John McCain is a fighter, no question. But can attitude affect cancer?
Language can be a powerful tool in medicine. As with physical remedies, there are potential harms and risks to consider, but potential upsides, too.
Is There A Better Place To Decide What’s Right For Patients?
Who should decide when evidence for a drug sufficient to support a patient’s decision to give it a try?
Dr. Robert Califf Shares Ideas About Real-World Evidence And Health Data
“Medicine is rapidly falling behind business in the accrual of high-quality evidence,” Califf said.
The Paradoxical Benefits Of A Web App For Cancer Patients
“This tool brings us closer to the country doctor model,” Basch said. “I never thought that survival would be impacted.”
The Personal Toll Of Practicing Medicine
In this article, I reflect on the circumstances that led me to stop practicing medicine—work that I loved—and why the health of experienced doctors should be valued, and protected. Here’s the full article and podcast.
On The New Year, Broken Hearts Give Impetus For Exercise
The question for the new year is not if there’s reason to exercise, or to modify your habits, but if you want to do so.
Magic Johnson’s HIV Story Offers Hope For Cancer Patients
Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the basketball legend, announced on November 7, 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV.
At A Conference On Cancer, Patients Take Notes Like Their Lives Depend On It
Online communities can be terrific. But in person, patients hug one another, and develop trust, bonds that last, hopefully, from one year’s meeting to the next.
To Educate Great Physicians, Focus On Science, Ethics And Future Learning Skills
Tomorrow’s doctors need to grasp more concepts in science and technology than did any previous generation of physicians.
Five Key Issues For The Future Of Cancer IT
If there’s one thing that’s become clear about precision medicine – and the delivery of optimal care based in science – it will require super technology. This need is especially urgent in oncology.
Companion Diagnostics? For Cancer Care, We Need Better Ones
These biomarkers should link patients to optimal therapy (when such exists), and lead some to decline therapy that’s unlikely to help. The CDx field is moving forward rapidly in oncology..
Precision Medicine Is A Needed Goal That Will Benefit Cancer Patients
A common misconception is that precision medicine is about one drug for one disease. But for most cancer types, it will involve combining medications in effective cocktails.
Why People With Metastatic Breast Cancer Want To Get Counted
The number of people living with stage 4, metastatic breast cancer is unknown.
Flint’s Lead-Contaminated Water Points To Health Effects Of Ailing Infrastructure
The EPA suggests an action level for lead in water: it should be below 15 parts per billion. Because lead toxicity causes irreversible neurological damage, prevention is crucial.
Precision Medicine Will (Eventually) Lower Cancer Care Costs
Over time, the costs should drop, like for smartphone tech, what my Dad – a chemistry major and retired physician – called “magic.”
How Water Aerobics Can Keep You Fit As You Age
Among adults – including millions of baby boomers – water aerobics is becoming a popular way of keeping fit. For people of any age who’ve sustained joint injuries, have arthritic pains or osteoporosis, the water provides a space to continue or initiate low-impact but vigorous sports.
Creating Herd Immunity To Doctors Behaving Badly
If 99 out of 100 doctors were, by their nature and habits, the sort of people who would not abuse a patient, the one percent can be squelched – by peer pressure.
Logistic Toxicity, An Unmeasured Burden Of Healthcare
Logistic toxicity might be defined as the administrative burden of health care.
Miami Beach Offers Free Sunscreen: Spreading Prevention?
“We want a safer and healthier community,” Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine said. “Whether it’s reducing pre-cancer or sunburns, it’s a way of helping our tourists and our residents.”
Chatting With Anne Parker: A Patient’s View On How Cancer Care Has Changed Since The 1960s
Anne Parker’s perspective on cancer care – as a family member, patient and advocate – spans over 50 years.
Understanding Angelina Jolie Pitt’s Cancer Risk And Her Decision To Tell About It
By telling her story, she helps break the mystery and stigma that deter honest and needed discussion about cancer-causing, inherited genetic mutations.
Finding Beauty: How Lisa Bonchek Adams Told Her Cancer Story
Lisa wasn’t quiet about life or living with a devastating condition.
Heart Health After Cancer: A Growing Concern
It’s the kind of problem a person who’s had cancer, or a doctor who’s prescribed generally helpful treatment, may not want to think about.
‘Chasing Life,’ My Favorite Soap Opera About A Young Journalist With Leukemia
Despite all its gloss and shenanigans, Chasing Life raises serious concerns of cancer patients. Life and looming death play in. But so do practical matters like work, appearances, chemobrain and feeling exhausted.
What’s Up For Thanksgiving: Discussing Your Family’s Medical History?
Thanksgiving is National Family Medical History Day. This information came my way from Myriad Genetics. The company, which specializes in molecular diagnostics and hereditary risk assessment, promotes Thanksgiving as Family History Day.
So What About That Acrylamide In Your French Fries?
In 2002, scientists reported that acrylamide forms when seemingly healthy carbohydrate-rich foods like potatoes, other root vegetables and grains are cooked at high temperatures by frying, roasting, broiling, toasting or baking.
Collateral Damage: How A Cancer Diagnosis Hurts Employment And Finances
Employment and money concerns haunt many people with all kinds of cancer, nation-wide, during and after treatment.
We Need to Talk About the Costs of Cancer Treatment
I used to think that physicians shouldn’t talk about money with their patients. That sort of conversation has the potential to render doctors’ work like an ordinary business transaction.
Get Cancer. Lose Your Job?
The harsh reality is that people who have had cancer treatment are sometimes perceived as a burden on a working group
A Little Bit of Good? on Dying, Communication, and Breaking Bad
Sometimes there’s no way to mend a person or a bad situation. You can’t deny reality. But if you’re still conscious and able to communicate, you may be able to lessen the damage you’ve done, or the pain someone else is experiencing, just a bit.
Promoting Empathy: What’s Troubling About a Celebrated Hospital Video
Empathy can distract. It misleads, causing us to act counter to the greater good.
Island Practice, About A Rare Physician on Nantucket
This engaging work by Pam Belluck profiles a craggy, eccentric and trusted doctor who, by circumstance and availability, takes care of many people on the island.
Missing Tony Soprano
Over the course of its six groundbreaking seasons on HBO, we discussed every aspect of The Sopranos with friends and family—except for actor James Gandolfini’s size.
Should People With Health Problems Talk About their Conditions?
Do you need to explain to the person on the checkout line or, say, a mother organizing a bake sale, why your back hurts? Or why you need a seat on the bus?
Finding Kindness and Introspection in ‘Half Empty,’ a Book of Essays by David Rakoff
The words we use matter enormously, not just in clinical outcomes, but in how people with cancer feel about the decisions they’ve made, years later.