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Oncology and hematology

2,498 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 19

Physician voices

Mothers and sweaters: the gifts of letting go

I sifted through both cars, my own and my husband’s, underneath our boys’ baseball equipment, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles. The felt bag was nowhere to be found. I was finally ready to take this bag of a dozen…

I sifted through both cars, my own and my husband’s, underneath our boys’ baseball equipment, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles. The felt bag was nowhere to be found.

I was finally ready to take this bag of a dozen sweaters, some of which were my fancy cashmeres, to the dry cleaners. Why a dozen, you may ask? Well, these were essentially all the nice sweaters I owned. I waited a …

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Mothers and sweaters: the gifts of letting go

Conditions and diseases

Prostate cancer, sex drive, male menopause and conversations to have with your doctor

Americans are having less sex than ever before. Should we be worried? Ask your prostate. A 2022 study from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior found that the rate of all types of sexual intercourse have declined from…

Americans are having less sex than ever before. Should we be worried? Ask your prostate.

A 2022 study from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior found that the rate of all types of sexual intercourse have declined from 2009 to 2018. While the authors speculate as to why this may be the case – it is unlikely they examined the role of prostate cancer. …

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Prostate cancer, sex drive, male menopause and conversations to have with your doctor

Physician voices

The connection between sickle cell disease and socioeconomics

Two new treatments have emerged for sickle cell disease. One curative treatment is a bone marrow transplant, and the second treatment is a gene-based therapy undergoing clinical trials. While this is much-welcomed news for patients battling the disease, the medical…

Two new treatments have emerged for sickle cell disease. One curative treatment is a bone marrow transplant, and the second treatment is a gene-based therapy undergoing clinical trials. While this is much-welcomed news for patients battling the disease, the medical profession still needs to address sickle cell disease’s socioeconomic and racial health care inequities.

Sickle cell disease is a genetic disease that alters and lowers red blood …

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The connection between sickle cell disease and socioeconomics

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Physician voices

Bring back CME conferences to exotic locations

It was not too long ago, but it seems like decades when traveling for a CME conference was a routine part of being a physician as looking up articles on UpToDate or giving patients bad news. But like so many…

It was not too long ago, but it seems like decades when traveling for a CME conference was a routine part of being a physician as looking up articles on UpToDate or giving patients bad news. But like so many other things in life, the reality of CME conferences has changed.

Most training programs give allowance to physicians for CME conferences on a yearly basis. After training, you have to keep …

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Bring back CME conferences to exotic locations

The Podcast by KevinMD

Patients need palliative care to manage the pain of sickle cell disease [PODCAST]

"Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 Americans as an inherited genetic disorder with intermittent exacerbations requiring hospitalization. SCD is also a painful and complicated disease with no single physician specialist that can provide pain relief. While SCD pain is…

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“Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 Americans as an inherited genetic disorder with intermittent exacerbations requiring hospitalization. SCD is also a painful and complicated disease with no single physician specialist that can provide pain relief. While SCD pain is similar in severity to cancer pain, patients struggle to …

Read more…

Patients need palliative care to manage the pain of sickle cell disease [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

A body part that fills me with a roller coaster of emotion [PODCAST]

"Their absence makes me feel sad, I look around at my peers, envious and curious, Obsessing over when they will show up. When they do, they never seem to live up to expectations, Too small, too uneven, but what’s sure…

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“Their absence makes me feel sad,
I look around at my peers, envious and curious,
Obsessing over when they will show up.
When they do, they never seem to live up to expectations,
Too small, too uneven, but what’s sure is it’s a sign I’m no longer a child.

It adds to my wardrobe …

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A body part that fills me with a roller coaster of emotion [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

To my patient who is going to lose her hair from chemotherapy [PODCAST]

"I understand that the biggest fear you have about going through chemotherapy is losing your hair. I just want to tell you. You will be fine. Trust me. I know it’s barbaric. Why don’t we have medicines to treat cancer…

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“I understand that the biggest fear you have about going through chemotherapy is losing your hair. I just want to tell you. You will be fine. Trust me.

I know it’s barbaric. Why don’t we have medicines to treat cancer that will not make you lose your hair in this …

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To my patient who is going to lose her hair from chemotherapy [PODCAST]

Conditions and diseases

10 colorectal pearls for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Share these gems with your family, friends, and patients. Take the time to reflect on your personal history and encourage yourself and others to get screened when appropriate. 1. The large intestine or the…

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Share these gems with your family, friends, and patients. Take the time to reflect on your personal history and encourage yourself and others to get screened when appropriate.

1. The large intestine or the large bowel consists of the colon, rectum, and anus. The colon and rectum have a cumulative length of 150 cm or 4.9 feet.

2. Gastrointestinal contents are received from the small bowel …

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10 colorectal pearls for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Physician voices

One surgeon’s decision during COVID to finally believe in her long-term survival

For most of my life, I was so busy cramming and training to focus on my nasal profile or my pesky protruding lower left canine. The drive to achieve academically consumed me from a very young age. I staved off…

For most of my life, I was so busy cramming and training to focus on my nasal profile or my pesky protruding lower left canine. The drive to achieve academically consumed me from a very young age. I staved off self-doubt through study, intense repetition until the knowledge bled from my brain onto the pages of countless exams. For eleven years, I missed birthdays, family gatherings and sacrificed friendships and …

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One surgeon’s decision during COVID to finally believe in her long-term survival

The Podcast by KevinMD

Cancer treatment and tumor-informed residual disease testing [PODCAST]

"Life can feel full of uncertainty when battling cancer, with few guarantees. 'Is there still cancer in my body?' and 'Will it come back?' are common questions that have long been difficult to answer confidently until recently. Advances in next-generation…

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“Life can feel full of uncertainty when battling cancer, with few guarantees. ‘Is there still cancer in my body?’ and ‘Will it come back?’ are common questions that have long been difficult to answer confidently until recently. Advances in next-generation sequencing — and a growing understanding of how our …

Read more…

Cancer treatment and tumor-informed residual disease testing [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

How to convert medical knowledge into digital assets that work for you [PODCAST]

"Instead of trading up for a faster horse by drawing in the exam room, it felt like I’d just built a motor car. I created a new workflow around my digital assets. When patients checked in for a clinic visit,…

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“Instead of trading up for a faster horse by drawing in the exam room, it felt like I’d just built a motor car.

I created a new workflow around my digital assets. When patients checked in for a clinic visit, I scanned the chart for their visit diagnosis and fired …

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How to convert medical knowledge into digital assets that work for you [PODCAST]

Health policy

Why and how to get a second opinion [PODCAST]

"In the end, the patient-physician relationship is crucial to overall decision-making for any plan of care, treatment, or surgery. There are many variations in the reviewed studies in health care literature as to the cost-effectiveness of second opinions in medicine.…

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“In the end, the patient-physician relationship is crucial to overall decision-making for any plan of care, treatment, or surgery. There are many variations in the reviewed studies in health care literature as to the cost-effectiveness of second opinions in medicine. These studies could be easily misconstrued that there are …

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Why and how to get a second opinion [PODCAST]

Conditions and diseases

Patients need palliative care to manage the pain of sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 Americans as an inherited genetic disorder with intermittent exacerbations requiring hospitalization. SCD is also a painful and complicated disease with no single physician specialist that can provide pain relief. While SCD pain is…

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 Americans as an inherited genetic disorder with intermittent exacerbations requiring hospitalization. SCD is also a painful and complicated disease with no single physician specialist that can provide pain relief. While SCD pain is similar in severity to cancer pain, patients struggle to find adequate pain relief because they are often labeled as “doesn’t appear in pain” as the

…

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Patients need palliative care to manage the pain of sickle cell disease

Physician voices

When doctors can’t hug

I stood outside the busy ICU room with Gregory's mom, holding her hand and talking softly, while the team inside removed his breathing tube and prepared him for his final trip home. Gregory was dying from a devastating brain tumor…

I stood outside the busy ICU room with Gregory’s mom, holding her hand and talking softly, while the team inside removed his breathing tube and prepared him for his final trip home. Gregory was dying from a devastating brain tumor with no known cure, and his mother had made the difficult decision to take him off his ventilator and bring him home to pass away among his family. When the …

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When doctors can’t hug

The Podcast by KevinMD

How MRI-guided radiation therapy is changing the paradigm in pancreatic cancer [PODCAST]

"The data are remarkable and promising, though beyond the numbers is a bigger picture. Each data point represents a life – a mother, uncle, grandparent, loved one, friend. Technological advances in image guidance and therapeutic delivery are allowing us to…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

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“The data are remarkable and promising, though beyond the numbers is a bigger picture. Each data point represents a life – a mother, uncle, grandparent, loved one, friend. Technological advances in image guidance and therapeutic delivery are allowing us to extend life – and quality of life – for …

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How MRI-guided radiation therapy is changing the paradigm in pancreatic cancer [PODCAST]

Physician voices

The price of love is loss. But still we pay.

I just wanted to tell you that I had a wonderful patient as a consult today. She had a pretty bad prognosis and was a recently diagnosed hepatobiliary cancer patient. Pretty aggressive disease with wild metastasis. From her time of…

I just wanted to tell you that I had a wonderful patient as a consult today. She had a pretty bad prognosis and was a recently diagnosed hepatobiliary cancer patient. Pretty aggressive disease with wild metastasis. From her time of diagnosis to my consult was less than two weeks. But her cancer was advancing at a remarkable pace, and the oncologist was recommending no further chemotherapy if she remained this …

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The price of love is loss. But still we pay.

Conditions and diseases

Tumor-informed residual disease testing can help inform cancer treatment

Life can feel full of uncertainty when battling cancer, with few guarantees. "Is there still cancer in my body?" and "Will it come back?" are common questions that have long been difficult to answer confidently until recently. Advances in next-generation…

Life can feel full of uncertainty when battling cancer, with few guarantees. “Is there still cancer in my body?” and “Will it come back?” are common questions that have long been difficult to answer confidently until recently. Advances in next-generation sequencing — and a growing understanding of how our bodies respond to illness and treatment — have brought us closer than ever to predicting our individual futures, at least when …

Read more…

Tumor-informed residual disease testing can help inform cancer treatment

The Podcast by KevinMD

With Lynch Syndrome, knowledge alone isn’t power [PODCAST]

"I imagine I would have, as I’m sure so many others do, headed to the Internet, reading both accurate and inaccurate information. While much of my visit with my genetic counselor feels like a blur, I left that meeting with…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

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“I imagine I would have, as I’m sure so many others do, headed to the Internet, reading both accurate and inaccurate information. While much of my visit with my genetic counselor feels like a blur, I left that meeting with a list of answered questions, referrals to specialists, contact …

Read more…

With Lynch Syndrome, knowledge alone isn’t power [PODCAST]

Physician voices

How to convert medical knowledge into digital assets that work for you

Over 12 months, I rebuilt my practice workflow to solve the problem of inefficient knowledge transfer between me and my patients. Now with a new system incorporating a library of leveraged digital assets I'm saving time and improving patient experience.…

Over 12 months, I rebuilt my practice workflow to solve the problem of inefficient knowledge transfer between me and my patients. Now with a new system incorporating a library of leveraged digital assets I’m saving time and improving patient experience. Here’s how it happened:

“Hey, Picasso! That patient wants to keep your drawing to show her family!”

My secretary shouted down the hall to my office. An elderly patient asked to keep …

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How to convert medical knowledge into digital assets that work for you

Conditions and diseases

Keeping a cancer diagnosis silent

It is a seasonally cold fall evening in Long Island, NY, and I am standing in a field in the middle of what should be a darkened park. Still, I am truly amazed by how bright it is lit up…

It is a seasonally cold fall evening in Long Island, NY, and I am standing in a field in the middle of what should be a darkened park. Still, I am truly amazed by how bright it is lit up by lanterns with different colors demarcating patients, families, and remembrances.

As an oncologist who treats blood cancers, this event, called Light the Night, sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, was …

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Keeping a cancer diagnosis silent

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