Today take some time to honor those GI nurses, aides, and technologists who are saving lives every day by making colonoscopies safe and comfortable. Read the rest of this entry »

The Food and Drug Administration has updated information on the ongoing leucovorin shortage as of 3/23/09.

Both Bedford Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceuticals are reporting manufacturing delays for leucovorin.  Spectrum Pharmaceuticals has limited supplies of Fusilev® (levoleucovorin) which is a different formulation.  Fusilev dosages are not equal to leucovorin doses and need to be used with care. Read the rest of this entry »

Image from WKBT Channel 8

Staff from the Franciscan Skemp Healthcare in La Cross, WI raised over $10,000 in their annual Colon Bowlin.  In its fifth year, the Colon Bowlin also included Wii and karaoke.

Ann Gilbertson, an RN with Franciscan Skemp told WKBT Channel 8 that, “This started as a way to have fun and it turned into a way to have camaraderie for the hospital community, at the same time raising funds.”

By studying changes in tumor tissue from colon cancer patients whose cancers had not spread to distant organs, researchers were able to isolate a gene mutation that led to a poor outcome.

Stage I through III colon cancer patients whose tumors had a mutation in the PIK3CA gene were more likely to die of colon cancer that patients with normal or wild-type PIK3CA.  About 1 in 5 patients had that mutation in tumor tissue.

After adjusting for other variables that affect death from colon cancer, patients with a PIK3CA mutation were more than twice as likely to die from colon cancer.  This was especially true in KRAS wild-type tumors where a PIK3CA mutation increased risk of death almost four times.  However, in KRAS mutated tumors, the presence of PIK3CA made little difference in cancer-specific survival. Read the rest of this entry »

In their new colorectal screening guidelines, the American College of Gastroenterology, says that colonoscopy, beginning at age 50 and performed every 10 years, is the “preferred” screening test for colorectal cancer.  They recommend that physicians first offer this test alone rather than a menu of options.

However, if patients are not willing to have a colonoscopy, they support offering:

• Preferably. a cancer prevention test: Either flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 to 10 years  or CT colonography every 5 years.
• A test primarily for cancer detection: Preferred test is fecal immunohistochemical test for blood (FIT).

They further recommend that African Americans begin testing at 45 rather than 50. Read the rest of this entry »