News tagged with 'Cancer'

Dr. Susan Lark, who reports online on women's health issues, is encouraging women to seek out thermography to measure the heat generated by breast cancers, as a more accurate tool than traditional mammography.

With three law firms and Erin Brockovich involved, the still mysterious cancer cluster at The Acreage in Palm Beach County is slowly moving toward litigation and some answers that the state of Florida has, so far, been unable to provide.

In a sudden turnabout, a major policy setting organization is discouraing regular mammograms for women in their 40s, saying the anxiety from false positives and surgical procedures outweighs the benefits.

A survey of physicians finds many doctors perform unneeded pap smears, ignoring guidelines issued by major medical organizations and adding to health care costs.

The FDA has allowed many drugs that were fast-tracked to stay on the market while no post marketing surveillance has been undertaken and none have been pulled off the market, criticizes the Government Accountability Office in this report.

In a landmark long-term study, the World Health Organization (WHO) is about to announce that long-term cell phone use is linked to a higher risk of developing brain cancer.

Cervarix has been approved for use in girls and women to fight cervical cancer, the FDA announced on Friday, the same day that Gardasil got approval for expanded use in boys and men to fight genital warts.

In 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared October 13 Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. An estimated 155,000 women in the United States are currently living with metastatic breast cancer.

XMRV is a retrovirus that embeds in the body and is linked to both chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer. Whether it is a cause or a correlation remains a mystery.

There is good new and bad news to report about breast cancer, but overall, the American Cancer Society in this 2009-2010 report says that the deaths rates have been steadily declining about 2 percent a year.

Researchers are very encouraged about a new drug treatment for melanoma that showed 19 out of 27 patients had a dramatic reduction in tumor size. Larger trials will be conducted.

While more girls are getting the first shot of Gardasil in 2008 than a year earlier, fewer than one in five completes the three-shot series, reports the CDC.

Actor, Patrick Swayze died of pancreatic cancer this week. Among his good habits that may have added to his 20-month survival, were his love of work, and physical fitness from dancing. Among the lifestyle factors that may have raised his risk - cigarettes and alcohol.

Metformin, the diabetes drug, may be useful to stop the reoccurence of cancer cells by starving them of sugar for growth.

If the Food and Drug Administration follows the advice of its panels, Gardasil could soon be approved for use in boys and young men.