Latest News & Updates

Nurse Practitioners Provide Cancer Survivors with Continuing Care

MSKCC Nurse Practitioner Survivorship Team

Nurse practitioners help cancer survivors meet their ongoing needs after their formal cancer treatment ends at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Specially trained, they focus on both medical and psychosocial needs that are unique for each patient. During the first visit, the nurse practitioner develops a survivorship care plan with the patient which is then sent to that patient’s community primary care physician so that cancer care and other medical needs can be coordinated.

Posted by Kate Murphy on November 24th, 2008
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: survivorship

NIH Funding Included in Possible Senate Recovery Package

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia) unveiled a $100.3 billion economic recovery package. Continue reading…

Posted by Joe Arite on November 18th, 2008
Posted in: Policy & Advocacy News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Congress, Senate

AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Conference

AACR Panel of Scientists

Some thoughts from Kate:

I’m here just outside of Washington for the AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research conference. Smaller the the huge American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in the spring, this meeting focuses on research into how to prevent cancer.

I’m part of the Scientist-Survivor program, a special project that links cancer survivors with scientist mentors to help us understand the research being discussed here so we can bring it back to other survivors and advocates.

Posted by Kate Murphy on November 18th, 2008
Posted in: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Screening Colorectal Tumors for Lynch Syndrome: Who Gets Missed?

Identifying colorectal cancer patients with Lynch syndrome (also known as hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer or HNPCC) makes an important difference in preventing further cancers for them and also for their family members. However, family or personal medical histories don’t always find everyone at risk.

One of every 35 patients with colorectal cancer has Lynch syndrome, and each one has at least three family members who carry a Lynch gene and will need more intensive polyp and cancer surveillance beginning when they are young adults.

Researchers at Ohio State University compared methods of testing colon tumors to screen for Lynch syndrome and predict those patients who need further genetic testing. They also looked at more traditional ways of finding potential Lynch syndrome, including family histories and age at diagnosis. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on November 16th, 2008
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: Lynch syndrome