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Total 795 results found since Jan 2013.

The Picture With The Smile That Says So Much About Advances In Cancer Care
It was the picture (see below) that, to me, said it all: a 96 year old woman -- one of the first patients in the world to receive a brand new cancer drug--, and a large tumor on her neck had melted completely away. But it was the smile on her lips that you couldn't avoid noticing. Let's set the stage: You have spent the last 5 days in a large convention center at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago running from presentation to presentation and meeting to meeting. You have heard more information presented in more rapid fire sequence than any human being can possibly absorb. You h...
Source: Dr. Len's Cancer Blog - June 4, 2014 Category: Cancer Authors: Dr. Len Tags: Access to care Cancer Care Media Medicare Medications Melanoma Other cancers Research Survivors Treatment Source Type: blogs

Progress In Colorectal Cancer Not Shared By Everyone
An article published this week in the American Cancer Society journal CA: A Journal for Clinicians received a lot of media attention. The report showed dramatic declines in the rate of people being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, as well as decreases in the rates of colorectal cancer deaths over the past number of years. But the press didn't say much about the fact that not everyone has benefitted from the progress we have made in the prevention, early detection, and improved treatment for colorectal cancer. It is a sad but very real commentary on how we approach health care in this country that African Americans have no...
Source: Dr. Len's Cancer Blog - March 19, 2014 Category: Cancer Authors: Dr. Len Tags: Access to care Colon Cancer Diet Early detection Environment Media Medicare Medications Prevention Rectal Cancer Research Screening Treatment Source Type: blogs

Reducing Cancer Care Costs and Hospital Stays
There are two really irritating things about cancer care for me. (Well there are really lots of things that irritate me about cancer care. I could make a giant list of them if anyone really cared but today I am going to focus on two things.Cancer care is ridiculously expensive. You can take a drug for $100,000 that might increase your lifespan for a couple of months. A single chemo infusion can cost upwards of $20,000.And at the least sign of germs or low blood counts, you are sent to the emergency room where they admit you. That is a really stupid part. You feel like crap on a Friday night, you call your oncologist and th...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 13, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer care cancer costs hospital Source Type: blogs

Brachytherapy for Breast Cancer Follow Up
Back in 2007, when I was diagnosed and treated for my breast cancer, I heard about this new technique for the radiation portion of treatment,brachytherapy. I was jealous. It was not offered at my hospital. The big thing I liked was that it took so much less time for treatment.Breast cancer treatment takes a LONG time. I was diagnosed at the end of May, after two surgeries that went into July, I finished chemo in December, and needed one more surgery (don ' t ask). I was then facing 7 weeks of radiation. I just wanted to be done. Since brachytherapy wasn ' t available I had the standard radiation treatment. I couldn ' t eve...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 11, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cancer research radiation Source Type: blogs

A Patient at a Press Conference
The following post originally ran on Gray Connections on September 6th. Earlier today (September 6, 2015) I gave this speech at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)  World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver.  I’m pleased at the reception it received. I appreciate IASLC including me in this press conference. They’ve been responsive to lung cancer patients and advocates, and have included the patient voice in several conferences. Patients and advocates participated in the planning process for this World Conference on Lung Cancer, as demonstrated by the number of patient and advocate prese...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 23, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Advocacy Cancer Patients Source Type: blogs

Breast Cancer Patients Deserve Better: Policy Must Support Innovation
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During this time, those of us in the advocacy community take stock of the millions of lives that have been affected forever by this dreadful disease. Breast cancer ranks second as a cause of death in women. Each year, about 230,000 women, and more than 2,000 men, receive a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. Cancer survivors, caregivers and doctors tell us that the most powerful weapons against breast cancer are early detection and the elimination of “trial and error” therapies. This is accomplished by pinpointing the most effective treatment options immediately after...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 31, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Colon cancer screening: Is there an easier, effective way?
Are you, or is someone you know, postponing their colonoscopy? Maybe it’s the idea of that prep. At best, it requires being home and near a toilet for a day. Worse, it can make people feel awfully ill. Or maybe it’s the invasiveness of the test. At best, it’s unpleasant. At worst, there can be serious complications, including an instrument puncturing the bowel, bleeding, and organ damage. It’s also time-consuming, requiring time off work for you and whoever will be driving you home. Why is a colonoscopy worth the hassle? Cancers of the colon and rectum are common, and lives can be saved with early detection. Colore...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Cancer Digestive Disorders Health Healthy Aging Screening Source Type: blogs

Cancer Centers Rebounding From COVID-19 Can Grow By Making the Most of New Technologies for Clinical Trials
For community cancer centers that rely on patient reimbursement to stay afloat, a smart data-driven approach to clinical trials provides a foundation for future growth. Brenda Noggy Dr. Tandy Tipps By TANDY TIPPS and BRENDA NOGGY Covid-19’s tragic, devastating impact on cancer treatment is now well documented. Cancer screenings dropped by almost 90 percent at the peak of the pandemic. Billing for some leading cancer medications dropped 30 percent last summer. Studies found a 60 percent decrease in new clinical trials for cancer drugs and biological therapies. Cancer centers, like every part of the US healt...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 8, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Tech Health Technology brenda noggy cancer centers cancer research Clinical Trials tandy tipps Source Type: blogs

They Are YOUR Medical Records. Will The Blue Button Help You Get Them?
  It is a disarmingly simple idea: create a blue button logo with a download moniker on it and let it loose so people can actually download, review, and keep their own medical records. But simple on the surface masks complexity below a revolutionary concept: that patients are not only the subject of the records, but that they own those records, and through that ownership can actually be partners in their care or even improve their own health. That was the topic of a meeting I attended yesterday at the White House, where representatives of government, health technology vendors, consumer groups, and others interested in...
Source: Dr. Len's Cancer Blog - June 7, 2013 Category: Cancer Authors: Dr. Len Tags: Access to care Cancer Care Medicare Treatment Source Type: blogs

Paying For Value In Cancer Care
Everyone wants to pay for value (and certainly not just for volume) and the value imperative is nowhere greater than in cancer care. Cancer care cost the US health care system $125 billion in 2010, accounting for 5 percent of total health care spending. Before Sovaldi hit the front pages for offering a breakthrough treatment for Hepatitis C at a cost of $84,000, and Turing Pharmaceuticals pushed Sovaldi out of the headlines for increasing the price of an HIV drug 50 fold, most of the attention to drug pricing was focused on cancer. With average yearly treatment costs exceeding $100,000, cancer drugs in the US cost nearly t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 29, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Alan Weil Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Long-term Services and Supports Medicare Once in a Weil Payment Policy Quality Bundled Payments Cancer ECRI performance payments Primary Care Source Type: blogs

Reaching Beyond Delivery System Walls To Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening
Conclusion Screening rates are a product of two factors: offer rates and uptake/completion rates. With our FIT campaign we have made strides in both areas. With tools built into our EHR, we can now identify and offer tests to nearly 100 percent of the eligible population, practically with the touch of a button. At the same time, patient uptake of testing has improved dramatically, despite the fact that FIT screening must be done every year, instead of the five- and ten-year intervals required for sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy, respectively. We believe the increased uptake is a testament to what happens when we “make the ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 24, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Theodore Levin, Joanne Schottinger and Murray Ross Tags: Featured Health Policy Lab Innovations in Care Delivery Organization and Delivery Population Health capitated payment model Colorectal Cancer Screening electronic health record fecal immunochemical test Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Source Type: blogs

African American and white men who receive comparable treatments for prostate cancer have similar survival
Last year, we reported on two studies showing that African American men respond at least as well as white men to prostate cancer treatments given in clinical trials. Nationally, African Americans with prostate cancer are more than twice as likely to die of the disease as their white counterparts, and that has fueled speculation that genetic or biological factors put them at greater risk. But according to this new research, the survival difference disappears when men of either race get the same cutting-edge treatments. Now scientists are reporting that African American and white men with prostate cancer live equally as long...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 13, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Health Living With Prostate Cancer Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs

Optellum, AI Lung Cancer Diagnosis Innovator, Secures $14M Series A Funding to Accelerate Expansion
Lead investor Mercia, alongside Intuitive Ventures and Black Opal, invests in Optellum’s pioneering AI-powered lung-health technology Optellum, an Oxford-based medtech company that provides a breakthrough AI platform to diagnose and treat early-stage lung cancer, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round. The investment will enable Optellum to scale its base, operations, and commercial launches in the UK and USA; accelerate research and development; and expand its platform into personalized therapy decisions by integrating imaging data with molecular data, robotics, and liquid biopsies. This funding ro...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 30, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: AI/Machine Learning Health IT Company Healthcare IT Black Opal Ventures GE Healthcare Health IT Funding Health IT Fundings Health IT Investment Intuitive Ventures IQ Capital Jason Pesterfield Johnson & Johnson Lung Cancer Lung Sc Source Type: blogs

Is proton therapy the best kind of radiation for prostate cancer?
My radio alarm goes off early in the morning. Often one of the first ads I hear while I am getting ready to move out of bed is from Loma Linda University Medical Center. They are pushing their proton beam radiation therapy early in the morning for old guys like me who might have prostate cancer and can’t sleep much past 5 in the morning. They hail it as causing fewer side effects than standard treatment. What they don’t say is that it is nearly twice as expensive as the standard therapy. So is it better? No one really knows. There have been no head to head comparisons with standard treatment. But, this week, The Journ...
Source: Dr.Kattlove's Cancer Blog - January 8, 2013 Category: Oncologists Source Type: blogs

Medicare Reimbursement for Lung Cancer Screening Provokes Debate
Although 160,000 people in the U.S. die each year from lung cancer, accounting for more than a quarter of all cancer deaths, screening for lung cancer remains controversial. Based on results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) in 2011, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a B recommendation in favor of low-dose CT screening for high-risk current and former smokers. Due to a provision in the Affordable Care Act, private insurance is now mandated. More recently, the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) concluded that there is only low to intermediate More…
Source: CardioBrief - October 13, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes CMS lung cancer Medicare screening tobacco Source Type: blogs