Patients recovering from abdominal surgery benefited from having plants in their hospital rooms.  They had less pain, needed lower doses of pain medicine, and had lower heart rates and blood pressure.  As they got better, they spent time watering and tending the plants.

In addition, patients with plants were less fatigued and anxious.   They were happier with their rooms, and 93 percent of them said that the plants were the best part of the room.  Patients without plants said that watching television was the most positive aspect of their hospital stay. Read the rest of this entry »

Both surgery and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) are used to destroy liver tumors that have spread from colorectal cancer, but which approach is better?

Surgeons at the University of Louisville School of Medicine reviewed all the cases where patients received either surgery only or RFA only in their hospital over the past twelve years.  They had over 1,100 cases involving liver tumors during that time, and 192 involved either a single liver surgery or only radiofrequency ablation.

They found the time before cancer came back was considerably shorter for RFA.  In addition, cancer returned at the RFA or surgical site more often for RFA, and also recurred more often elsewhere in the liver. Read the rest of this entry »

Colon and rectal cancer that is attached to critical body structures like the wall of the pelvis or important large veins has traditionally been considered not surgically treatable.  Patients have been offered palliative treatments designed to extend life or reduce symptoms, but the goal wasn’t cure.

However, Mayo Clinic surgeons are now working together with teams of surgeons, radiologists, and oncologists to treat normally unresectable colon and rectal cancer with a combination of therapies.  Surgery, both external radiation and radiotherapy done during surgery, and chemotherapy have gone beyond palliative care for this group of patients.  Almost half of the patients treated with the multimodality approach were alive and cancer free five years after treatment began.

Writing in the Annals of Surgery, the doctors titled their article, Unresectable Colorectal Cancer Can Be Cured With Multimodality Therapy. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients who had surgery for colon or rectal cancer performed at a National Cancer Institute Designated Center had less risk of death immediately after surgery and better long-term survival.

Looking at nearly 34,000 people who had surgery for colon cancer and 8,600 who had rectal cancer surgery, researchers found a 26 percent increase in long term survival when the operation was done in an NCI-designated cancer center.

Having surgery in an NCI-designated center cut the risk of dying in the hospital or within 30 days after surgery in half for colon cancer patients.  Post surgery deaths were 6.7 percent in non-NCI centers and 3.2 percent in NCI-designated centers.  There was even more difference for rectal cancer where deaths after surgery were 5 percent in non-NCI and 1.9 percent in NCI centers. Read the rest of this entry »

Are we making progress in treating colon and pancreatic cancer?  An audio webcast with Dr. David Mahvi, surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, will help answer that question.

• Treatment of Colon Cancer and Pancreatic Cancer: Are We Making Progress?
• David Mahvi, M.D.
• Tuesday, October 14, 2008.
• 7 p.m.
• Northwestern Memorial webcasts Read the rest of this entry »