At the end of treatment, cancer patients can feel relieved that the stresses and side effects are over. But very often they feel lost, uncertain, afraid that regular scrutiny from their oncologists has ended and that something important may be missed.
The Cancer Survivorship Program at the Loyola University Medical Center is among programs designed to ease those fears and protect the overall health of cancer survivors as they move into the future. Read the rest of this entry »
Screening people for colorectal cancer before they reach 65 and are eligible for Medicare could save millions of dollars of future Medicare costs according to a New York City study.
While Medicare covers the cost of screening colonoscopies, people need to be 65 to benefit. Many uninsured adults from 50 to 64 have no way to get screened for colorectal cancer at all. Read the rest of this entry »
Susan B. Komen for the Cure joined the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) to increase the number of minorities practicing oncology in the United States. By recruiting and training more doctors as oncologists from groups underrepresented in medicine, they hope to improve cancer care for ethnically diverse patients. Read the rest of this entry »
Nanodiamond patch
Biomedical engineers at Northwestern University in Chicago have developed a flexible film patch embedded with tiny diamonds that they believe will someday be able to deliver chemotherapy directly to areas where cancer has been removed.
Sandwiched between layers of inert microfilm, nanodiamond clusters make slow, reliable release of chemotherapy possible. Because they are so small, they don’t cause inflammation or other reactions. Low doses that go directly to affected tissues over time reduce toxic chemo side effects. Read the rest of this entry »
Current colorectal cancer screening guidelines call for testing average risk people when they reach their fiftieth birthday. But is that soon enough? Would earlier screening find more adenomatous polyps and prevent more colorectal cancer?
Scientists at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine reviewed nearly 3,600 autopsies performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1985 through 2004. They compared the younger group from 20 to 49 to older patients from 50 to 89. They looked at the adenomatous polyps found in each decade of life, as well as patient sex and race and the location of the polyps in the colon.
Fewer than 2 percent of the autopsied patients in their twenties had adenomas, rising to about 3.6 percent between ages 40 and 49. However, the number of people with adenomas increased sharply after 50. Read the rest of this entry »
