Oncology and hematology

2,498 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 76

Men’s health is a joke on television

May 27, 2012May 27, 201221

The mass media has a long history of covering medical dramas and rarely doing so with any realism. We’ve gone from Marcus Welby, MD to a host of shows dedicated to portraying medical personnel in the most salacious ways possible. But at least with all these dramas it is understood that they are fictional. There are now though a host of shows which pretend to show real life medical stories …

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Men’s health is a joke on television

Physician voices

How academic press releases are being used for free advertising

Deep Ramachandran, MD

May 26, 2012May 26, 20126

You may have noticed the rash of medical news spewing from your favorite news outlets with greater frequency. As a medical professional you probably cringe as you envision the calls that are about to flood your office, “Doctor Smith, I heard a report on the news that this drug you prescribed to help me quit smoking is bad for my health!” or, “I want a referral to The Hoffenheimer Institute …

Conditions and diseases

Confused about prostate cancer screening? Make a shared decision

Kevin Pho, MD

May 22, 2012May 22, 20127

In a widely anticipated move, the USPSTF officially recommended against prostate cancer screening in healthy men. Case closed, right? Hardly. The prostate cancer screening debate has been raging for the past decade. Increasing amounts of evidence show that screening does…

In a widely anticipated move, the USPSTF officially recommended against prostate cancer screening in healthy men.

Case closed, right?

Hardly.

The prostate cancer screening debate has been raging for the past decade. Increasing amounts of evidence show that screening does not save lives, and increase the risk of complications like impotence and urinary incontinence that stem from invasive diagnostic tests and treatments.

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Physician voices

Diversity provides color to the tapestry of human experience

Anees Chagpar, MD

May 19, 2012May 19, 20122

I was recently appointed the Assistant Director of the Yale Cancer Center with the portfolio of Diversity/Disparities. While I’m not sure I’m the most qualified for this, it has gotten me thinking a lot about diversity, disparities, and what it means to achieve health equity. Too often, I think, we are plagued by narrow thinking … the impression that our …

Conditions and diseases

9 skin signs for a yearly visit to the dermatologist

Carol R. Drucker, MD

May 17, 2012May 17, 2012

Visiting your dermatologist every year may be an important step to staying skin cancer-free. So, how do you know if you should schedule that annual appointment? The answer depends on how likely you are to get skin cancer. Do you…

Visiting your dermatologist every year may be an important step to staying skin cancer-free. So, how do you know if you should schedule that annual appointment?

The answer depends on how likely you are to get skin cancer. Do you fall into one of these groups? Then, it’s time for a skin check-up.

1. Red hair and freckles. If you’ve got red or blond hair, fair skin, freckles and blue or light-colored eyes, you‘re …

Conditions and diseases

Where you have your mammogram, and who reads it, matter

Stacey Vitiello, MD

May 15, 2012May 15, 20123

I’ve received several inquiries from women living in various regions of the country, asking how they should choose where to go for their mammogram, and if it really matters. I cannot emphasize this enough: It matters! Here are a few…

The most basic requirement is whether a facility is accredited under the MQSA (Mammography Quality Standards Act). The accrediting body for most states is the ACR …

Conditions and diseases

Warren Buffett’s prostate cancer choices aren’t right for every man

Kevin Pho, MD

May 13, 2012May 13, 20123

A version of this column was published on April 24, 2012 in USA Today. There has been a recent uptick of elderly men in my primary care clinic asking about prostate cancer, perhaps because they heard of Warren Buffett’s recent…

A version of this column was published on April 24, 2012 in USA Today.

There has been a recent uptick of elderly men in my primary care clinic asking about prostate cancer, perhaps because they heard of Warren Buffett’s recent prostate cancer diagnosis and his proposed treatment.

Patients are wondering if they should also be screened. Other patients who already have been diagnosed …

Conditions and diseases

Are smokers to blame for the damage they do to their bodies?

James C. Salwitz, MD

May 12, 2012May 12, 201221

He had yellow nails, leather neck, stained teeth and a deep cough. He wheezed slightly, breathed too quickly and occasionally sprinkled the white handkerchief red. No surprise his ticket to my office was a lung mass to match. We talked about tests, treatment and prognosis. About the future, probably short. Devastated, he was not surprised. He was reaping the reward of 30 smoking years. He sadly admitted, “I knew better, …

Physician voices

Am I going to die because I cannot afford the test?

Ralph Freidin, MD

May 11, 2012May 11, 201213

On my way to the hospital last week, I heard a 26-year-old woman describe her experience of becoming deathly ill. When she first realized that the many bruises appearing spontaneously across her body were unusual, she was working as coffee shop to pay off school loans. With the urging of a friend, she went to see a physician. The diagnosis was acute leukemia.

Her job did not provide health insurance and …

Patient voices

Embracing the longing without the outcome

Taruni Tan

May 7, 2012May 7, 20128

I’m not sure when I stopped missing my husband. I suppose familiarity crept in after 7 years together and I rarely felt the pining, agitated pain of separation that I relished in the early days of our passionate love. Running…

Running our restaurant from waking to sleep, 6 days a week meant that we were rarely apart. So JP had become as familiar to me as my 4 limbs, an essential part …

Physician voices

No one told me that getting on with life after cancer would be so hard

Merry Jennifer Markham, MD

May 7, 2012May 7, 201216

I met with a young patient recently, a woman who has been done with chemotherapy for lymphoma for close to a year. She was feeling well, and she had no symptoms of cancer, nothing that made her suspicious of a recurrence. After I examined her and reviewed her most recent CT scan and labs, I agreed. No recurrence. I wrote in my note, “NED,” the acronym for no evidence of …

Conditions and diseases

To test or not to test? Include the patient first

Peter Goldbach, MD

May 6, 2012May 6, 2012

Shannon Brownlee’s recent post, "Don’t discard shared decision making on the basis of PSA testing," couldn’t ring more true. The crux of shared decision making is that the patient must decide, with his or her physician, which tests or procedures…

Shannon Brownlee’s recent post, “Don’t discard shared decision making on the basis of PSA testing,” couldn’t ring more true. The crux of shared decision making is that the patient must decide, with his or her physician, which tests or procedures make sense, given the various risks, tradeoffs and outcomes. Discarding the construct on the basis of one test (PSA testing) is not only poor form in that it is a …

Physician voices

How single payer can improve the access to cancer care

Aldebra Schroll, MD

May 3, 2012May 3, 20126

The call came in the middle of a busy office day; the radiologist had found a suspicious area on the mammogram. I had received similar calls many times in my primary care practice. This time was different; the patient was…

My first thought “thank God I’m insured.” My second thought was for all those who are not. It was hard enough waiting the week, until further testing could be performed; …

Physician voices

Will the art of medicine be lost in the sea of guidelines?

Jordan Grumet, MD

May 1, 2012May 1, 201211

I don't like doctors! It was always the same with Ronald. After years of absence, he would appear at my doorstep with some particular problem that had progressed to alarming proportions. Once, it was the abscess that seemed to swallow…

I don’t like doctors!

It was always the same with Ronald. After years of absence, he would appear at my doorstep with some particular problem that had progressed to alarming proportions. Once, it was the abscess that seemed to swallow up his whole back. The next time, it was a hernia that had grown to the size of a grapefruit hanging out of his undergarments. But today was different. In fact, …

Physician voices

On the day we cure cancer

James C. Salwitz, MD

April 27, 2012Apr 27, 201215

On the day we cure cancer I will rise in morning dark. I will stand in last night cold, and watch stars fade. The light will come and a following breeze blow. On that incredible dawn, there will be brilliance.…

I will stay late and breakfast with my wife. We will talk about flowers, kids and books. I will stand …

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On the day we cure cancer

Physician voices

When do I stop being someone’s oncologist?

Don S. Dizon, MD

April 26, 2012Apr 26, 20128

I recently talked about wondering how those I had met through my own patients were doing, especially after my patients had passed on. I wondered if they were all right and whether they were able to move on. Well, I've…

The Office of Cancer Survivorship of …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 78-year-old woman with increasing fatigue

mksap

April 21, 2012Apr 21, 2012

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 78-year-old woman has a 3-month history of increasing fatigue. She has no other medical problems and does not take any medications. On physical…

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

A 78-year-old woman has a 3-month history of increasing fatigue. She has no other medical problems and does not take any medications.

On physical examination, temperature is normal, blood pressure is 130/80 mm Hg, pulse rate is 72/min, and respiration rate is 16/min. The patient appears pale. …

Health policy

Is our high cost of cancer care worth it?

Naomi Freundlich

April 19, 2012Apr 19, 201213

The U.S. spends far more on cancer care than 10 European countries, but according to a new study, it may be “worth it” as “the value of the survival gains greatly outweighed the costs.” The study, published this week in…

The U.S. spends far more on cancer care than 10 European countries, but according to a new study, it may be “worth it” as “the value of the survival gains greatly outweighed the costs.”

The study, published this week in Health Affairs, found that U.S. spending on cancer care, in 2010 dollars, increased by 49% from 1983 through 1999, from $47,000 per cancer case to $70,000 per case. Meanwhile, in …

Conditions and diseases

Don’t discard shared decision making on the basis of PSA testing

Shannon Brownlee

April 18, 2012Apr 18, 20122

Austin Frakt, health economics blogger at The Incidental Economist, has a post up commenting on Kenny Lin's post about shared decision-making and PSA testing. The following is an edited comment I posted on that article. I have to disagree with…

Austin Frakt, health economics blogger at The Incidental Economist, has a post up commenting on Kenny Lin’s post about shared decision-making and PSA testing. The following is an edited comment I posted on that article.

I have to disagree with Kenny on this one, despite having written an article in the New York Times Magazine that strongly supported Kenny’s work at the US Preventive Services Task Force, which found …

Physician voices

When doctors are incorrect in their prognosis of terminal illness

Manoj Jain, MD, MPH

April 18, 2012Apr 18, 20122

In January, when my close friend’s lymph node biopsy came back as a rare form of T-cell lymphoma, I scoured the scientific literature. What was his prognosis?He was 56, a little overweight but otherwise healthy. He had helped us move…

In the literature I found jagged graphs plunging downward, indicating that my …

Oncology and hematology

Articles, page 76

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