If you’re sitting down, you might want to stand up after reading this: Nearly 100,000 cases of cancer could be prevented in the U.S. each year if we all spent less time sitting in our cars, at our desks and on our couches. Even people who exercise daily can increase their risk of cancer by remaining sedentary for extended periods of time, researchers said Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Institute for Cancer Research focused on food, nutrition and physical activity. Using data from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, researchers estimated that up to 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000 cases of colon cancer each year are tied to lack of physical activity. “S Read more…
Tag: Cancer
New Cancer Therapy Test Results ‘Striking’
Scientists are reporting the first clear success with a new approach for treating leukemia – turning the patients’ own blood cells into assassins that hunt and destroy their cancer cells.
They’ve only done it in three patients so far, but the results were striking: Two appear cancer-free up to a year after treatment, and the third patient is improved but still has some cancer. Scientists are already preparing to try the same gene therapy technique for other kinds of cancer.
“It worked great. We were surprised it worked as well as it did,” said Dr. Carl June, a gene therapy expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “We’re just a year out now. Read more…
Specialists More Likely to Spot Deadly Skin Cancer
MONDAY, July 18 Melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, can be found by patients themselves, but new research reveals that self-detection is not as effective as screenings performed by doctors.
In the study, conducted by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, the investigators found that in addition to higher rates of physician-detected melanomas, doctors also are more likely to detect thinner lesions, or cancers in the earliest stages.
Advanced-stage melanoma is often deadly. At the advanced-stage, the lesions tend to be thicker, growing down into the skin.
Friends Helping Friends Through Cancer
When you have a friend or loved one facing a cancer diagnosis you often try to help with things like watch the kids, cook them dinner those types of things that you see may be needed. What most people don’t often think about is the financial aspect of cancer treatments.
Even with the best health insurance cancer treatments are very costly. You have test, doctors’ visits, co-payments and the list can go on and on. Let me use my treatment plan for an example; I had good health insurance but to see my primary doctor my co-payment was $25.00 and a specialist was $35.00, we had to pay a certain percent of labs, test and then there are the prescriptions.