When the family is gathered on Thanksgiving or during the upcoming holidays, have a difficult — but critical — talk together.

You can save anguish and conflict when a family member is close to death by knowing what their wishes are.  You can help your family know what you want, as well.  The Engage with Grace slide helps to start the conversation

You can  download one slide from Engage with Grace to start your family’s discussion. Read the rest of this entry »

Recent data suggest that a compound in coffee has been found to possibly protect against colon cancer.

We have known for a long time that estrogen can protect against colon cancer and that women who take hormone replacement can also prevent polyps and cancer development. We also have recently seen that women do better than men when younger than 45 years old. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Lenz

I wanted to come up with some recommendations on diet over this Thanksgiving holiday. Searching the web and looking for advice to give you,  I came across a wonderful website  — TOP TEN FOOD tips by the National Foundation for Cancer Research — I wanted to share with you.

Here’s what they said. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Val Jones used slides and limericks to warn that looking for health information online can be both good and bad.

Addressing the e-Patients Connections 2009 conference in Philadelphia in October, she compared two patients whose online information experiences led to very different results — one happy, one tragic. Read the rest of this entry »

By Nancy Roach, the Founder of C3 and Chair of its Board of Directors

On November 4, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) held the 9th meeting of the Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee (CTAC). CTAC advises NCI on the implementation of the 2006 recommendations from Clinical Trials Working Group and the 2008 recommendations for the Translational Research Working Group. There’s more information about NCI’s initiatives here.

I am one of two advocates who serve on CTAC, and as an ex-systems analyst, I’m always looking for ways to make government more efficient and accountable.  At the November 4 meeting, recommendations were presented to increase the efficiency of the clinical trial development process – from the time that a researcher presents a concept to NCI to the time that the trial is actually activated.  Under the leadership of Dr. James Doroshow, NCI and its partners are taking aggressive steps to de-bureaucratize publicly-funded cancer research, which will ultimately benefit patients by putting resources into research instead of process.

Following is a very brief overview of the background and the recommendations, with links to additional documentation. And believe it or not, zombies did come up in the discussion!

Read the rest of this entry »