J. Leonard Lichtenfeld is an oncologist who blogs at Dr. Len’s Blog.
A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that too few women with recently diagnosed breast cancer and at high risk of a BRCA genetic mutation received appropriate genetic counseling. And that testing for the mutation is a missed opportunity not only to improve treatment for these patients but also to prevent some breast, Read more…
When it comes to our health and our health care, we love the numbers. Sometimes, we even fall in love with the numbers, assuming that the numbers tell us the whole story when, in fact, that may not be the case. Cholesterol numbers, blood pressure numbers, body mass index, whatever. As patients and consumers, we are frequently defined by our numbers.
But what happens when those numbers and other medical tests, …
Perhaps, doctors struggle more than most with memories that mark sad moments in their careers. For me, one of the most indelible was of a wonderful young man with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
When I started my oncology career in the early 1970s, CML was almost always fatal. It would start with a chronic phase, which was treated with pretty simple medications. But those medications didn’t cure the disease.
The “almost always” …
The recent announcement by a California company offering DNA blood tests (also known as “liquid biopsies“) for the early detection of cancer takes us to a place most of us expected we would get to, but much earlier than we are prepared for. Simply stated, our technology and rush to get new tests to market — even before we have a basic understanding of how to use those …
Genomics and its impact on clinical medicine appear to be the topics du jour. The science is rapidly advancing, but our ability to understand and apply that science may not be keeping pace. The question is whether expectations will meet the promise, and are we wise enough to navigate the maelstrom and bring true benefit to our patients and consumers in general?
Three …
Question: What do all these cancers have in common: melanoma, lung, kidney, bladder, ovarian, head and neck, Hodgkin lymphoma, stomach, breast (and others)?
Answer: They have all shown evidence of meaningful, durable responses when treated with one or more of the new immunotherapy drugs. And that is truly amazing, not to mention very unexpected, even by the …
It’s a headline that I suspect many thought would never be written, but it was — in the New Orleans Advocate: “Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans gives patrons lollipops as it introduces smoking ban.”
Six months ago, there weren’t many who thought this could happen, that the city council of New Orleans would pass, and the mayor would sign …
The president’s proposed Precision Medicine Initiative, as mentioned in his recent State of the Union address suggests it’s probably time to get ready for some changes in our daily routines as health professionals.
I’m not talking about the incredible information that has already been produced by researchers examining the human genome. Nor am I referring to the work that is going on in major cancer centers and elsewhere exploring how to better …
Value.
A simple word with lots of meanings, all of which depend on the context of the moment. Value in health care — especially in cancer care — is certainly no exception. What is undeniable is that we are seeing an increasing clamor about value in cancer treatment. And one person’s value is clearly another person’s concern.
At the crux …
The numbers about skin cancer incidence and costs in the United States are worse than anyone expected.
That’s the message that comes from a report published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on research from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Cancer Institute.
The researchers took a look at the number of skin cancers …
You never know when something special is going to happen, as in one of those times when you just wish you had a camera rolling to capture a moment, a comment, a statement about the way the world is — and the way the world could be.
This past weekend my wife and I were attending a meeting in …
It’s October and that means we are about to see a lot of pink for the next 31 days. And virtually all of the work comes down to one simple -some might say overly simple-message: Get a mammogram.
But as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), begins, I find myself one again asking some difficult questions: Are we …
I had an interesting day this past week. Sadly, it left me wondering why the same “hope and hype” directed at cancer patients and their families decades ago when I started my oncology career was still alive and well today. But then, maybe I am the naïve one to think that anything should have really changed.
In the morning …
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“Ultraviolet bad.”
That was the core message that came out of the introduction this morning of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer at a meeting held at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
There were some other messages that now raise skin cancer awareness and prevention high on the public health awareness list, such as …
I recently had the privilege of participating in a meeting hosted by the President’s Cancer Panel on the role of social media in improving cancer control and treatment. The goal was to give advice to the Panel on a planned series of meetings they will be convening to discuss the topic. It was the range and quality of the discussion …
The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology is a place where many commercial interests jostle for attention to make their latest promising therapy the star of the show. But a standard widely available generic drug stole the show by producing incredible results in improving survival for men with advanced prostate cancer. And that has some of us …
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An article published recently in the American Cancer Society journal CA: A Journal for Clinicians received a lot of media attention. The report showed dramatic declines in the rate of people being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, as well as decreases in the rates of colorectal cancer deaths over the past number of years.
But the press didn’t say much about the fact that not everyone has benefited …
This was the dream: We would use technology to create a seamless health care system, one where people, computers and machines would work together to improve patient care in many different ways. Health care would be more efficient, it would be safer, it would be less expensive, we would be able to transfer health-related information quickly and accurately.
After …
I had the opportunity recently to participate in a Twitter chat on the topic of colorectal cancer awareness. The chat was intended to bring attention to a nationwide campaign called “80 by 2018” designed to increase colorectal cancer screening rates to 80% of the population over the next 4 years. If it is successful, we should see a decline in both incidence and deaths …
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News reports covering a prostate cancer study recently in the New England Journal of Medicine have all pretty much come out with the same message: men diagnosed with prostate cancer who had radical surgery did much better than men who were assigned to “watchful waiting” after they were diagnosed.
But guess what? There’s a critical fact that seemed to be missing in much of the coverage I saw. And that fact …
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