Ideal Health Doctor

Standard treatments for bone cancer include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Alternative bone cancer treatment includes nutrition therapy, pain management, mind-body therapies, naturopathic medicine, Chinese medicine and acupuncture and spiritual support. Often people use both approaches.

There are three types of bone cancer: Osteosarcoma begins in the osteoid bone tissue; Chondrosarcoma originates in cartilage tissue; and the Ewing Sarcoma family of tumors occurs in bone or soft tissues. Pain is a notable symptom of bone cancer, though not all bone cancers cause symptoms. A number of people may follow traditional treatment for bone cancer and partake of alternative medicine to alleviate symptoms.

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A new American Cancer Society report says cancers associated with lifestyles and behaviors related to economic development, including lung, breast, and colorectal cancers, will continue to rise in developing countries if preventive measures are not widely applied. The finding comes from the second edition of Global Cancer Facts & Figures and its academic publication, Global Cancer Statistics, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Both publications are being released on World Cancer Day, Feb. 4, 2011.

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You have likely heard about a meta-analysis, just published in the Lancet, showing that daily aspirin use is associated with a reduction of cancer risk of about 20% over a 20 year period.  This sounds exciting, and is.  Aspirin- which deactivates and enzyme associated with inflammation- offers a plausible means of reducing the inflammation that is part of cancer progression.  Effects of aspirin were strongest for cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, where aspirin exerts its most direct effects.

But I do not think the study is necessarily cause for you to start taking aspirin.  Here are some of the reasons.

First, as noted, this was a meta-analysis- a study that pools data from other trials.  As such, it can only look at readily available data.  This study looked at cancer reduction, but did not specifically explore adverse effects of aspirin- related to GI bleeding in particular.  Before signing up for any medical intervention, we need to know not just potential benefit, but potential risk- and the risk/benefit ratio.

Second, when you hear “20% risk reduction” you should always be inclined to ask: 20% less than what?  The cancers that were impacted by cancer use are not rare by any means, but they are also not very common.   Over

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Men who have a brother with prostate cancer are more likely than other men to be diagnosed with the disease, but the reason may have more to do with greater surveillance than genetics, a new study suggests.

Swedish researchers analyzed data from 22,511 brothers of 13,975 prostate cancer patients and found that the incidence of the disease was higher among brothers of prostate cancer patients than men of the same age in the general population. Disease incidence was highest among men who had two brothers with prostate cancer.

However, the study found that early-stage disease was the type most often diagnosed in brothers of prostate cancer patients.

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