Carey Goldberg of WBUR radio, a reporter with NPR’s CommonHealth blog, is writing a column about “best practices” to prep for a colonoscopy.

Feedback can range from:

• What do you do before a colonoscopy?
• Do you use Wet wipes, Vaseline, or Gatorade?
• What is your advice to make it easier?

She is contacting members of patient advocacy organizations to gather wisdom. Our partners at Inspire have let us know that the reporter is interested in hearing from members of Fight Colorectal Cancer.

We’d like your input, so please reply to this post with your tips and suggestions–the more detail about the best ways to prepare for a colonoscopy, the better. Be assured that you will not be quoted by name or your screen name.

Her deadline is end of day tomorrow, May 24.
Thanks for commenting below!

We are please to have an awesome staff presence at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting  and even more pleased to have blogging for us: Christopher P. Adams, Ph.D. Chris is an economist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. He conducts academic-style research that has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Economics Letters, Health Affairs, Health Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. Expect many similar high quality posts highlighting ASCO happenings and events, so without further adieu – take it away Chris!

I’m very excited because in two weeks I will be traveling to one of my favorite cities, Chicago, to attend my first American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference. This is an enormous conference, with some 30,000 doctors and researchers attending.

I will be attending as a “patient advocate” representing Fight Colorectal Cancer and the Focus on Research.
ASCO recently whet our appetites by releasing summaries of the 5,000 different research projects that will be presented at the conference. ASCO’s patient advocacy program had a webinar discussing 5 of the most interesting research results. These projects discussed some of the latest ideas in cancer research including finding drugs that are effective against particular cancers not because of the cancer’s location but because of the cancer’s gene mutation. Other work suggests the combining new therapies may be more effective than the drugs would be on their own, including reduced side effects.

Two projects stood out to me. The first was a study using a relatively old drug called Olanzapine (Zyprexa) (get details here). You may guess from the name that this is an anti-psychotic. It had been noticed that patients taking this drug suffered from weight gain. The researchers wondered if it might therefore help chemo patients suffering from nausea. The answer seems to be yes. However, this was a small study. An interesting question is how whether the researchers will be able to find the large sum of money needed to run a larger trial. The drug went generic in 2011 so it is unlikely a drug company would be willing to spend the money on the trials in order to get the FDA to approve the drug for reducing chemo related nausea. I asked, but the webinar speakers did not know about whether the drug caused hiccups.

The second study did not actually look at a new (or even an old) therapy but rather looked at what oncologists and primary care physicians knew about the long terms side effects (“late effects”) of treatments for colorectal cancer and breast cancer (get details here).

These late effects may include neuropathy or even cancer. The answer was that primary care physicians didn’t necessarily know that much about these things. In the webinar there was an interesting discussion about communication between oncologists and primary care physicians and efforts by ASCO and others to improve that communication. A big takeaway for me was that I need to start collecting information from my oncologist so that I can give it to my primary care physician or physicians as they see me over the next 10, 20?, 30??? years.

–
Christopher P. Adams, Ph.D.
https://sites.google.com/site/christopherpadams/

Dr. Indran Krishnan and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

Indran Krishnan, MD, FRCP (London), FRCP(C), FACP, FACG is fighting colorectal cancer on many fronts. As a gastroenterologist, he personally screens people every week. As an associate professor at Emory University, he trains the next generation of physicians. As an advocate, he serves on Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Board of Directors, and was a founding member of the Georgia Colon Cancer Coalition. In the first 4 months of 2012, Indran stepped up his efforts by:

• Meeting with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and members of the Georgia legislature to introduce them to Fight Colorectal Cancer and spread the word about screening;
• Attending this year’s Call-on Congress, our annual advocacy training and lobby day; Read the rest of this entry »

Lesa Fontaine with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

Since President Clinton issued the first Presidential Proclamation recognizing March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month over a decade ago, each year in March advocates request that their state and city officials issue proclamations acknowledging March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

This year was no different – except for the fact that we had more states and cities than ever proclaim March Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and it was all thanks to Fight Colorectal Cancer advocates.

Seventeen states and four cities and counties issued proclamations – and each one was accomplished because at least one advocate stepped forward and took the lead.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank every person who pushed for a proclamation this year. They are:

Read the rest of this entry »

Fight Colorectal Cancer President Carlea Bauman was joined by staff, survivors, advocates and fighters to “get behind a cure” and ring the NASDAQ closing bell.

We ring the bell to bring attention that colorectal cancer is the number two cancer killer in America. We need awareness that colorectal cancer can be prevented, treated, and beaten. We are issuing a call to action to increase funding for research, better access to colorectal screening, and the very best treatment for every American who is diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer.

On stage with Carlea was: Ben Basloe, Todd Jones, Josh Young, Rose Hausmann, Joanne Kimmel, Dana Rye, Katelyn Sherry and David Dubin.