Cancer Treatment

Guidelines do not recommend routine suveillance afer a complete resection, although NCCN says that "consider chest x-ray, CT or PET to screen for recurrent metastatic disease." This is a level 2b recommendation.
There are two reccent studies that undermine the concept of routine surveillance for melanoma.One prospectively used a monitoring schedule of 6-monthly chest X-rays [...]

In Wednesday’s issue of THB Undercover we discussed the myth that exercise is the key to weight loss. It is a myth that has been promoted, in part, by the food companies, who want you to believe that you can eat anything and as much as you want… as long as you [...]

In the last 20 years, the number of overweight children and adolescents has tripled. Adults have fared just as poorly. Currently more than two thirds – almost 70% – of Americans are considered overweight or obese.
But it has very little to do with how much or the types of food we put [...]

Several years ago I visited my brother, who was serving in the Peace Corps in the mountains of Panama. Each morning we planned our day, while enjoying a rich cup of some of Central America’s finest coffee. That is, until we reached the San Blas islands.
The San Blas are inhabited by an [...]

Adrenal cancer is not common and the clincial experience with it is limited. There is much information on how to follow it before resection but not as much on how to follow resected cancers. Many adrenocortical cancers are not particularly PET avid. A recent guideline says this: "An enhanced CT scan of chest and abdomen [...]

In this week’s issue of THB Undercover, I countered Dr. Shyam Kolvekar’s contention that saturated fat in the diet is to blame for the rising rates of heart disease in young people. He even recommended banning butter! To learn why he is totally off base and why you should have no [...]

Robotic hysterectomy, bilaterla salpingo-oophorectomy and lymph nodes dissection is a new procedure but the preliminary evidence and reports suggest that it does not produce more compication or a longer hospital stay than the open procedure. In a 2009 report, it reduced blood loss and improved lymph node retrieval with no cost to survival compared with [...]

Before we get into today’s message, we wanted to pass this along. Many THB readers have asked us the best way to help the people of Haiti.
Many reliable and worthwhile organizations are offering support. But you may be wondering which cause will put your donation directly into the relief effort. Our colleague Byron King – [...]

There is limited evidence for activity of irinotecana dn Erbitux for emtastatic squamous cell cancer of the anus. One is a case report of a a female patient with refractory anal cancer who achieved an excellent response to the combination of cetuximab and irinotecan after having failed single-agent irinotecan. The other is a report on [...]

Has the FDA ever put the needs of the public ahead of industry?
Last week, the Food & Drug Administration reversed its position on the health effects of the industrial chemical and “food additive” bisphenol-A (BPA). For years, the agency maintained that this gender-bending, cancer-causing chemical was safe.
Their primary evidence? Two studies [...]