Tag Archives: united

One in three people with cancer has anxiety or other mental health challenges

“These findings reinforce that, as doctors, we need to be very aware of signs and symptoms of mental and emotional distress. We must encourage patients to seek evaluation, support, and treatment if necessary as there are long-term risks often associated with more severe, untreated mental health disorders. This research also sheds light on which patients we should watch more closely,” said lead study author Anja Mehnert, PhD, a professor of psychosocial oncology at the University of Leipzig in Germany. “We also want to reassure patients who are struggling that they are not alone or unique, and that these mental and emotional challenges can be temporary, especially with effective psychological support or state-of-the-art mental health treatment.” Psychological support options may include individual, couples, family, and group psychotherapy, and relaxation therapy and imagery, among others, according to the authors…

The skin cancer selfie: Gigapixel camera helps diagnose early

Developed by a team of researchers at Duke University in North Carolina, USA, the “gigapixel whole-body photographic camera” is essentially three dozen cameras in one, allowing the researchers to image the entire body down to a freckle. The research will be presented at The Optical Society’s (OSA) 98th Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics, being held Oct. 19-23 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. …

Study may lead to early detection, better outcomes for lymphedema patients

The study is testing bioimpedance spectroscopy, a device where electrodes are placed on the patient’s arms so that the fluid buildup can be accurately measured. The randomized study is enrolling 1,100 research subjects over two years at five sites in the United States and Australia. “Many in the health care community, and even breast cancer patients, don’t understand that this lifelong arm swelling is a possible result of breast cancer treatment, but others of us have been working on this issue for decades,” said principal investigator Sheila H. …

Knowledge empowers: Regular mammograms reduce breast cancer deaths — ScienceDaily

“In 2014, nearly 300,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. Even though mammography has helped reduce the breast cancer death rate in the United States by more than 30 percent since 1990, and every major medical organization with expertise in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment recommends annual mammograms for women 40 and older, thousands will die in the next 12 months because they did not get a mammogram…

Study may lead to early detection, better outcomes for lymphedema patients — ScienceDaily

The study is testing bioimpedance spectroscopy, a device where electrodes are placed on the patient’s arms so that the fluid buildup can be accurately measured. The randomized study is enrolling 1,100 research subjects over two years at five sites in the United States and Australia. “Many in the health care community, and even breast cancer patients, don’t understand that this lifelong arm swelling is a possible result of breast cancer treatment, but others of us have been working on this issue for decades,” said principal investigator Sheila H. …

What to anticipate after you’ve heard those dreaded words ‘you have breast cancer’

“Most of the time, there’s no bad news,” says Karen Rizzo, MD, 2015 president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and a practicing physician in Lancaster. “Unfortunately though, some will be told they should have a biopsy, possibly leading to those dreaded words ‘you have cancer.'” What happens next depends upon the patient and her situation, says Dr. …

New blood test determines whether you have or are likely to get cancer

“The test could allow earlier cancer detection, so helping to save peoples’ lives,” said Diana Anderson, a researcher involved in the work from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. To develop this test, Anderson and colleagues took blood samples from a group of people that included healthy individuals, cancer patients and people believed to be at a higher risk than normal to develop cancer…

Promising results shown with targeted approaches in subsets of non-small cell lung cancer

“Reports of lung cancers bearing mutations in BRAF have generated considerable interest because these mutations may be associated with increased sensitivity to BRAF tyrosine-kinase inhibiting agents,” says lead author Dr David Planchard, pulmonary oncologist at the Gustav-Roussy Cancer Campus, Paris, France. Planchard says studies suggest that activating BRAF mutations are present in around 2% of lung carcinomas — approximately 80% of which are V600E mutations. The BRAF V600E mutations are frequently associated with shorter disease-free, overall survival, and lower response rates to platinum-based chemotherapy. …

Trastuzumab should remain as standard of care for HER2-positive breast cancer, trial suggests

This study, being presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress in Madrid, reveals that when used as a single HER2-targeted therapy in addition to standard chemotherapy, trastuzumab offers a better outcome than does lapatinib (Tykerb), says Edith A. Perez, M.D., deputy director at large, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and director of the Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program at Mayo Clinic in Florida. …