Tag Archives: death

Colonoscopy withdrawal times linked to polyp detection rates

"There has been controversy over whether longer withdrawal times could lead to detection of increased numbers of polyps of various types," said Lynn F. Butterly, MD, director of Colorectal Cancer Screening at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and NCCC, and associate professor of Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. "Since the rate of discovery of polyps is a critical quality measure for colonoscopy, examining whether or not there is an association between withdrawal time and finding more polyps may contribute evidence leading to improved quality in screening through colonoscopy." During a colonoscopy, a lighted tube (colonoscope) is passed through the colon to find and remove polyps…

New analysis shows fewer years of life lost to cancer

"We have made steady progress against the burden of many cancers for decades," said principal investigator Samir Soneji, PhD, assistant professor for Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, a member of Norris Cotton Cancer Center. "As fewer and fewer people die from heart disease, stroke, and accidents, more and more people are alive long enough to be at risk of developing and dying from cancer." Between 1970 and 2008, mortality rates from heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and accidents declined 62 percent, 73 percent, and 38 percent, respectively. In the same period, cancer mortality rates declined just 12 percent…

Promising new biomarkers linked to early diagnosis of breast cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in both men and women in the U.S. However, women have a higher chance than men of being diagnosed with cancer before the age of 60 due to breast cancer development. Metastases in breast cancer’s later stages cause the majority of deaths associated with the disease, making early detection crucial to patient survival. …

Radiation therapy to treat uterine cancer linked to increased risk of bladder cancer later in life

In the United States, uterine cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, with an estimated 49,560 women diagnosed in 2013. In addition to surgery, 38 percent of patients undergo pelvic radiation therapy to decrease uterine cancer recurrence…

Genetic studies of breast cancer in dogs

Cancer is the most common cause of death in dogs and is therefore an important factor in the health of dogs. The incidence of cancer varies according to the breed of dog and this would indicate that genetic risk factors play an important role in the development of the disease…

Cigarette smoking after cancer diagnosis increases risk of death

Compared with men who did not smoke after a cancer diagnosis, those who smoked after diagnosis had a 59 percent increase in risk of death from all causes, after adjusting for factors including age, cancer site, and treatment type. When limited to men who were smokers at diagnosis, those who continued smoking after diagnosis had a 76 percent increase in risk of death from all causes compared with those who quit smoking after a diagnosis…

Criteria shows one year death risk at time of hospital admission

"There are many prognostic indices, but until now none meant to be used immediately upon hospital admission," says Stacy Fischer, MD, CU Cancer Center investigator and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "Basically, with five criteria — none of which require obtaining labs or data gathering — we can accurately predict who is at low, medium and high risk for death within a year," says Jeanie Youngwerth, MD, CU Cancer Center investigator and Palliative Care specialist at the University of Colorado Hospital and School of Medicine. …

Blocking antioxidants in cancer cells reduces tumor growth in mice

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Navdeep Chandel and colleagues from Northwestern University report the effects of a SOD1 pharmacological inhibitor on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. The inhibitor, called ATN-224, stunted the growth of human NSCLC cells in culture and induced their death. The researchers also found that ATN-224 inhibited other antioxidant proteins, which caused high levels of hydrogen peroxide inside the cells. The ability of cancer cells to produce hydrogen peroxide was required for ATN-224-dependent effects, because hydrogen peroxide activated cell death pathways. …

Biomedical scientist discovers method to increase survival in sepsis

A new study conducted by Jamey Marth, director of UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Nanomedicine and professor of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, reports a new method to increase survival in sepsis. The results appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Building on earlier work in which Marth’s team revealed the biological purpose of the Ashwell-Morell receptor (AMR) in the liver, the new discovery not only describes the AMR’s protective mechanism, but also outlines a way to leverage it for therapeutic use…

Nuclear medicine therapy increases survival for patients with colorectal cancer, liver metastases

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed type of cancer worldwide in men and the second in women, and it is also the third most common cause of death. In approximately 50 percent of patients, metastases to the liver are present at diagnosis or during follow-up, which account for a large portion of morbidity and mortality in patients…