Latest News & Updates

Colorectal Cancer Briefs: PSA Contest,Medicare Co-Pays, NCI Bethesda Clinical Trials

Briefly

The Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada is sponsoring a contest for print and video ads that raise awareness of colorectal cancer.
Clinical trials at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD are an option for cutting-edge treatment at no cost.
When co-pays are raised for Medicare, the elderly make fewer outpatient visits but are hospitalized more often and stay in the hospital longer.

Posted by Kate Murphy on February 1st, 2010
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: clinical trials, co-pays, colorectal cancer awareness, Medicare

Patient Outcomes Vary Depending on Liver Resectability

Patients with stage IV colorectal cancer live longer when tumors in their liver can be removed surgically, but not all patients have cancer that can be operated on.

Separating patients with liver tumors from colorectal cancer into three groups according to possible liver resectability, British doctors found a wide variation in both overall survival and progression-free survival three years later. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on January 29th, 2010
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Tags: liver metastases, liver resection, survival

FDA approves highly concentrated liquid morphine for severe pain

In good news for cancer patients at the end of life, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a concentrated liquid morphine to relieve acute and chronic pain in patients where other opiates are no longer working.

Although concentrated doses of liquid morphine have used to manage pain for opiate-tolerant patients for some time, the oral concentrated dose was not FDA approved.

The FDA has worked with Roxane Laboratories, the only manufacturer of the 20mg/mL formulation, to be sure that adequate supplies are available to patients in need. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on January 29th, 2010
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Tags: FDA, liquid opiates

The State of Colorectal Cancer Screening and Prevention

C3 President Carlea Bauman at the National Press Club

Today, C3 hosted a forum with Olympus in Washington DC to discuss current trends in colorectal cancer screening and prevention.

C3 President, Carlea Bauman, gave keynote remarks at the forum. Carlea spoke about the frustration that we face at C3 when we receive calls to our Answer Line from individuals looking for assistance finding affordable screening services and we only have a patch-work network of assistance available to them. Carlea explained that the way to change this is with enactment of a national screening and treatment program, “I look forward to the day where a national program exists so that when these calls come in, we can say, ‘Yes, you can get screened and yes, you can afford it.’”

I spoke on one of the panels about the impact the pending health care reform legislation will have on colorectal screening and why even if health care reform passes we will still need to enact legislation creating a national screening and treatment program for colorectal cancer. To read the text of my remarks, click here.

Posted by Catherine Knowles on January 29th, 2010
Posted in: C3 News, Policy & Advocacy News | No Comments »
Tags: C3 Answer Line, Health Care Reform, HR 1189

CT Colonography Effective in Older Adults

CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy) found more than twice the rate of large polyps or cancer in patients 65 and older compared to everyone being screened for colorectal cancer using the radiology-based test.

About one in six older patients was referred for an optical colonoscopy based on findings from the scans.

There were no major complications including colon perforations or bleeding, from either the CT procedure or the follow-up colonoscopy. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on January 28th, 2010
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: CT colonography, elderly