Tag Archives: physician

Many throat cancer patients can skip neck surgery

“For patients that achieve a complete response, neck surgery is probably unnecessary,” says Thomas J. Galloway, MD, Attending Physician and Director of Clinical Research at Fox Chase and lead author on the study. After radiation and chemotherapy to remove tumors from the tonsils or back of the tongue, many head and neck cancer patients still have persistent lumps in their neck, albeit perhaps smaller than when they were first diagnosed. “The question is: Do we need to remove those lumps, as well, or can we just let them dissolve on their own?” asks Dr. …

Study identifies when and how much various prostate cancer treatments will impact urinary and sexual functioning — ScienceDaily

Looking over data gathered from more than 17,000 surveys completed by men diagnosed with prostate cancer, Fox Chase researchers tracked when patients’ urinary and sexual symptoms changed following each type of treatment, and by how much. “The ultimate goal,” says study author Matthew Johnson, MD, Resident Physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Fox Chase, “is to develop a predictive tool that lets patients decide which treatment is right for them based on the symptoms they have beforehand, and their tolerance for any change — even temporary — in those symptoms.” After a diagnosis of prostate cancer, men have multiple treatment options, including surgery to remove the prostate and several types of radiation therapy…

Improved survival shown in early-stage Hodgkin’s disease patients who receive radiation therapy

Researchers evaluated clinical features and survival outcomes among 41,502 patients diagnosed with stage I and II Hodgkin’s Disease from 1998 to 2011 from a prospectively collected database — the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), which is composed of cases from 1,500 sites and represents >75 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S. The average patient age was 37 (range: 18 — 90), with a median follow-up of 7.5 years. The association between RT use, co-variables and outcome were assessed in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model…

NSAIDs may lower breast cancer recurrence rate in overweight, obese women — ScienceDaily

“Our studies suggest that limiting inflammatory signaling may be an effective, less toxic approach to altering the cancer-promoting effects of obesity and improving patient response to hormone therapy,” said Linda A. deGraffenried, PhD, associate professor of nutritional sciences at The University of Texas in Austin. The study found that women whose body mass index (BMI) was greater than 30 and had estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)-positive breast cancer had a 52 percent lower rate of recurrence and a 28-month delay in time to recurrence if they were taking aspirin or other NSAIDs. “These results suggest that NSAIDs may improve response to hormone therapy, thereby allowing more women to remain on hormone therapy rather than needing to change to chemotherapy and deal with the associated side effects and complications,” said deGraffenried…

NSAIDs may lower breast cancer recurrence rate in overweight, obese women

“Our studies suggest that limiting inflammatory signaling may be an effective, less toxic approach to altering the cancer-promoting effects of obesity and improving patient response to hormone therapy,” said Linda A. deGraffenried, PhD, associate professor of nutritional sciences at The University of Texas in Austin. The study found that women whose body mass index (BMI) was greater than 30 and had estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)-positive breast cancer had a 52 percent lower rate of recurrence and a 28-month delay in time to recurrence if they were taking aspirin or other NSAIDs. “These results suggest that NSAIDs may improve response to hormone therapy, thereby allowing more women to remain on hormone therapy rather than needing to change to chemotherapy and deal with the associated side effects and complications,” said deGraffenried. …

Neck manipulation may be associated with stroke

Treatments involving neck manipulation may be associated with stroke, though it cannot be said with certainty that neck manipulation causes strokes, according to a new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke. Cervical artery dissection (CD) is a small tear in the layers of artery walls in the neck. It can result in ischemic stroke if a blood clot forms after a trivial or major trauma in the neck and later causes blockage of a blood vessel in the brain…

Lacking trust in one’s doctor affects health of emotionally vulnerable cancer patients

Patients who feel anxious and uneasy with their doctor may be impacted the most. “Anxiously attached patients may experience and report more physical and emotional problems when the relationship with their physician is perceived as less trusting,” said Chris Hinnen, Ph.D., lead author and clinical psychologist at Slotervaart Hospital in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The researchers acknowledge that the issue of trust between patients and their doctors can be complicated, but observe that it’s important to understand fears of rejection and abandonment that often exist in anxiously attached patients. Hinnen and his colleagues analyzed questionnaire responses from 119 participants with breast, cervical, intestinal or prostate cancers at 3, 9 and 15 months after their diagnosis. …