Tag Archives: medical

Chemotherapy and stereotactic ablative radiation consecutively may be promising for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

Surgery is the only potentially curative therapy for individuals with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), the most common type of pancreatic cancer. However, pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, making surgical removal of the tumor or the organ challenging, if not impossible. …

A heart-felt need for dairy food: Small serving beneficial, large not necessary

A study of nearly 4000 Taiwanese, led by Emeritus Professor Mark Wahlqvist from Monash University’s Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and the Monash Asia Institute, considered the role increased consumption of dairy foods had played in the country’s gains in health and longevity. “In a dominantly Chinese food culture, unaccustomed to dairy foods, consuming them up to seven times � a week does not increase mortality and may have favourable effects on stroke,” Professor Wahlqvist said. Cancer and cardiovascular disease are the leading causes of death among Taiwanese. When Professor Wahlqvist’s study began in 1993, there was little apparent concern about dairy foods, in contrast to a current belief that they may be harmful to health and in particular raise the risk of cancer…

Breast screening for over 70s doesn’t prompt sharp fall in advanced disease, study suggests

Their paper publishes as the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference opens next week where experts from around the world will discuss how to tackle the threat to health and the waste of money caused by unnecessary care. The conference is hosted by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford in partnership with The BMJ’s Too Much Medicine campaign. The upper age limit for the national breast cancer screening program was extended to women aged 69 to 75 in 1998 in the Netherlands, and national guidelines now recommend screening women up to the age of 75. …

Some lung cancer patients could live longer when treated with new radiotherapy strategy

SCLC is an aggressive cancer that accounts for about 13% of all lung cancers. The majority of patients present with extensive disease that has spread to other areas of the body. “In recent years, we have made some progress in improving survival by giving prophylactic cranial radiotherapy (radiation to the head to reduce the risk of the cancer spreading to the brain) after chemotherapy, and this is now considered the standard of care. …

Skin cancer risks higher for soldiers serving abroad

In a retrospective study of about 200 veterans seen at the post-deployment clinic of the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System found that 62 percent of military personnel reported getting sunburned while deployed abroad, including cases of skin blistering. In addition, 29 percent noted a change in the color, shape or size of their moles (a skin cancer risk factor) since being deployed to tropical zones, but only 4 percent reported receiving a skin examination from a physician since deployment…

African American women receive less breast reconstruction after mastectomy — ScienceDaily

“We wanted to understand whether the racial disparity observed in breast reconstruction among women with breast cancer was related to where women received care, independent of race,” said Tracy Onega, PhD, Associate Professor of Community & Family Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. “This study fills an important gap in addressing whether racial disparities in breast reconstruction are due — at least in part — to disproportionate use of hospitals with services available.” Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is associated with better quality of life and other benefits — in fact insurance coverage for reconstruction is legislatively mandated. …