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Breast Cancer | cancer causes | cancer diagnosis | cancer treatment | Future of Medicine | Oncology (cancer) | Pathology | Science | Under the Radar
 The 10 molecular BC categories bear prognostic (survival) information and, based on their distinct mutations and gene expression patterns, potential targets for novel drugs.…I wonder if, in a few years, some breast cancers might be treated without surgery. See more 10 Newly-Defined Molecular Types of Breast Cancer in Nature, and a Dream  What’s clear is that depending on how investigators adjust or manipulate or clarify or frame or present data – you choose the verb – they might show differing results. This doesn’t just pertain to data on trauma and helicopters… See more A JAMA Press Briefing on CER, Helicopters and Time for Questions  Topol’s comfortable writing about the intersection of science and medicine as few physicians are.…One theme that emerges through the book is the capacity for technology – by “knowing” and processing so much real-time information about each person’s condition — to inform more effective, individualized treatments. See more Review: Dr. Eric Topol’s Creative Destruction of Medicine Breast Cancer | cancer screening | Communication | Diagnosis | journalism | Medical News | Oncology (cancer) | Women's Health
Few forms of invasive breast cancer warrant no treatment unless the patient is so old that she is likely to die first of another condition, or the patient prefers to die of the disease.…“Mammograms Spot Cancers That May Not Be Dangerous,” said WebMD, yesterday. This is feel-good news, and largely wishful. See more New Article on Mammography Spawns False Hope That Breast Cancer is Not a Dangerous Disease  This week’s New Yorker profiles Christine Quinn, Speaker of the NYC City Council. I don’t know Ms. Quinn personally, so I was glad for the likely fact-checked bio of the woman who might be my next mayor. NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn marching in a Gay Pride event on Staten Island, June 2008 (Wikimedia Commons) It turns out that Quinn lost her mother to breast cancer when she was 16 years old. This interests me at several levels. Surely, the life-long effects of such a loss vary among souls — from bitterness to ambition to kindliness. I don’t know if the Speaker holds particular sympathies for BC causes, or gives to cancer-related agencies. I wonder if she’s a little more concerned about environmental toxins that might contribute to disease, or a touch more generous than the next NYC resident in her attitude, generally, about people who are sick and need care. But this is conjecture, nothing more. She’s See more Reading on Christine Quinn, Who Might Become NYC Mayor, and Public Health The new findings have no bearing on whether or not cancer screening is cost-effective or life-saving. What the study does suggest is that med school math requirements should be upped and rigorous, counter to the trend See more What Does it Mean if Primary Care Doctors Get the Answers Wrong About Screening Stats?  Counterfeit vials were sold and distributed to more than a dozen offices and medical treatment facilities in the U.S. This event, which seems to have affected a small number of patients and practices, should sound a big alarm.  The number of people living with cystic fibrosis in the U.S. is 30,000, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so the FDA’s approval applies to approximately 1,200 individuals — the 4% — who carry the G551D mutation. Yesterday the AMA news informed me that cyberchondria is on the rise. So it’s a good moment to consider the term’s meaning and history. Cyberchondria is an unfounded health concern that develops upon searching the Internet for information about symptoms or a disease. A cyberchondriac is someone who surfs the Web about a medical problem and worries about it unduly. Through Wikipedia, I located what might be the first reference to cyberchondria in a medical journal: a 2003 article in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. A section on the new diagnosis starts like this: “Although not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘cyberchondria’ has been coined to describe the excessive use of internet health sites to fuel health anxiety.” That academic report links back to a 2001 story in the Independent, “Are you a Cyberchondriac?” Two Microsoft researchers, Ryen White and Eric Horvitz, authored a “classic” paper: Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns See more Cyberchondria Rising — What is the Term’s Meaning and History? Last week’s NEJM delivered an intriguing, imperfect article on a new approach to treating hepatitis C (HCV). The paper’s careful title, Preliminary Study of Two Antiviral Agents for Hepatitis C Genotype 1, seems right. The analysis, with 17 authors listed, traces the response of 21 people with hepatitis C (HCV) who got two new anti-viral agents, with or without older drugs, in a clinical trial sponsored by Bristol-Meyers Squibb. The 21 study participants all had chronic infection by HCV genotype 1, a strain that’s common in North America and relatively resistant to standard treatment. All subjects were between 18 and 70 years old, with a measurable level of HCV RNA in the blood, no evidence of cirrhosis, and no response to prior HCV treatment (according to criteria detailed in the paper). In the trial, 11 patients received a combination regimen of daclatasvir (60 mg once daily, by mouth) and asunaprevir (600 mg, twice daily by mouth) alone; the other 10 patients took the experimental drugs |
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