Confusing Reports On Coffee and Cancer, and What To Do About Breakfast

When I was a medical resident in the late 1980s, we treated some patients with pancreatic cancer on a regimen nick-named the coffee protocol because it included infusions of intravenous caffeine. How absurd, we thought back then, because years earlier caffeine had been linked to pancreatic cancer as a possible cause. Now, two new studies […]

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TV Meets Real Life Oncology, and Anticipating the MCATs

Yesterday I wrote on some tough decisions facing a TV show‘s protagonist. She’s got metastatic melanoma and might participate in a clinical trial when the show resumes. Now imagine you’re an oncologist, or a real patient with this killing disease – you really need to be on top of new developments, to understand the pros […]

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Interleukin 2, Cathy’s Planned Treatment in the Big C

I’ve been toying with the idea of messing with a cable TV show’s plotline. At the first season’s end of The Big C, the story’s protagonist decides to accept a harsh and usually ineffective treatment for her advanced melanoma: interleukin-2 (IL-2). Cathy, played by the actress Laura Linney, understands the goal is not for a […]

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E-Patient Dave Explains What It Means to Be An E-Patient

Med-blog grand rounds this week is hosted by e-patient Dave, who is Dave deBronkart, a real man who was diagnosed with a renal cell (kidney) cancer a few years back. He’s a terrific speaker and an Internet friend. By coincidence I was searching for the definition of an e-patient, and came upon it there, in […]

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Health IT, Patient Autonomy, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Social Media, Video, Wednesday Web SightingTagged , , , , , , Leave a Comment on E-Patient Dave Explains What It Means to Be An E-Patient

On Pleasant Behavior And Being A Patient in the Hospital

Dr. Wes has a short post today, How to Optimize Your Care While Hospitalized that got me thinking. He writes: …A lone doctor listening to some highly experienced and capable nurses, reflecting on their work: “If the patient’s nice, it’s a lot easier to want to go back in that room with them. Their reputation […]

Posted in health care delivery, Life as a Doctor, Life as a Patient, Medical Ethics, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , , , , 6 Comments on On Pleasant Behavior And Being A Patient in the Hospital

Get Off My Case

In my inbox this morning, via ASCO‘s “Cancer in the News” feed: The UK’s Telegraph (5/6, Beckford) reported that as “many as 20,000 British women could avoid developing” breast cancer “each year, if they took more exercise, drank less and ate better.” Latest figures “suggest that 47,600 women developed breast cancer in 2008,” and the […]

Posted in Breast Cancer, Essential Lessons, Fitness, Life, Life as a Patient, Medical News, Oncology (cancer), Pseudoscience, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , , 20 Comments on Get Off My Case

Until Tuesday, A New Book About a Very Strong Person

A short note on a book party, fundraiser and warm celebration I attended yesterday evening. My first Facebook friend, Luis Carlos Montalván, an acquaintance from my experience at Columbia’s Journalism School, has published a wonderful book, Until Tuesday (Disney-Hyperion). I received a copy of the book at the gallery, and couldn’t put it down. Luis, […]

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New York City Reports Long Delays for Mammograms

A recent audit of nine NYC’s Health and Hospitals Corporation found City Comptroller Liu described as dangerous delays in women’s health care. It takes too long for women to get screening and diagnostic mammograms. The 2009 audit found women at Elmhurst Hospital had the longest waits – 50 working days (that would be 10 weeks, […]

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Noting Depression in Susan Glaspell’s 1917 Story: A Jury of Her Peers

Recently I read the short story, A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, with a group of women in my community. The author, with whom I wasn’t previously familiar, first reported on the real 1901 trial of Margaret Hossack, as a journalist writing for the Des Moines Daily News. Later she adapted the story […]

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Getting the Blood Tests Right at the Phlebotomy Center

Last week I had some blood tests taken before a doctor’s appointment. I went to a commercial lab facility, one of several dozen centers for collecting specimens have opened up in otherwise-unrented Manhattan office spaces lately. I have to say I really like getting my blood work done at this place, if and when I […]

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New Study, Presented at a Meeting of Breast Surgeons, Supports that Mammograms Save Lives of Women in Their 40s

The American Society of Breast Surgeons held its 2011 annual meeting in D.C. from April 27 – May 1. Among the papers presented was Abstract #1754: “Mammography in 40 Year Old Women: The Potential Impact of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) Mammography Guidelines.” You can find the press release, followed by the abstract, […]

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer screening, Oncology (cancer), Under the RadarTagged , , , , , , , , 2 Comments on New Study, Presented at a Meeting of Breast Surgeons, Supports that Mammograms Save Lives of Women in Their 40s
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