Treating precancers reduces breast cancer deaths
Breast cancer deaths rose through the '70s and '80s, but declined in the '90s. For nearly the past 20 years, American women have had about a 2% annual drop in the breast cancer death rate.Here is the mortality graph provided by the National Cancer Institutes SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) program.Though nobody wants to take the blame for the rise in breast cancer deaths in the '70s and '80s, lots of people want credit for the fall of breast cancer deaths that began in the '90s. Was it due to a reduction to the exposure of carcinogens, or to better treatment, or to earlier diagnosis? The fall in breast...
Source: Specified Life - July 13, 2014 Category: Pathologists Tags: cancer prevention cancer treatment early treatment precancer precancer treatment preneoplasia preneoplastic Source Type: blogs
Rare Cancer are Subsets of Common Cancers
In June, 2014, my book, entitled Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs: Keys to Understanding and Treating the Common Diseases was published by Elsevier. The book builds the argument that our best chance of curing the common diseases will come from studying and curing the rare diseases. One of the key ideas developed in the book is that each common diseases is actually an aggregate of cellular processes that are present, individually, in rare diseases. In the case of the common cancers, we can find specific rare diseases that are subsets of the common diseases. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 8: 8.3.3 Inherited syndromes that...
Source: Specified Life - July 9, 2014 Category: Pathologists Tags: cancer syndromes carcinogenesis common cancers common disease familial cancer syndromes genetic disease orphan disease orphan drugs rare cancers rare disease Source Type: blogs
Direct Assault on Advanced Stage Common Cancers Has Not Yielded Cures
In June, 2014, my book, entitled Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs: Keys to Understanding and Treating the Common Diseases was published by Elsevier. The book builds the argument that our best chance of curing the common diseases will come from studying and curing the rare diseases. Here is a short excerpt from Chapter 8: Though there are thousands of types of human cancer, the bulk of cancer cases in humans are accounted for by just a few, under a dozen, types of cancer. The two most commonly occurring cancers of humans are basal cell carcinoma of skin and squamous cell carcinoma of skin. Together, these two tumors account...
Source: Specified Life - July 8, 2014 Category: Pathologists Tags: advanced stage cancer cancer funding cancer priorities cancer research funding common disease cures for advanced stage cancers orphan disease orphan drugs rare disease Source Type: blogs
Major Driver Mutations in Adenosquamous Lung Carcinomas
The June 2014 issue of Journal of Thoracic Oncology (abstract) features a thorough study of major known driver mutations (EGFR, KRAS, ERBB2, BRAF, PIK3CA, AKT1, RET, and ALK) in a series of 76 patients from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center with resected adenosquamous lung carcinoma (AdSqLC) by Wang et al. and compared this group with a group of 646 patients with resected adenocarcinoma (ADC) during the same study period. This is a nifty paper that will serve well as a useful contemporary reference when you next encounter a patient with adenosquamous lung carcinoma.
From their "Table 1" data, it is o...
Source: The Daily Sign-Out - June 23, 2014 Category: Pathologists Authors: Mark D. Pool, M.D. Tags: Lung Cancer Non small cell lung cancer Source Type: blogs
Sovaldi - a "Revolution" in Clinical Care, or in Marketing and Public Relations?
DiscussionWashington Post/ Kaiser Health NewsOn May 12, 2014, in an article on the dilemma the drug's US price of $1000/ pill presents to Medicare, Richard Knox wrote this about a patient with the infection:Previous drug treatments didn't clear the virus from Bianco's system. But it's almost certain that potent new drugs for hep-C could cure him. In other words, the article asserted that Sovaldi and similar drugs cure nearly everyone with hepatitis C, even those not cured by previous treatment. ReutersOn May 20, 2014, in an article about how US health insurers are balking at the price of Sovaldi, was this statement ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - May 28, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: evidence-based medicine Gilead health care prices manipulating clinical research Sovaldi You heard it here first Source Type: blogs
"Texas VA Run Like a ‘Crime Syndicate,’ Whistleblower Says" - Can Reports About the Benefits of EHRs at the VA Healthcare System Be Trusted?
This article just appeared:Texas VA Run Like a ‘Crime Syndicate,’ Whistleblower SaysMay 27, 2014http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/27/exclusive-texas-va-run-like-a-crime-syndicate-whistleblower-says.htmlFor years, employees at a Texas VA complained that their bosses were cooking the books. For years, the VA insisted there was no widespread wrongdoing. New whistleblower testimony and internal documents implicate an award-winning VA hospital in Texas in widespread wrongdoing—and what appears to be systemic fraud.Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most compre...
Source: Health Care Renewal - May 28, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: CPRS health care corruption healthcare IT unintended consequences Veterans Administration medical scandal Veterans Affairs VistA Source Type: blogs
Management of hepatic encephalopathy in hospital
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); Review ArticleLeise MD, Poterucha J, Kamath PS et. al. Management of hepatic encephalopathy in the hospital. Mayo Clin Proc 2014; 89(2) 241-253.Working Party for hepatic encephalopathy nomenclature:Type A HE-- secondary to liver failureType B HE enteric hyperammonemia without liver diseasevar pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3639768-12"); pageTracker._initData(); pageTracker._trackPageview(); T...
Source: neurologyminutiae - May 16, 2014 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs
Broadway Star Valisia LeKae Debuts Ovarian Cancer PSA in Times Square
“God has given me another role to play and like all my previous roles, I plan to go all in, only this time I plan to Win!” — Broadway star Valisia LeKae Broadway star Valisia LeKae is a 2013 Tony Award nominee for “Best Actress in a Musical” for her performance as Diana Ross in […] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*)
Source: Libby's H*O*P*E* - May 1, 2014 Category: Cancer Authors: Paul Cacciatore Tags: Advocacy Inspirational David Fishman M.D. Elizabeth Remick Motown The Musical Mt. Sinai Ovarian Cancer Risk Assessment Program ovarian clear cell carcinoma Peter Hapak salpingo-oophorectomy Times Square Toshiba Toshiba Vision Screens Source Type: blogs
Cases: "Am I really going to have to live like this?": The Role of Octreotide in Patients with Persistent Nausea and Vomiting after Venting Gastrostomy
Discussion:Malignant bowel obstruction can occur with any cancer but is most commonly associated with advanced ovarian cancer, where it occurs in up to 50% of patients. It generally indicates a poor prognosis and carries a heavy symptom burden predominated by nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Patients with carcinomatosis, like Ms BB, are generally not candidates for surgical correction of the obstruction or endoscopic stenting. Fortunately, medical management can be very effective. Abdominal pain is treated with opioids and nausea is treated with metoclopramide in partial obstructions and haloperidol in complete obstruc...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - April 10, 2014 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Christian Sinclair Source Type: blogs
The Mole That Really Wasn't a Mole
Short essay on my experience with basal cell carcinoma.Contributor: Lynne PearcePublished: Mar 13, 2014 (Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content)
Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content - March 14, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Source Type: blogs
My Experience With Squamous Cell Carcinoma
A first person account of my experience with skin cancer, how it was treated, and what measures I should have taken to prevent it.Contributor: Lisa P. KirkpatrickPublished: Mar 11, 2014 (Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content)
Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content - March 11, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Source Type: blogs
A Fisherman’s Friend… or Foe?
aka Toxicology Conundrum 052
A 64 year-old male was brought in after a collapse at home. He had been sitting on the couch with his wife when she noticed that he had gone limp and was not breathing. Bystander CPR was performed for 15 minutes until ambulance crews arrived. He received 2x DC 200J shock for ventricular fibrillation, after which he had a return of spontaneous circulation, with HR 80 sinus rhythm, BP 90/60 and GCS 3. In the Emergency department he received 300mg Amiodarone, and cooling was commenced as per out of hospital cardiac arrest protocol at that time. He had a further episode of VF arrest soon after ar...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 5, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Kylie McNamara Tags: Clinical Case Emergency Medicine Featured Intensive Care Toxicology Toxicology Quiz cardiac arrest ECG Glycyrrhizic acidm hypokalemia laboratory results licorice liquorice Source Type: blogs
More Good PD-1 News in Cancer
PD-1 therapies are a big, big deal in oncology these days, and with results like this, no wonder. It's a negative regulator of T-cell function, and blocking it appears to recruit a much stronger immune response to tumor cells. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, and others have antibodies in the clinic, and results are piling up to suggest that these are going to be big.
The BMS entry, BMS-936558 (nivolumab), had already shown some promising Phase II results in non small-cell lung cancer, renal carcinoma, and colorectal cancer. Many patients don't respond, but the ones that do seem to show real benefit. (And it's worth noting th...
Source: In the Pipeline - March 4, 2014 Category: Chemists Tags: Cancer Source Type: blogs
