This post is based on a friend of a friend situation. Important details have been changed to protect anonymity, but not the basic realities I want to discuss. A 49-year old man was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer about a year and a half ago. This sad situation...
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I’ve complained about CMS/Medicare many times in previous posts, but this time they deserve praise. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell floated a proposal to allow Medicare to change how it pays for cancer drugs. According to an aritcle in the New York Times, ALL members of the Senate Finance Committee signed a letter...
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Recent news stories touted a 22% drop in cancer death rates that has “spared the lives” of over 1.5 million people over the past two decades. The American Cancer Society (ACS) was attributed as explaining this drop as caused by U.S. smoking habits, extra attention to cancer prevention, improvements in various...
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In a wonderfully strongly-worded piece in the New York Times, Drs. Rita Redberg and Rebecca Smith-Bindman talk about the future physical harms of excessive CT scans now. They state that 1 in 10 Americans undergo a CT scan each year. A study by the National Cancer Institute estimated that CT scans...
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A recent report from Reuters talked about the tactics of Cancer Treatment Centers of America. The piece started with a story of a woman who called for help, but was denied after the Center realized she had cancer spread throughout her body. I’m sure this for-profit company is not the only...
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A study about quality of life for patients with terminal cancer was reported by Medscape News. I won’t repeat the whole article here, but let me let you in on a few of their insights. Said the director of a Center of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, “Physicians who claim that there...
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All of us want to live long healthy lives, but what if the lives aren’t really healthy? A study in the Journal of Gerontology concluded that our increasing national life expectancy – which is still low compared to the rest of the developed world – has not increased lately. More disturbing...
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It’s a facetious question. Her husband, Michael Douglas, was recently diagnosed with throat cancer he described at “stage 4.” She was quoted by People magazine as saying, “It makes me furious they didn’t detect it earlier.” They have young children, and anyone who hasn’t personally been faced with this threat can...
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