Oncology and hematology

2,498 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 66

When it comes to cancer, laughter and humor can humanize

June 6, 2013Jun 6, 20137

“What do you think?” my nurse, Laura, had asked as we discussed her call from Ms. Lyons (name changed to protect privacy.) Ms. Lyons, an ovarian cancer survivor whom I have known for years, had called Laura after she had…

“What do you think?” my nurse, Laura, had asked as we discussed her call from Ms. Lyons (name changed to protect privacy.)

Ms. Lyons, an ovarian cancer survivor whom I have known for years, had called Laura after she had developed a discoloration on her abdominal wall and vague abdominal pain. She thought it might have something to do with her anticoagulation …

Conditions and diseases

The BRCA mutation: Screening, breast and ovarian cancer prevention

Margaret Polaneczky, MD

June 6, 2013Jun 6, 2013

In an editorial in the New York Times entitled “My Medical Choice,” Anjelina Jolie has come out publicly as a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, which places her at high risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. She has undergone…

In an editorial in the New York Times entitled “My Medical Choice,” Anjelina Jolie has come out publicly as a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, which places her at high risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. She has undergone a prophylactic nipple-sparing mastectomy with plans for future removal of her ovaries to prevent ovarian cancer:

I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women

…

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Conditions and diseases

Getting tested for the BRCA mutation: 4 booby traps to watch out for

Jan Gurley, MD

June 5, 2013Jun 5, 2013

The first time I wrestled with the issue of whether to get my breasts cut off, I was in my early forties. Partners in life, my breasts had done right by me. They delighted me in all their underwhelming adolescent glory. Then they’d been a source of panting, wriggling joy for so much of my adult life. They’d amazed me after pregnancy when I became a fount of Bessie-the-cow milk …

Physician voices

Will patients trade human imperfection for computerized perfection?

James C. Salwitz, MD

June 2, 2013Jun 2, 20139

The Atlantic this week published a provocative article entitled “The Robot Will See You Now.” Using the supercomputer Watson as a starting point, the author explored the mind-bending possibilities of e-care. In this near future, so many aspects of medicine…

The Atlantic this week published a provocative article entitled “The Robot Will See You Now.” Using the supercomputer Watson as a starting point, the author explored the mind-bending possibilities of e-care. In this near future, so many aspects of medicine will be captured by automated technology that the magazine asked if “your doctor is becoming obsolete?”

The IT version of health includes continuous medical monitoring (i.e. your watch will …

Physician voices

Address the financial burden of medical treatment

Yousuf Zafar, MD

June 1, 2013Jun 1, 20135

Everyone is talking about health care costs these days. The presentations usually start with a chart of rising health care expenditures, the tip of the line pointing skywards. Next come exhaustive (and exhausting) tables, more charts, all punctuated with a final shrug of uncertainty from the speaker: What is the solution to rising costs? Of course, there is not just one.

But in the morass of data, we can lose the …

Conditions and diseases

Wary about the Angelina Jolie effect on breast cancer screening

Kenneth Lin, MD

May 31, 2013May 31, 20134

There is nothing like a celebrity to call attention to a preventable disease, especially if that disease is cancer. In March 2000, then-Today Show host Katie Couric, whose husband Jay Monahan died of colorectal cancer in 1998, underwent a live colonoscopy to promote uptake of colorectal cancer screening. Over the next 9 months, national colonoscopy utilization rates rose by 20 percent, a phenomenon that researchers dubbed ” …

Conditions and diseases

Lessons from a diagnosis of skin cancer

J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, MD

May 30, 2013May 30, 20136

I have been diagnosed with skin cancer. There really isn't much special about that, since it is a distinction I share with over 2 million Americans who have a skin cancer removed every year. Fortunately, for most, it is a…

I have been diagnosed with skin cancer.

There really isn’t much special about that, since it is a distinction I share with over 2 million Americans who have a skin cancer removed every year. Fortunately, for most, it is a cancer that is not of particular concern since most can be removed. But even those “simple” surgeries–as I have learned …

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Lessons from a diagnosis of skin cancer

Patient voices

It took cancer surgery to see a more profound dimension of life

Jeremiah Horrigan

May 30, 2013May 30, 20135

No one goes to a hospital to heal. They go because they must--as I did three years ago, when a one-hour colonoscopy turned into a four-day surgical sleepover. My grandfather had warned me long ago against hospitals. "You don't want…

No one goes to a hospital to heal. They go because they must–as I did three years ago, when a one-hour colonoscopy turned into a four-day surgical sleepover.

My grandfather had warned me long ago against hospitals. “You don’t want to go there,” he said. “That’s where the sick people are.” Pop died at the age of ninety-four, at home.

His warning came strongly to mind as I walked into the place …

Physician voices

Why I rely on non-physician providers

Don S. Dizon, MD

May 29, 2013May 29, 2013114

I still recall my first rotation as an inpatient attending at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Perhaps it was the anxiety that I remembered most; that I was “in charge” of a service. Fortunately, having done fellowship at MSKCC, the…

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Why I rely on non-physician providers

Conditions and diseases

What’s scarier than a colonoscopy?

Sophie M. Balzora, MD

May 27, 2013May 27, 201352

Colorectal cancer. Shudder. That’s the knee-jerk response that most of my patients give me when mention of their 50th birthday creeps into the conversation and I reveal that it is time for their screening colonoscopy. Admittedly, a colonoscopy is not…

Colorectal cancer.

Shudder. That’s the knee-jerk response that most of my patients give me when mention of their 50th birthday creeps into the conversation and I reveal that it is time for their screening colonoscopy.

Admittedly, a colonoscopy is not an experience that the overwhelming majority of the human race embraces with excitement and anticipation. Instead, it is a life event that is filled with …

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What’s scarier than a colonoscopy?

Conditions and diseases

A proton therapy center opens: A radiation oncologist reflects

Miranda Fielding, MD

May 24, 2013May 24, 20132

When I was a radiation oncology resident in Boston in the early 80’s, a few brilliant minds in physics and medicine came up with the notion that it would be a good idea to treat certain cancers with a beam of protons. Protons are the positively charged particles which are created with a hydrogen atom is split into its component parts, a proton and an electron. When accelerated towards a …

Physician voices

Science alone can’t make tough decisions for us

Peter Ubel, MD

May 21, 2013May 21, 2013

On April 14, The United States Preventive Services Task Force concluded that women with an elevated risk of breast cancer – who have never been diagnosed with breast cancer but whose family history and other medical factors increase their odds of developing the disease–should consider taking one of two pills that cut that risk in half. The Task Force is an independent panel of medical experts who …

Conditions and diseases

Why we should be thankful to Angelina Jolie and Betty Ford

Suzanne Koven, MD

May 21, 2013May 21, 201312

When Angelina Jolie announced that she'd undergone a bilateral mastectomy to prevent the breast cancer for which a genetic mutation puts her at high risk, I found myself, as a doctor and as a woman, full of admiration and gratitude…

When Angelina Jolie announced that she’d undergone a bilateral mastectomy to prevent the breast cancer for which a genetic mutation puts her at high risk, I found myself, as a doctor and as a woman, full of admiration and gratitude for her… and also, in retrospect, for Betty Ford.

In a single New York Times op-ed piece, Ms. Jolie used her celebrity …

Conditions and diseases

Should you choose to have a robotic hysterectomy?

Jennifer Gunter, MD

May 20, 2013May 20, 201313

In a word, no (unless you have cancer). So, let’s take cancer out of the picture and discuss hysterectomy for non-cancerous (benign) reasons. First of all. A hysterectomy (removing the uterus) can be done via one of the 4 methods:…

In a word, no (unless you have cancer). So, let’s take cancer out of the picture and discuss hysterectomy for non-cancerous (benign) reasons.

First of all. A hysterectomy (removing the uterus) can be done via one of the 4 methods:

1. Vaginal, a small incision at the top of the vagina and the uterus is removed entirely through the vagina without any incision on the abdomen.

2. Laparoscopic surgery, where incisions are made …

Physician voices

Medical mistakes occurred at all levels of my care

Itzhak Brook, MD

May 18, 2013May 18, 201376

Medical and surgical errors are very common in the hospital setting. They increase malpractice lawsuits, the cost of medical care, patients’ hospital stays, and morbidity and mortality. As an infectious diseases specialist for over forty years, I was not aware how common these errors are until I became a patient myself after being diagnosed with hypopharyngeal carcinoma. My initial cancer was successfully removed, but a local recurrence occurred twenty months …

Patient voices

Living with an illness for which there is no cure

Ellen Diamond

May 17, 2013May 17, 20134

For the past fifteen years, I have had an incurable form of leukemia. Such diseases used to be called terminal illnesses, but we don't hear that term as much anymore. With all the new drugs and treatments available, doctors have…

For the past fifteen years, I have had an incurable form of leukemia.

Such diseases used to be called terminal illnesses, but we don’t hear that term as much anymore. With all the new drugs and treatments available, doctors have become more reluctant to refer to diseases they can’t cure yet as “terminal.”

In the years just after my diagnosis, when friends and family would ask what could be done for it, …

Physician voices

Being a caregiver has made me a better doctor

Scott Finkelstein, MD

May 17, 2013May 17, 201314

I am a physician, an anesthesiologist. I care for the sickest of the sick every day – struggling NICU babies born only hours earlier, victims of major traumatic accidents, and critically ill patients with life threatening illness. In this job, I must both connect with the patient, but also maintain a distance from them at the same time. Dealing with life threatening …

Patient voices

Measuring patient engagement: What would Ken Schwartz think?

Pat Mastors

May 17, 2013May 17, 20134

Don't get me wrong, it's huge to see patient safety evolving to be a front-burner issue. After beating the drum for years, the National Patient Safety Foundation and other groups are seeing progress, with meaningful use, electronic health records, pay…

Don’t get me wrong, it’s huge to see patient safety evolving to be a front-burner issue. After beating the drum for years, the National Patient Safety Foundation and other groups are seeing progress, with meaningful use, electronic health records, pay for performance, and the patient-centered medical home.

Medicare innovation grants and the Partnership for Patients are chipping away at medical harm and 30 day readmissions. Empowered patients are test-driving their choices …

Physician voices

Stories surround every physician

Bruce Campbell, MD

May 17, 2013May 17, 20133

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant? -Henry David Thoreau It is almost 7:00am I carry my briefcase and lunch bag from the car to my office. I nod…

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?
-Henry David Thoreau

It is almost 7:00am I carry my briefcase and lunch bag from the car to my office. I nod to some of the night shift employees heading home. Another day has begun.

I type my password and check the computer, reminding myself of the twenty patients I am scheduled to see today …

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Stories surround every physician

Oncology and hematology

Articles, page 66

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