Digestive Health Specialists, located in Winston-Salem NC, will provide free screening colonoscopies to 50 people impacted by the economic turndown. Patients who are over 50, have not been screened, and have lost jobs and health insurance are eligible to apply.
Colonoscopies will be performed in Digestive Health Specialist facilities in Winstom-Salem, Kernersville, and Thomasville on March 14, 2009. The program is part of March Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Read the rest of this entry »
The more tumors shrink during chemotherapy and radiation before rectal cancer surgery, the better the chance that patients will survive and be cancer-free five years later.
Doctors in Ireland developed a simple, three point, tumor regression grade or TRG, to measure the amount of change during chemoradiotherapy before surgery to remove rectal cancer. After five years, all patients with the best tumor regression grade — complete or near complete response to chemoradiation — were alive and disease-free. Read the rest of this entry »
Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX) and Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) recently introduced a Congressional Resolution marking the tenth anniversary of the first Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Read the rest of this entry »
Women who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth have no difference in survival than women who weren’t pregnant. Their babies, while at risk for preterm birth, have equally healthy outcomes and survival as other infants. Read the rest of this entry »
Treated with a combination of three chemotherapy drugs, 1 in 5 patients whose colorectal cancer had spread too far for surgery were able to have operations to remove metastatic tumors. After five years, a third of them were alive with no sign of cancer.
Doctors in Italy treated 200 stage IV patients with a combination of 5-FU, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan (FOLFOXIRI) during three different clinical trials. While all three drugs are commonly used to treat colorectal cancer, they are not usually used at the same time. Initially, all of the patients had cancer that had spread beyond the possibility of having it removed surgically. Read the rest of this entry »
