Oncology and hematology

2,498 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 38

After 8 years, this doctor is finally treating his pancreatic tumors

September 6, 2017Sep 6, 20172

I've known that I've had tumors in my pancreas since 2009. Until now I've done nothing about them. This might sound like a counter-intuitive, even foolhardy strategy, especially for an oncologist, who should surely know better than to let his…

I’ve known that I’ve had tumors in my pancreas since 2009. Until now I’ve done nothing about them.

This might sound like a counter-intuitive, even foolhardy strategy, especially for an oncologist, who should surely know better than to let his disease gain an advantage through his own inaction. But I don’t have the “usual” type of pancreatic cancer, the kind that claimed the life of Patrick Swayze and has sentenced …

Physician voices

Dear insurance doctor: You are not my peer

Rick Boulay, MD

September 1, 2017Sep 1, 201723

I am a gynecologic-oncologist. I work in the high-stakes realm of cancer care. I strategize complex treatment plans involving surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and the newer biological agents to treat the myriad of disease that we call collectively “cancer.” Cure — or at least control — requires urgent and timely administration of these modalities along with various imaging or blood work to assure that the treatment prescribed is effective. I love …

Medical education

The white coat symbolizes 2 important commitments

Efrain Talamantes, MD

August 27, 2017Aug 27, 20172

A white coat ceremony address to the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, August 4, 2017. "It takes a village" is one of my favorite proverbs, an African proverb, that resonates with each of us on this monumental day.…

A white coat ceremony address to the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, August 4, 2017.

“It takes a village” is one of my favorite proverbs, an African proverb, that resonates with each of us on this monumental day. There is without a doubt that every one of you worked very hard to get into medical school. However, this difficult journey was supported by dozens of important individuals: teachers, …

Real physician voices, twice a week

Free, and one click to unsubscribe.

Health technology

Patient first: How EHRs can better serve our shared mission

Bill Russell

August 27, 2017Aug 27, 20179

An exchange between former Vice-President Joe Biden and EPIC CEO Judy Faulkner at a Biden Cancer Initiative event has again elevated the discussion of patient access to their medical records. You can read the discussion on Politico. However, Biden’s main…

An exchange between former Vice-President Joe Biden and EPIC CEO Judy Faulkner at a Biden Cancer Initiative event has again elevated the discussion of patient access to their medical records.

You can read the discussion on Politico. However, Biden’s main point was that patients needn’t justify their claim to their own EHR records.

In fairness to Ms. Faulkner, they did express a common view: medical records are too complex for …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 58-year-old man with cancer of the ascending colon

mksap

August 26, 2017Aug 26, 2017

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 58-year-old man undergoes follow-up evaluation for cancer of the ascending colon diagnosed 3 weeks ago. Colonoscopy at that time revealed a fungating mass…

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 58-year-old man undergoes follow-up evaluation for cancer of the ascending colon diagnosed 3 weeks ago. Colonoscopy at that time revealed a fungating mass in the ascending colon. Biopsy revealed adenocarcinoma, and additional studies showed no evidence of metastatic disease. Right hemicolectomy was performed. The pathology report showed a 4-cm primary adenocarcinoma …

Patient voices

Health care at the N of 1

Andy DeLao

August 24, 2017Aug 24, 2017

In the past few weeks, there has been a question regarding my use of the hashtag #Nof1 along with how I end the majority of my posts and tweets: Health care is delivered at the N of 1. One person…

In the past few weeks, there has been a question regarding my use of the hashtag #Nof1 along with how I end the majority of my posts and tweets: Health care is delivered at the N of 1.

One person even believed there might be a trademark infringement with the company N-of-1 who provides molecular testing for patients and then delivers evidenced-based medical recommendations for oncology patients. The reality is that, …

Read more…

Health care at the N of 1

Patient voices

Can doctors see beyond a patient’s weight?

Laura Fraser

August 23, 2017Aug 23, 20176

My older sister, Jan, visited me in San Francisco last spring. “You look great,” I told her, noticing that her clothes were hanging loose; she’d been heavy most of her life. “I’ve lost 60 pounds,” she said, and I automatically…

“I wasn’t trying,” she replied.

It hit me then that something was very wrong, first with …

Patient voices

Let’s change the mediocre status quo of health care

Andy DeLao

August 18, 2017Aug 18, 2017

On a daily basis, I am introduced to new people from all walks of life. Some sit on the board of directors, some are CEOs, some are presidents, some are middle managers and other administrators, some are investors, others are…

I listen to people talk about the big challenges in health care. It costs too much, we have a shortage …

Physician voices

Doctors: Don’t emotionally detach

Sasha K. Shillcutt, MD

August 18, 2017Aug 18, 2017

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge I was a third-year medical student on a Sunday morning when the reality of what I had chosen as my life career truly…

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I was a third-year medical student on a Sunday morning when the reality of what I had chosen as my life career truly hit me in the gut. At that moment, I realized how intimate the practice of medicine was and that I would have to bring not only my brain and skills to work …

Read more…

Doctors: Don’t emotionally detach

Physician voices

A cancer patient’s incredible response to treatment

Don S. Dizon, MD

August 9, 2017Aug 9, 2017

I’d known her for almost 3 years. She had advanced ovarian cancer -- clear cell -- and was diagnosed with disease already in her chest, stage IV. She had a terrific response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which had resolved her extra-abdominal…

I’d known her for almost 3 years. She had advanced ovarian cancer — clear cell — and was diagnosed with disease already in her chest, stage IV. She had a terrific response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which had resolved her extra-abdominal disease sites after three cycles. She had an aggressive interval surgery which achieved complete resection …

Conditions and diseases

Dear Sen. McCain: 9 ways to live with glioblastoma

Adam Hayden

August 2, 2017Aug 2, 20172

Dear Sen. McCain, I was saddened to hear that you received a diagnosis of glioblastoma. I also live with this particularly aggressive type of brain cancer. On the surface, you and I are very different. I am a 35-year-old dad…

Dear Sen. McCain,

I was saddened to hear that you received a diagnosis of glioblastoma. I also live with this particularly aggressive type of brain cancer. On the surface, you and I are very different. I am a 35-year-old dad with three sons aged 5 and under. I have a beard and listen to indie rock. I hold …

Conditions and diseases

A medical student is diagnosed with cancer. Here is his story.

Ari Bernstein

August 2, 2017Aug 2, 20173

I began medical school, like many of my peers, with some experience working with patients. I worked as a volunteer EMT with Cornell University EMS for four years during my undergraduate years; shadowed a cardiologist and an anesthesiologist through Cornell’s Urban Summer program at NYP Hospital–Cornell and worked with patients during Global Medical Brigade trips to rural Honduras. All of this sparked my interest in medicine, but to claim I …

Conditions and diseases

When an erythrocyte sedimentation rate leads to a serious diagnosis

Hans Duvefelt, MD

August 1, 2017Aug 1, 20172

In Sweden, back when I trained, three blood tests were the “routine labs” done at most doctor visits: hemoglobin, white blood cell count, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. I’m trying to remember, but I don’t think everyone waited an hour to…

The “sed rate,” or “sänkan” as we call it, was invented by Robin Fåhraeus, a relative of one …

Physician voices

Cancer patients can’t afford care

Syed M. Ahmed, MD, PhD

July 28, 2017Jul 28, 201713

Lost in the debate on “Trumpcare” versus “Obamacare” is the proper consideration of the factors driving increasing health care costs. In cancer, the pharmaceutical industry plays a major role setting drug prices that exceed reasonable returns on research and development. The economics of treatment were again apparent during the plenary session of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in June, aka the cancer community’s Super Bowl. Two years …

Read more…

Cancer patients can’t afford care

Physician voices

10 lessons from Hamilton that made me a better oncologist

Ashley Sumrall, MD

July 26, 2017Jul 26, 20173

Over 30,000 visitors flocked to Chicago in early June to participate in the ASCO annual meeting, the summer mecca for all things oncology. In between plenary sessions and poster presentations, some attendees found their way to one of the Hamilton Chicago performances. Having opened in Chicago about seven months ago, this version of the “hip-hop musical” has packed in audiences, striving to capture some of the success that its New …

Physician voices

Are end-of-life decisions the doctor’s or the patient’s?

Don S. Dizon, MD

July 24, 2017Jul 24, 20172

I remember meeting this patient the first time. I had just started in a new position, and she was one of my first consults. Tracey* had an aggressive sex-cord tumor of the ovary that had relapsed soon after surgery, grown through primary chemotherapy and grew once more after secondary surgery and “adjuvant” pelvic radiation. I knew …

Conditions and diseases

Should we screen African-American men for prostate cancer?

Kenneth Lin, MD

July 23, 2017Jul 23, 2017

Regular readers of my blog know that I believe that the harms of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer outweigh the benefits — if benefits exist at all. That isn’t to say that I will not order the test in a man who understands the risks and expresses a clear preference to be screened. In a recent editorial in American Family Physician, I explained my …

Conditions and diseases

Senator McCain has brain cancer. Here’s what that means.

Brian C. Joondeph, MD

July 20, 2017Jul 20, 20175

By now, most readers already know that Senator John McCain has been diagnosed with a brain tumor -- specifically, a glioblastoma. I take no pleasure is suspecting such a diagnosis, as I wrote a few days ago, based on a…

By now, most readers already know that Senator John McCain has been diagnosed with a brain tumor — specifically, a glioblastoma. I take no pleasure is suspecting such a diagnosis, as I wrote a few days ago, based on a bit of medical logic and observation rather than what the media reported.

This is a devastating diagnosis for the senator and his family, not the blood clot initially …

Physician voices

Treating the patients we cannot reach

Anne Katz, RN, PhD

July 17, 2017Jul 17, 2017

I had never met the man, but from a brief reading of the notes in his medical record, I knew that this was not going to be easy. Thirty years old with stage III kidney cancer, the notes showed a…

I had never met the man, but from a brief reading of the notes in his medical record, I knew that this was not going to be easy. Thirty years old with stage III kidney cancer, the notes showed a long history of missed appointments and late arrivals. I had been asked to talk to him about sperm banking and so …

Read more…

Treating the patients we cannot reach

Physician voices

Finding the right words for my patients’ hard questions

Prateek Mendiratta, MD

July 16, 2017Jul 16, 2017

On a recent visit to DC, I found myself feeling inspired; regardless of your politics, it’s almost impossible not to. At each monument, museum, memorial, and government building, I stood in awe of the boldness, faith, hope, and determination of our founding fathers and their unwavering belief in the future success of their American experiment. So many of these sites are inscribed with famous quotes from leaders who inspired generation …

Oncology and hematology

Articles, page 38

Real physician voices, twice a week

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular