3 Differences between Prostate and Breast Cancer Screening

Days ago, the USPSTF issued a new draft for its recommendations on routine PSA measurements in asymptomatic men. The panel’s report is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The main findings are two: first, the absence of evidence that routine PSA testing prolongs men’s lives, and second, that PSA evaluation may, on balance, cause […]

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1 in 70 Women Develops Breast Cancer Before Reaching 50 Years

A post in yesterday’s Well column, about coverage of breast cancer by the media, focused on the first-person narrative of NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. Journalist Tara Parker-Pope writes: Her announcement has generated much discussion in the blogosphere, including an analysis by Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, who writes that Ms. Mitchell made some missteps in discussing her […]

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Considering Steve Jobs, Medical Diagnoses and Privacy

Yesterday morning I wrote a short post on CelebrityDiagnosis.com. By evening, news broke that Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs resigned from his position, presumably for reasons of his health. What’s public, by Jobs’ decision, is that he had a relatively good, typically slow-growing kind of malignancy in the pancreas, a neuroendocrine islet cell tumor. He informed […]

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FDA Approves Adcetris for Refractory Hodgkin’s Disease and a Rare T-Cell Lymphoma

Late Friday afternoon, the FDA announced its approval, upon accelerated review, of a new drug, Adcetris (brentuximab) for patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma that has relapsed after bone marrow transplant and for some patients with T-cell anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). This interests me for a lot of reasons, among them that I used to work in the field of lymphoma immunology […]

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Big Melanoma News: FDA approves Vemurafenib (Zelboraf)

This morning the FDA announced approval of Zelboraf (vemurafenib) for treatment of some patients advanced melanoma. This is the second drug the agency has approved for this disease in recent months, after nearly two decades of a lack of new or effective therapies for melanoma. Zelboraf is a pill. This small-molecule drug is thought to […]

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News on an Unusual Cancer Treatment by Heat in Surgery (Hipec)

There’s so much weird and exciting cancer news this week, it’s hard to keep up! Double-kudos to Andrew Pollack on his front-page and careful coverage in the New York Times of the hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (Hipec) technique that’s being used at some name-brand health care facilities to treat colon cancer. First, he spares no detail […]

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Breast Cancer Avastin Update

This afternoon Ed Silverman of Pharmalot reports that Roche has proposed a compromise to the FDA over Avastin’s use in women with metastatic breast cancer. The drug would be approved for use only in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol), for which the data are strongest, and with special warnings. He writes: The deal includes revised labeling […]

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On Deaths in the New York City Triathlon, and Pushing Ourselves to Limits

Yesterday some 3900 people swam, biked and ran in New York City’s 11th annual triathlon in what might be a celebratory event of human strength and perseverance. According to this morning’s paper, a 40-year-old woman suffered a heart attack during the 1500 meter swim in the Hudson. She was hospitalized and said to be in […]

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Implications of the Oncology Drug Shortage

Today’s New York Times features an op-ed by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, on the oncology drug shortage. It’s a serious problem that’s had too-little attention in the press: Of the 34 generic cancer drugs on the market, as of this month, 14 were in short supply. They include drugs that are the mainstay of treatment regimens […]

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Thoughts on the Death of Amy Winehouse

I feel compelled to write at least a short note on Amy Winehouse, a young woman who was found dead in her London apartment a few days ago. I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but the truth is I was never a big fan of her music. I wasn’t fond of her […]

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Mammography Update!

This week I’ve come across a few articles and varied blog posts on screening mammography. The impetus for rehashing the topic is a new set of guidelines issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. That group of women’s health providers now advises that most women get annual mammograms starting at age 40. Why […]

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The Trouble With Placebos

The latest NEJM features a big story about a small trial, with only 39 patients in the end, on the potential for placebos to relieve patients’ experience of symptoms. This follows other recent reports on the subjective effectiveness of pseudo-pharmacology. My point for today is that placebos are problematic in health care with few exceptions. First, […]

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Patients’ Words, Unfiltered, Medical Journalism and Evidence

Yesterday’s post was not really about Avastin, but about medical journalism and how patients’ voices are handled by the media. L. Husten, writing on a Forbes blog, cried that the press fawned, inappropriately, over patients’ words at the FDA hearing last week, and that led him to wonder why and if journalists should pay attention to […]

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No Room For Emotion or Exceptions to the Rule (on Avastin)

My cousin testified before the FDA oncology advisory board on Tuesday about her experience taking Avastin. This is a tragedy, to deny the only drug that is keeping a 51 year old woman alive. You have to wonder, are the advisory panel members so rational in all their behavior and choices? Are they always so […]

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer survival, cancer treatment, clinical trials, from the author, health care costs, Medical News, Oncology (cancer), PolicyTagged , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments on No Room For Emotion or Exceptions to the Rule (on Avastin)

Gregg Allman Stars in Hepatitis C Awareness Campaign, with Merck

This weekend I learned that Gregg Allman, of the Allman Brothers, has hepatitis C. Not just that; he underwent a liver transplant last year for treatment of liver cancer. This information came my way via CNN, in a clip narrated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The cable TV crew filmed the old rocker in Macon, Georgia, […]

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Quotes on Oncology, Via Forbes, and a Spiraling Helix

Forbes kept a close eye on the annual ASCO meeting in Chicago. On THE MEDICINE SHOW, Forbes’ Matthew Herper provides a précis of a speech by outgoing ASCO President Dr. George Sledge. Here are my two favorite parts: “So what happens when, a few years from now, a patient walks into a doctor’s office and […]

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Considering Aromasin for Healthy Women, and the New Breast Cancer Prevention Study

I’m minding the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology from a distance this year. So far, the big breast cancer story syncs with a NEJM paper published yesterday on-line, on the use of exemestane (brand name: Aromasin, manufactured by Pfizer) to prevent invasive breast cancer. These patent-protected pills block the body’s normal […]

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A New E. Coli Outbreak, Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome, and Eating In or Out

There’s a newly-identified E. coli strain that’s causing a serious illness called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The recent cases, mainly in northern Europe, have been attributed to eating raw vegetables like cucumbers, lettuce and tomato. So far, authorities aren’t sure of the exact source. Like any stomach bug, these bacteria can cause diarrhea, fever and […]

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News on Niaspan, Cholesterol Drugs and Biomarkers

The Times alerted me, this evening: Lowering bad cholesterol levels reduces heart attack risks, and researchers have long hoped that raising good cholesterol would help, too. Surprising results from a large government study announced on Thursday suggest that this hope may be misplaced…. Common wisdom has been that such patients should take a statin drug […]

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Zombies are For Children, and Hits

A few more thoughts on the CDC’s zombie ploy – Today’s Disruptive Women in Healthcare features a post applauding the agency’s out-of-the-box “thinking” to get the public’s attention turned to emergency preparedness. (As if that should be necessary, just after the worst radiation disaster in decades, as tornadoes rip through hospitals here in the U.S.) […]

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