By: Matthew Herper From: forbes.com The Food and Drug Administration unveiled plans to regulate thousands of diagnostic tests, including many coming from the exploding field of genetic research, to which it has until now turned a blind eye. More than 11,000 of these tests, known as laboratory-developed tests, created by 2,000 different laboratories, could be included in the new regulatory …
Some contraceptive pills double risk of breast cancer
By Rebecca Smith From: telegraph.co.uk Women taking the contraceptive pill are 50 per cent more likely to develop breast cancer with those containing high hormone doses more than doubling the risk, a study has found. Researchers found women who took pills containing a high dose of hormone oestrogen were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer …
Providence Health unveils plan for next-generation cancer diagnosis
By: NIck Budnick From: oregonlive.com Providence Health & Services cancer clinics have joined with a deep-pocketed visionary to offer patients the next generation of DNA mapping of tumors starting this fall. On Thursday the health system announced it would be the first in the country to offer whole-genome sequencing at the clinic level – making more widely available a technique that in …
When Money Motivates Cancer Treatment Options
By: Robert Pearl, M.D. From: forbes.com Today’s article follows the money trail to expose a different form of bias: the kind that takes place when doctors own their own diagnostic and therapeutic equipment. For people living with cancer, this kind of bias can have a particularly painful impact. Radiation Therapy Brings Out Medical Bias In the United States, cancer is …
Cancer Patients Can Get ‘Chemo Brain’; Treatment Available
By Dr. Mallika Marshall From: cbslocal.com Sixty-nine-year-old Susan Harden began her battle with breast cancer six years ago. “I had surgery,” explains Susan, “And that was followed by two different rounds of chemotherapy, followed by radiation.” Soon after her first round of chemo, Susan became confused. The former science teacher, quick-witted all her life, all of a sudden couldn’t remember …
Chemical in foam cups again seen as likely cancer cause
By: Delthia Ricks From: philly.com The National Research Council Monday reaffirmed that styrene — the key chemical component of foam cups and other food service items — might cause cancer in people. A panel of 10 experts in medicine, chemistry and toxicology used a rather stilted definition, “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” to uphold the same finding from …
Revolutionary laser will allow on-the-spot cancer diagnosis
By: Lucy Johnston From: express.co.uk British scientists are developing a probe to detect cancers early and distinguish between different forms of the disease. Dr Ryan Stables said: “This could change the way we approach cancer diagnosis so it is faster, potentially saving thousands of lives. This method of identifying cancerous cells is similar to that of using a metal detector. It …
6 Quick Fixes for Common Symptoms of Caregiver Burnout
From: HomeCareAssistance.com As a caregiver, you are fully focused on someone else. Constantly keeping track of your loved one’s needs makes it more likely that you will forget about your own. If you can’t take adequate care of yourself, you won’t be able to provide the highest quality care for your loved one. Here are six quick fixes to common …
My Right Breast: One Man’s Tale Of Lump And Mammogram
By B. D. Colen From: wbur.org Shared by: Michael McKenzie It began with an itch I just had to scratch. Doesn’t every adventure begin that way? I was lying in bed reading on a Saturday evening, and without even looking I idly scratched a spot on the right side of my chest –- at that point I had a chest, …
The Wrong Approach to Breast Cancer
By PEGGY ORENSTEIN From: nytimes.com ONE of the nastier aspects of breast cancer is that it doesn’t have the five-year sell-by date of some other malignancies: you’re not considered “cured” until you die of something else. Although it becomes less likely, the disease can come back eight, 10, even 20 years after treatment. I fell on the wrong side of …