Tag Archives: health

How to boost Hispanics’ participation in clinical trials? Relate to them, study shows

Using focus groups with 36 Spanish-speaking cancer survivors from Tampa and Puerto Rico, researchers found that a language barrier, as well as a cultural idea that only doctors, not patients, guide treatment decisions, may help account for low participation rates. Looking for ways to improve knowledge and participation for Hispanic patients, the researchers used feedback from the focus groups to help develop a Spanish booklet and video to educate and empower patients to participate in treatment decisions. …

Surgeons report melanoma recurs after 10 years in more than 6 percent of patients

"For patients with melanoma, survival beyond 10 years without a recurrence has been considered nearly synonymous with a cure," said principal investigator Mark Faries, MD, FACS, a professor of surgery at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, CA. "However, most studies do not follow up patients longer than 10 years. Our study found that late melanoma recurrence is not rare and that it occurs more frequently in certain patient groups." Patients with a higher chance of melanoma — the deadliest form of skin cancer — recurring more than a decade later, compared with early recurrence of melanoma within the first three years, were typically a younger age at initial diagnosis and generally exhibited less serious characteristics of the original tumor, Dr. Faries and colleagues reported…

Gene mutation may have effect on benefit of aspirin use for colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that aspirin use reduces the risk of colorectal cancer, according to background information in the article. Experimental evidence has suggested that BRAF-mutant colonic cells might be less sensitive to the antitumor effects of aspirin than BRAF-wild-type (the typical form of a gene as it occurs in nature) neoplastic cells. …

‘Active surveillance’ may miss aggressive prostate cancers in black men

"This study offers the most conclusive evidence to date that broad application of active surveillance recommendations may not be suitable for African-Americans," says urologist Edward M. Schaeffer, M.D., Ph.D., a co-author of the study. "This is critical information because if African-American men do have more aggressive cancers, as statistics would suggest, then simply monitoring even small cancers that are very low risk would not be a good idea because aggressive cancers are less likely to be cured," he says. …