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)

What’s Next on the Big C? (Hopefully a Second Opinion)

(Hopefully a second opinion) When I last wrote on The Big C, a Showtime series in which the actress Laura Linney portrays a woman in her forties with advanced melanoma, I considered some of the options she might choose when the series resumes next Monday night. At the end of Season 1, she elected to […]

Posted in cancer treatment, Communication, Empowered Patient, Oncology (cancer), TV, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on What’s Next on the Big C? (Hopefully a Second Opinion)

More News On Lymph Nodes and Breast Cancer Surgery

Last week the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) printed a major research article on lymph node dissection in breast cancer surgery. When I first saw the Times’ recent headline, I thought it would cover this paper: Effect of Occult Metastases on Survival in Node-Negative Breast Cancer.*

It turns out there were separate articles on axillary node dissection after sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer – one in JAMA and one in the NEJM – published a week apart. For some reason, the NEJM paper got little attention…

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer treatment, Oncology (cancer), Pathology, Under the RadarTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment on More News On Lymph Nodes and Breast Cancer Surgery
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