Nearly one in three people with cancer, both with those with active cancer and cancer survivors, report having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping too much.
Pain and emotional distress were often associated with sleep problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Colorectal screening rates are linked to changing colorectal cancer death rates, with death rates going down fastest in US states with the highest screening rates.
Between 1990 and 2007, the highest colorectal cancer death rates have moved from the Northeastern states to the South, particularly along the Appalachian mountain corridor.
Although death rates are declining in all states except Mississippi and Wyoming, drops range from 9 percent in Alabama to more than 33 percent in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Alaska. Read the rest of this entry »
This afternoon, by a vote of 336-87, the House passed the Fiscal Year 2012 Department of Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2219). The bill includes funding for critical national security needs while also providing essential funding for health and quality of life programs for the men and women of the Armed Services and their families.
The final bill includes more than $223 million for cancer research, including $12.8 million for the Department of Defense’s Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) that funds colorectal cancer research.
Between 2003 and 2007, there were 32,000 fewer deaths from colorectal cancer in the United States. At least half of the drop was due to improved colorectal cancer screening rates according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition, to fewer deaths, 66,000 people didn’t get colorectal cancer at all during the same four years.
The good news is that the percentage of Americans who are up-to-date with colorectal cancer screening is rising steadily. About two-thirds now report an FOBT in the last year or a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy in the past 10 years.
The bad news is that 1 out of 3 people aged 50 to 75 hasn’t been screened. Read the rest of this entry »
Even in colorectal cancer patients with wild-type KRAS mutations, there was no increase in overall survival time or in the time it took before cancer progressed when Erbitux® (cetuximab) was added to FOLFOX or CAPOX chemotherapy.
More tumors got smaller with Erbitux treatment, but there was an increase in both serious gastrointestinal toxicity and severe skin rash when the drug was added.
Patients with tumor mutations in any of three genes — KRAS, BRAF, or NRAS — had poorer survival. Read the rest of this entry »
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