Oncology and hematology

2,498 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 56

You can never make sense of cancer

June 12, 2014Jun 12, 2014

When you tell people that your dad died of lung cancer, often the follow up question is, "Did he smoke?" In my case, the answer is, sort of. I have fuzzy memories of my dad in our basement, smoking his…

When you tell people that your dad died of lung cancer, often the follow up question is, “Did he smoke?”

In my case, the answer is, sort of.

I have fuzzy memories of my dad in our basement, smoking his pipe in his black leather chair and watching the original Doctor Who (I’m still processing the cultural implications of that last detail). Rumor has it he smoked cigars in the ’60s, but …

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You can never make sense of cancer

Patient voices

Collateral damage after cancer surgery

Anonymous

June 11, 2014Jun 11, 20148

Dr. Robert's office felt right to me, with a musical birdsong soundtrack, soft lighting and fresh green tea, and I had my best friend in tow: piece of cake. In this serene atmosphere, I was sure that I'd find out…

Dr. Robert’s office felt right to me, with a musical birdsong soundtrack, soft lighting and fresh green tea, and I had my best friend in tow: piece of cake. In this serene atmosphere, I was sure that I’d find out what to do next to finish treating my endometrial cancer.

“It’s probably gone now, since my hysterectomy two weeks back,” I thought. “But let’s play it safe; he’s the gynecological-cancer guru.”

Like …

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Collateral damage after cancer surgery

Physician voices

Giving challenging patients the best care

James C. Salwitz, MD

June 10, 2014Jun 10, 20142

It was 1:35 p.m. when we realized that Tom was not just late for his chemotherapy treatment; he probably would not show up at all. A call from one of our staff confirmed, he had “troubles getting a ride” and wanted to move the vital therapy to another day. This was the third time in a month he had missed an appointment, thus wasting a treatment slot, nursing time and …

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Patient voices

Criticizing The Fault in Our Stars does childhood cancer a disservice

Suzanne Leigh

June 9, 2014Jun 9, 20144

A pediatric oncologist seems to suggest we shouldn’t be getting too upset about childhood cancer because kids and teens dying or going blind “are things that we don’t typically encounter.” “I think the important thing to realize is that cancer…

A pediatric oncologist seems to suggest we shouldn’t be getting too upset about childhood cancer because kids and teens dying or going blind “are things that we don’t typically encounter.”

“I think the important thing to realize is that cancer in children is highly treatable and ultimately curable,” Dr. Charles Hemenway of Loyola University said in HemOnc Today, in response to the movie …

Conditions and diseases

Address the racial disparity of colorectal cancer

J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, MD

June 5, 2014Jun 5, 2014

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…

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 …

Patient voices

Our unsung work is essential to treating patients

Kristen Nace

June 3, 2014Jun 3, 2014

You will never see my face or know my name. You probably won't give much thought to what happens to your blood after your doctor says, "I think we need to run some tests," and the phlebotomist draws it into…

You will never see my face or know my name. You probably won’t give much thought to what happens to your blood after your doctor says, “I think we need to run some tests,” and the phlebotomist draws it into the tubes with their colored tops. I know I never did, until I became a medical laboratory technologist.

Over the course of a normal day at the hospital lab, my coworkers …

Conditions and diseases

A physician’s guide to interpreting cancer statistics

Kenneth Lin, MD

June 2, 2014Jun 2, 2014

I've had many Twitter conversations with cancer screening advocates who fear that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's "D" (don't do it) recommendation against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer will lead to a dramatic spike in prostate cancer deaths as…

I’ve had many Twitter conversations with cancer screening advocates who fear that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s “D” (don’t do it) recommendation against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer will lead to a dramatic spike in prostate cancer deaths as primary care physicians screen more selectively, or perhaps stop screening at all.

I seriously doubt these apocalyptic forecasts (for one thing, prostate cancer causes only 3% of deaths in men, and the decline …

Physician voices

During this visit, my job was to watch

Kenneth D. Bishop, MD, PhD

June 2, 2014Jun 2, 20145

A woman in her 70s came into my clinic recently. Her primary doc found a mass so she came to the hospital for a biopsy and passed out on the table so they scanned her head and found a mass…

A woman in her 70s came into my clinic recently. Her primary doc found a mass so she came to the hospital for a biopsy and passed out on the table so they scanned her head and found a mass there, too. She started radiation and then came to meet me in the outpatient clinic.

She had trouble expressing herself because she’d had a stroke two decades ago, but it didn’t …

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During this visit, my job was to watch

Conditions and diseases

Esophageal cancer: How far should we screen?

Julian A. Abrams, MD

June 1, 2014Jun 1, 2014

The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has increased more than five-fold over the past four decades in the U.S. While the rate of rise in incidence of esophageal cancer has slowed somewhat in recent years, this malignancy is still associated with a dismal prognosis. Barrett’s esophagus, the precursor lesion to esophageal cancer, is easily identifiable on routine upper endoscopy and can be monitored for the development of precancerous changes. We generally …

Physician voices

My favorite patient died last night

Miranda Fielding, MD

May 30, 2014May 30, 20147

to live in this world you must be able to do three things to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go,…

to live in this world

you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go
-Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1

As a parent, you are not supposed to have a favorite child, and since some of us physicians feel a strange but kindred protectiveness for our patients, likewise we …

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My favorite patient died last night

Physician voices

Cancer care for international patients

Don S. Dizon, MD

May 28, 2014May 28, 2014

The world is a big place and here in the U.S., we are fortunate to live in a part of it where we have access to technology and advanced medical care, clinical trials, and new therapies, even before they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Indeed, even new agents approved for one indication can be prescribed off-label in …

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Cancer care for international patients

Physician voices

The art of writing a good consultation letter to another physician

Merry Jennifer Markham, MD

May 25, 2014May 25, 2014

I received a fax recently, from the office of another hematologist-oncologist, at another academic medical center. Attached to the fax cover page, with my name and fax number scribbled in slanted script, was a five-page consultation report on one of my patients. That oncologist — I’ll call him Dr. Z — had seen and evaluated my patient to provide a second opinion on the patient’s diagnosis and treatment.

The lengthy report …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 32-year-old woman is evaluated for increased hair growth

mksap

May 24, 2014May 24, 2014

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 32-year-old woman is evaluated for increased hair growth on the face and chest and a 3-month history of irregular menses. She has a…

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

A 32-year-old woman is evaluated for increased hair growth on the face and chest and a 3-month history of irregular menses. She has a 5-year history of hypothyroidism. Her only medication is levothyroxine.

On physical examination, temperature is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F), blood pressure is 110/72 mm Hg, and pulse rate is 80/min; …

Patient voices

Life is a terminal illness

Ellen Diamond

May 23, 2014May 23, 20143

Before I retired in 2000, I worked in a state agency as a peer counselor, or more formally, an employee assistance program (EAP) coordinator. The "coordinator" part was there because my job description wasn't actually to do counseling; it was…

Before I retired in 2000, I worked in a state agency as a peer counselor, or more formally, an employee assistance program (EAP) coordinator. The “coordinator” part was there because my job description wasn’t actually to do counseling; it was to assess the problem and refer the client for help.

But of course both of those processes involved counseling. We just couldn’t call it that.

In 1986, shortly after I’d begun the …

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Life is a terminal illness

Drugs and prescribing

It’s time for doctors to say no to drugs

James C. Salwitz, MD

May 22, 2014May 22, 201424

The United States of America is addicted to narcotics. I do not mean the millions of individuals who are hooked. I mean the whole nation is jonesing for the stuff. I also do not mean the junk that slips into our nation in coffee cans or across midnight borders. I mean the billions of pills pouring off assembly lines. I could blame pharma or the FDA, but the truth is …

Conditions and diseases

You can never be prepared for a diagnosis of breast cancer

Madhulika Sikka

May 18, 2014May 18, 2014

An excerpt from A Breast Cancer Alphabet. There is a hushed reverence in the waiting area outside the Oval Office. After all those years of The West Wing, one might think there would be a bustle of activity -- a…

An excerpt from A Breast Cancer Alphabet.

There is a hushed reverence in the waiting area outside the Oval Office. After all those years of The West Wing, one might think there would be a bustle of activity — a swirl of smart, earnest people walking and talking at the same time. Perhaps I would …

Physician voices

Cancer takes so much, but can its passage give back anything good?

James C. Salwitz, MD

May 13, 2014May 13, 20147

Three months ago, Anne finished chemotherapy. She is tired, overweight, anxious and her feet burn. Anne sleeps poorly, cannot concentrate at work and her relationship with her husband is distant, let alone intimate. In my office for a “survivor’s” visit, Anne asked the glaring question. “Will I recover? Will I ever be the same?” After a moment of thought I answer, “I hope not.”

Okay, I was not really that cold. …

Physician voices

Keys to creating a community cancer center

Miranda Fielding, MD

May 12, 2014May 12, 2014

A few days ago I decided that since I have been officially retired for two months, it was time to change my profile on the LinkedIn social network. After all, the purpose of that network is to link business and professional people to potential opportunities and ideas. I needed to let contacts know that I am no longer with the university where I practiced for the last seven years, while …

Physician voices

The cancer journey well-traveled

Kenneth D. Bishop, MD, PhD

May 11, 2014May 11, 20143

Last summer I met with a patient in my clinic who had come to the hospital with leg weakness and his CT scans showed widespread cancer. His type of cancer is rare and treatable with a pill, which he had…

During our first visit, he was insightful but overwhelmed. “I know how sick I am — just …

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The cancer journey well-traveled

Oncology and hematology

Articles, page 56

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