My Cancer Story
By JEFF GOLDSMITH
On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a present of some profoundly unwelcome news: a 64 slice CT scan confirming not only the presence of a malignant tumor in my neck, but also a fluid filled mass the size of a man’s finger in my chest cavity outside the lungs. Two days earlier, my ENT surgeon in Charlottesville, Paige Powers, had performed a fine needle aspiration of a suspicious almond-shaped enlarged lymph node, and the lab returned a verdict of “metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an occult primary tumor”.
I had worked in healthcare for nearly forty years when ca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medical Practice The Business of Health Care Cancer Jeff Goldsmith Medicare Advantage Patient Experience Source Type: blogs
Patients are Not “Consumers”: My Cancer Story
By JEFF GOLDSMITH
On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a present of some profoundly unwelcome news: a 64 slice CT scan confirming not only the presence of a malignant tumor in my neck, but also a fluid filled mass the size of a man’s finger in my chest cavity outside the lungs. Two days earlier, my ENT surgeon in Charlottesville, Paige Powers, had performed a fine needle aspiration of a suspicious almond-shaped enlarged lymph node, and the lab returned a verdict of “metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an occult primary tumor”.
I had worked in healthcare for nearly forty years when ca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medical Practice The Business of Health Care Cancer Jeff Goldsmith Medicare Advantage Patient Experience Source Type: blogs
Point-Of-Care Biosensor to Detect Oral Cancer
Researchers at the University of Florida have created a point-of-care biosensor that can rapidly detect a biomarker for oral cancer. The device uses test strips, such as those used in blood glucose tests, to spot cell proliferation regulating inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A), a protein biomarker that can reveal the presence of oral cancer. The device requires a liquid sample that is introduced to the end of the test strip, where it runs into channels that contain antibody-covered electrodes. The antibodies are specific for CIP2A, and antibody binding changes the electrical signal the electrodes produce, providin...
Source: Medgadget - January 5, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics ENT Oncology oral cancer UF uflorida Source Type: blogs
How An A.I.-Based Skin Checking App Can Work With A National Healthcare System
You might be already familiar with skin checking apps, we too have discussed them quite extensively recently. Skin checking applications allow users to take pictures of their suspicious skin lesions, upload these pictures to a server, the images are first evaluated by an A.I. algorithm and the results will be later validated by a dermatologist.
However, this time there is something new under the sun: AIP Labs and Semmelweis University (Hungary’s leading medical university) developed a skin checking application that offers several features we have not seen before. It was launched to work integrated with the natio...
Source: The Medical Futurist - September 8, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Digital Health Research E-Patients Future of Medicine Healthcare Design Healthcare Policy Telemedicine & Smartphones AI dermatology skin skin cancer skin checker skin checking app digital Source Type: blogs
Stomach Cancer Stage 4 Treatment
Stomach cancer stage 4 is a complex diagnosis. It is the stage of cancer that requires specific treatment options.
Is surgery an option for patients with stomach cancer stage 4?
Stage 4 stomach cancer is characterized by rapid tumor growth, metastasizing to regional lymph nodes and distant organs (liver, bones, pancreas, less often lungs). With the development of metastases in other organs, characteristic symptoms occur such as jaundice and liver failure with liver damage, ascites with metastases in the peritoneum, bowel obstruction with metastases in the small intestine, etc.
Therefore, at the advanced stages, ga...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - January 22, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Booking Health Tags: health and fitness self-improvement cancer stomach cancer treatment Source Type: blogs
Digital Otoscope Enhances Decision-Making and Improves Outcomes
Procedural equipment will help you make accurate diagnoses and formulate treatment plans. You want the equipment to work, be readily accessible, and be easy to clean and store. It's also nice when it fits in your pocket.You also want to be sure your staff is trained to use it. Not everyone in your department may want to break out the nasal endoscope for a quick ENT exam, as we discussed last month. (See post below.) But specialized ENT equipment may make your life a bit easier and improve patient outcomes. Using a digital otoscope to view the tympanic membrane is fast, easy, and safe. This particular model costs $24. ...
Source: The Procedural Pause - November 30, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Newer skin cancer treatments improve prognosis for those with cutaneous melanoma
Cutaneous melanoma, also called malignant melanoma, is the type of skin cancer that is most likely to spread to other parts of the body. Though melanoma accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers, it is responsible for more than 90% of skin cancer-related deaths.
But thanks to developments in skin cancer treatment (mostly in the last decade), patients with melanoma have much better chances of living longer.
What is a melanoma?
Melanoma involves the uncontrolled growth of a type of cell known as a melanocyte. One of the most important functions of a normal melanocyte is to protect your skin from the sun’s damaging ultravi...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 3, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dominic Wu, MD Tags: Cancer Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
Hyperspectral Surgical Microscope to See Cancer Cells in Real Time
Since internal cancerous tumors usually look exactly like the healthy tissues around them, frozen section analysis is used during and after surgeries to confirm that the entirety of a tumor has been removed. This is a slow process that often leads to patients requiring follow-up procedures.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a hyperspectral surgical microscope that may be able to spot cancer cells in real-time during surgeries. It not only images across nearly the entire optical spectrum, from UV to infrared, but it also uses machine learning techniques to analyze the images it produces and...
Source: Medgadget - October 2, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Neurosurgery Ob/Gyn Oncology Pathology Radiology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 29th 2019
In this study we show, for the first time, significant alterations in cholesterol efflux capacity in adolescents throughout the range of BMI, a relationship between six circulating adipocyte-derived EVs microRNAs targeting ABCA1 and cholesterol efflux capacity, and in vitro alterations of cholesterol efflux in macrophages exposed to visceral adipose tissue adipocyte-derived EVs acquired from human subjects. These results suggest that adipocyte-derived EVs, and their microRNA content, may play a critical role in the early pathological development of ASCVD.
Commentary on the Developing UK Government Position on Hea...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 28, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Reversing Somatic Mosaicism in Aged Tissue
In this study, we focused on p53 mutations because these are the most enriched during malignant transformation. p53 is mutated in 5%-10% of normal EE but in almost all esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs). This argues that ESCC emerges from the p53 mutant cell population in normal epithelium and that mutation of p53 is required for cancer development.
We speculated that altering the selective pressure on mutant cell populations may cause them to expand or contract. We tested this hypothesis by examining the effect of oxidative stress from low-dose ionizing radiation (LDIR) on wild-type and p53 mutant cells in...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 26, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Topical treatment helps prevent actinic keratosis from developing into skin cancer
In this study, 624 patients with multiple actinic keratoses were randomized to treatment with one of the four aforementioned field-directed treatments.
The primary endpoint of the study was the percentage of patients who had at least 75% reduction in their number of actinic keratoses after one year. The study found that the percentage of patients who achieved this goal was significantly higher in people treated with topical fluorouracil (75%), compared to those treated with topical imiquimod (54%), photodynamic therapy (38%), and topical ingenol mebutate (29%).
This seminal study highlights the important role of field-dire...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 30, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kristina Liu, MD, MHS Tags: Cancer Health Immunotherapy Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
Artificial Intelligence Automatically Spots Polyps During Colonoscopies (Interview)
Artificial intelligence is making big strides in a variety of medical fields, including radiology, oncology, and even ophthalmology. Now a company called Wision AI, based in Shanghai, Cina, is adapting artificial intelligence vision software to help doctors spot polyps during a colonoscopy. The technology is meant for real-time use and the procedure itself doesn’t change much from existing colonoscopies.
We spoke with JingJia Liu, Cofounder and CEO of Wision AI about the company technology, how it works, and what it is capable of already.
Medgadget: Can you briefly describe your company’s technology and ...
Source: Medgadget - December 4, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Exclusive GI Informatics Surgery Source Type: blogs
Immunohistochemistry in the Differential Diagnosis of Cutaneous Basal Cell Carcinoma
Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are two of the most common cutaneous tumors seen by pathologists. In the large majority of cases, the distinction between these two tumors is readily made on the basis of standard H&E morphology. However, many of us see cases from time to time that for one reason or another (minuscule biopsy, mishandled specimen, crushed beyond recognition, dryed out, poorly fixed, etc., etc.), it is difficult to know for certain whether one is dealing with a squamous carcinoma or a basal cell carcinoma. This month, we discuss several immunostains that can be of utility in approaching th...
Source: Oncopathology - November 20, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
Immunohistochemistry in the Differential Diagnosis of Cutaneous Basal Cell Carcinoma
Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are two of the most common cutaneous tumors seen by pathologists. In the large majority of cases, the distinction between these two tumors is readily made on the basis of standard H&E morphology. However, many of us see cases from time to time that for one reason or another (minuscule biopsy, mishandled specimen, crushed beyond recognition, dryed out, poorly fixed, etc., etc.), it is difficult to know for certain whether one is dealing with a squamous carcinoma or a basal cell carcinoma. This month, we discuss several immunostains that can be of utility in approaching th...
Source: Oncopathology - November 20, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 8th 2018
This article, unfortunately paywalled, is interesting to note as a mark of the now increasingly energetic expansion of commercial efforts in longevity science. David Sinclair has been building a private equity company to work in many areas relevant to this present generation of commercial longevity science; while I'm not sold on his primary research interests as the basis for meaningful treatments for aging, he is diversifying considerably here, including into senolytics, the clearance of senescent cells demonstrated to produce rejuvenation in animal studies. This sort of approach to business mixes aspects of investing and...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 7, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
