre-cancerous growths in the colon when they can be
surgically removed before they ever turn into cancer. Beginning at age 50, men and women
should begin screening with 1 of the examination schedules recommended by the American Cancer Society as follows:
- A fecal occult blood test (FOBT) or fecal immunochemical test (FIT) every year
- flexible sigmoidoscopy (FSIG) every 5 years
- Annual FOBT or FIT and flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years*
- A double-contrast barium enema every 5 years
- A colonoscopy every 10 years.
Colonoscopy is the gold standard - the preferred
colorectal cancer prevention test of the American College of Gastroenterology.
ACG has offered a simpler screening schedule that focuses on the
colonoscopy and urges African Americans to begin screening at age 45. Read
the ACG guidelines here.
You Take that
Back!
Getting tough with online physician rating
services. Concerned about the fairness of these web sites, some doctors have
signed on with Medical Justice, a service that advises doctors to require
patients to sign a waiver before delivering service. The patient agrees not to
go on these web sites to comment about the doctors.
MJ monitors online comments and alerts doctors when negative comments
have been posted. The rating sites are calling foul, saying requiring patients
to sign waivers denies them free speech in return for medical
service. Read an
article here.
FDA Advisory-
Transdermal Patches and
MRIs
The FDA is looking into problems
involving SOME - not all - transdermal patches that have aluminum or other
metals in the backing. They can cause burns to the skin of
people undergoing an MRI. Patches deliver drugs for any number of
reasons,including pain control, smoking cessation, or hormone delivery. If you
have an MRI planned, talk to your doctor about the safety of the patch you are
using. Also tell the MRI facility that you are using a transdermal
patch when you make the appointment, give your medical history, and
when you arrive for the appointment. Read
the warning here.
Alcohol and
Cancer
Esophageal Cancer is the fastest growing cancer in the
US. New research by Kaiser Permanante scientists finds that a glass of red
wine a day cuts the incidence of Barretts Esophagus - the precurser of
esophageal cancer.. by 56%. "Barrett's Esophagus affects 5 percent of the
population and occurs when heartburn or acid reflux permanently damages the
esophageal lining. People with Barrett's Esophagus have a 30- to 40-fold higher
risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma (a type of esophageal cancer)
because the Barrett's Esophagus cells can grow into cancer cells." Read
more about the Kaiser study here
.
++++
On the
other side of the equation, consuming two or more drinks per day could
increase
a person's risk of pancreatic cancer by about 22 percent, according to
data published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer
Research. You can read more abvout the details here.
In the Lab/In the
Clinic
Experimental targeted therapy with chemo wipes out
advanced extremity melanoma in small clinical trial. The trial used a
compound (called ADH-1) that targets a protein found on the surface of many
melanoma cells and makes them more vulnerable to chemo. Sixteen patients were
given the experimental drug followed by chemo at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer
Center or the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Half of them
experienced a "complete obliteration" of their cancer. A larger clinical trial
is now
planned.
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