From KevinMD.com Written by James C. Salwitz, MD If you had cancer, how good would a treatment have to be, how much would it have to help, for you to use it? How about if it gave you a 5% better chance of cure? A 10% chance? How about a 20% chance to be beat the disease using a treatment …
How to get healthy after the cancer treatments are done
From the Washington Post By Christie Aschwanden No hospital sends a stroke patient home without a detailed plan to help them regain as much of their normal functioning as possible. Yet cancer patients are routinely released with no guidance on how to deal with the impairments that may linger after their treatment is done. “A lot of cancer survivors feel …
Sanford-Burnham researchers uncover how a potent compound kills prostate cancer cells
One major hallmark of cancer cells is their ability to survive under stressful conditions. A new study spearheaded by researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute reveals how a promising anticancer compound called SMIP004 specifically kills prostate cancer cells by compromising their ability to withstand environmental stress. The study, recently published in Oncotarget, uncovers novel mechanisms of anticancer activity and could …
U.S. Panel Backs Routine Lung CT Scans for Older, Heavy Smokers
From Drugs.com A highly influential government panel of experts is recommending that older smokers at high risk of lung cancer receive annual low-dose CT scans to help detect and possibly prevent the spread of the fatal disease. The The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that the benefits to a very specific segment of smokers outweigh the risks involved …
In medicine, trust needs to be built in a matter of minutes
From KevinMD.com Written by Scott Finkelstein, MD I was a very shy child. I never felt comfortable speaking up, especially in groups or in new situations. When asked a question in class, my heart raced, my eyes teared up, and I felt sweaty. As I grew up, these physical reactions subsided as I learned to internalize and manage this fear. …
The societal cost of low health literacy
From KevinMD.com Mary S. Kelly, PhD The mother, clearly agitated, came to my office holding a bottle of liquid antibiotic prescribed for her daughter’s ear infection. She asked, “How the hell am I supposed to get this into her ear?” She could not read the directions, which said to give the medication by mouth. A survey conducted between 2008 and …
Immunotherapy: The next frontier in cancer treatment?
From MedCity News by Veciana-Suarez, Ana Though radiation sent Coris Shepard to the hospital with a burned esophagus for 21 days, it did little to the tumors in his left lung. The chemotherapy that followed didn’t work either. In fact, the stubborn cancer actually grew in size. At wit’s end and almost out of hope, he agreed to participate in …
The stigma experienced by patients with psychiatric disorders
From KevinMD.com “It don’t matter how many men you shot in Memphis,” the saying goes, “if your name is Sierra or Sequoia, you can’t sing the blues”. In a sense, this adage reworks an older, more bitter joke from the civil rights era, the one that begins “some of my best friends are …” and ends with “but you wouldn’t want …
Beware of that new car smell when shopping for a new car
From KevinMD.com As I shopped for a new car last year, I realized that my priorities were considered odd by most car salesmen. The three most important characteristics I desired in a new car were good gas mileage, good crash safety, and relatively low concentrations of “new car smells.” The often celebrated (but particularly noxious) new car smell is actually …
Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs
Conventional treatments for diseases such as cancer can carry harmful side effects—and the primary reason is that such treatments are not targeted specifically to the cells of the body where they’re needed. What if drugs for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases can be targeted specifically and only to cells that need the medicine, and leave normal tissues untouched? A …