Spiral CT Scans Save Lives from Lung Cancer

In November I wrote about preliminary data from the National Lung Screening Trial, a large study funded by the National Cancer Institute that attempted to find out if catching lung cancer early with spiral CT scans made a difference. (See link 1 below for my November post.) Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published the trial results (2) and an accompanying editorial (3). The study randomized over 50,000 people who were
  • aged 55 to 74,
  • were either current smoker...
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Cellphone Users Have a Higher Risk of Getting Annoyed at the World Health Organization

This week all the buzz is about cellphones and brain tumors. Who would possibly link cellphones and brain tumors? The World Health Organization, that’s WHO. This week, an agency in WHO announced that it was declaring cellphone use to be “possibly carcinogenic”, adding it to a group of substances which include lead, engine exhaust, chloroform, coffee and pickled vegetables. First, let’s make sure we understand what this does not mean. This does not mean that cellphone use is known to c...
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Surgery Might Save Lives in Early Prostate Cancer

Last week’s post, “Armadillos Transmit Leprosy to Humans”, generated much positive feedback, which I appreciated. You all clearly enjoy stories featuring cute mammals and very little serious science or health implications. I did my best to find a story like that this week, but the closest thing I found was that SEALs cause penetrating head trauma to a few particularly nasty humans. But there was an important study this week about prostate cancer. My regular readers know that one of the controve...
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New Study on Estrogen Yields Confusion but Same Recommendations

This week a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed new results about estrogen use and generated major media hubbub. (See the links below for some of the media coverage, the article and an accompanying editorial.) To understand the kerfuffle it helps to review how our understanding of estrogen replacement therapy has evolved. A generation ago, based largely on intuition and on epidemiologic studies, we were convinced that long term estrogen replacement therap...
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News Flash: Diabetes is Not Good

Type 2 diabetes mellitus has long been known to increase the risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney disease, and eye disease. In the US diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure requiring dialysis and one of the leading causes of blindness. Diabetes is also increasing in prevalence as people become more overweight. A study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine attempted to quantify the risk of premature death associated with diabetes. The results were dramatic, and attracted much m...
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An Advance in Breast Cancer Surgery

Breast cancer surgery began long before radiation therapy, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy existed. At that time surgery was the only available treatment. The standard of care was radical mastectomy – removal of the entire breast tissue with the underlying muscle and removal of all the lymph nodes from the arm pit. The surgery is terribly disfiguring and debilitating, but was the only thing standing between patients and a fatal illness. Radical mastectomy was first performed in the 1880s and re...
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Animated about Aspirin

Aspirin was hailed as a wonder-drug in the 1800s when it was first purified – the first anti-inflammatory medication that did not have the severe side effects of steroids.  More recently aspirin’s benefits in stroke and heart attack prevention have been proven.  This week another possible benefit of aspirin has been uncovered. An important study published in The Lancet attempted to find any effect of aspirin on cancer prevention.  I’ve written frequently about the myriad substances that are fal...
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A Screening Test for Lung Cancer

This week brings very exciting news, but everybody seems worried that we’ll misunderstand and read too much into it. There are very few cancers for which we have a good screening test.  A good screening test is a test that is done on people without any signs or symptoms of cancer and that diagnoses the cancer accurately enough at an early enough stage so that lives are saved.  Mammograms save lives from breast cancer.  Pap smears save lives from cervical cancer.  Screening for colon cancer save...
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Fewer Americans Dying of Cancer

This week the American Cancer Society published its annual review of cancer statistics and trends.  This year the big picture was overwhelmingly positive. The three most frequently diagnosed cancers in men are prostate cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer (in that order).  For women the top three are breast, lung and colorectal cancer.  (See the link below to Figure 1 in the study for details.)  The incidences (the numbers of new diagnoses every year) of all of these cancers have decrease...
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New Evidence Supports Prostate Cancer Screening

My regular readers know that prostate cancer screening has been an active research topic recently.  (My not-so-regular readers who are interested are invited to catch up on the topic by reading my most recent post on the subject.  See the link below.)  Whether testing men for prostate cancer saves lives is still an open question.  Large trials are currently underway that should provide a definitive answer in the next few years. In the meantime, preliminary results from a Swedish trial give pros...
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