Search

Cancer is most easily "cured" when it's caught early. That's the rationale behind Pap tests for cervical cancer, PSA tests for prostate cancer, and mammograms for breast cancer. But there aren't similar screening tests for all cancers — and some, such as ovarian and pancreatic cancer  are often not found until they're well-advanced, which makes them particularly lethal. Lung cancer, too, may not be found — especially in non-smokers — until it's too advanced to treat successfully, or requires extensive surgery to control. My colleague, Dr. Julianna LeMieux, has described a new type of screening tool that hopefully could find a number of types of cancer while they're in the early stages, using DNAs shed...

1037197_16221105It may seem like the idea that the more information, the better is true in the medical field. Yet, that s not always the case. We see instances of overdiagnosis and overtreatment as a result of excess, unnecessary cancer screening tests. And now that a Supreme Court decision has resulted in the...

In the search to find the cure for various cancers, three new advances in the field are inspiring hope. The first study hails from Oxford Gene Technology, a genetics and diagnostics firm that has developed a prostate cancer test that can distinguish prostate cancer from benign prostate disease and healthy tissue with 90 percent accuracy. Though the new test will not appear in clinics for at least another five years, early indications show it has greater sensitivity and generates fewer false positive results than the currently used PSA test, which can often lead to unnecessary surgical and radiotherapy treatment.

“Though this is a pilot study, it still gives hope for better accuracy since there are serious...

140002752Following the release of a preliminary plan by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last November, the agency has officially finalized their decision to cover annual low-dose CT screening for lung cancer.

One pack-year of smoking means that the smoker has a history of smoking one pack per day (ppd) for one year; if someone has smoked two ppd for 25 years, that would be 2 times 25, or 50 pack-years. As announced previously, CMS will cover CT screening for individuals who have at least a 30...

140002752Organizations including the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommend CT lung screening for high-risk individuals. This group includes about nine million Americans and is defined as adults ages 55 to 80 years old who have a 30 pack-year history of smoking (one pack-year equals smoking one pack per day for a year; in other words, multiply the number of packs per day by the years smoked). The Affordable Care Act requires private insurers to cover the screening for this high-risk group.

Now, the...

Examine your prostate?A large retrospective analysis of nearly 67,000 Medicare patients shows that there is no evidence that treating men with early-stage prostate cancer with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is beneficial in terms of survival from the cancer itself, nor in terms of overall survival.

The new study appears in the current JAMA Internal Medicine, and was led by...

Screen Shot 2014-01-29 at 12.44.50 PMProstate cancer (PRCA) is really (at least) two different diseases. The most common form sometimes called the kitty cat form, is by far the most common, and the least harmful. Most men who have this type will eventually die from something other than the cancer.

On the other hand, the aggressive tiger form is much less common, but has a far different outcome. It typically spreads locally outside the prostate gland capsule, and then to the bones, and patients often die a very painful death. PRCA is among the most commonly diagnosed cancer,...

177851075 (1)In his NYTimes op-ed, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel states that in the new year and years to come, he will continue to get an annual flu shot, eat healthy, exercise, and get a colonoscopy every 10 years. But one thing will change his medical routine will no longer include an annual physical exam. He asserts, From a health perspective, the annual physical exam is basically worthless.

Although this seems quite counterintuitive, Dr. Emanuel argues that although many people view a physical exam as the equivalent of a 15,000-mile checkup...

94463987

Lung cancer kills about 435 people in the United States every day, making it the leading cancer killer of both American men and women. In 2014 alone, it is expected that lung cancer will claim the lives of 160,000 Americans. And unlike that several other cancers, the prognosis for lung cancer remains desperately grim, with a 5-year survival rate of about 15 percent. Despite the debate about the effectiveness of cancer treatments and screening programs, there is increasing evidence that CT screening for lung cancer can save lives, say Drs. Andrea McKee, chairwoman of the department of radiation oncology at Lahey...

Although the premise may seem logical screen people routinely for lung cancer in order to treat it early regular chest X-rays do not in any way reduce lung cancer mortality, a recent report in JAMA confirms.

In this large randomized prospective study conducted between 1993 and 2001, over 150,000 older Americans received either four annual chest X-rays or just regular care. The study found that those in the annual chest X-ray group were just as likely to die from lung cancer as those who received only usual care, even if they were current or former smokers. Each group of about 75,000 subjects had around 1,200 lung cancer deaths.

Even though the ineffectiveness...