MajorHealth News - Physicians

Doctors: McCain Appears Free of Cancer

Doctors: McCain Appears Free of Cancer
Title: Doctors: McCain Appears Free of Cancer
Category: Health News
Created: 5/27/2008
Last Editorial Review: 5/27/2008

Lymph node right clavical

Lymph node right clavical
Question:

I have had a swollen lymph node right clavical for about three weeks now. My doctor did a CT scan of chest and mammogram. Also chest X-ray and blood work which all came out normal. She put me on Augmentin for 10 days but I got sick from it, so now just straight Amoxi . . .

Answer: Lymph nodes can enlarge during infections such as a cold or skin infection.  Also cat scratches are a common reason.  Some tumors can show up in a lymph node as well.  The tests your doctor ordered appear to be appropriate to look for common cancers that could spread to a lymph n . . .

Ask an Expert: Jeffrey Sussman MD, Cancer

Regaining Lost Luster [Scientific American Magazine]

The past 15 years have been a roller coaster for gene therapy. After being touted in the early 1990s as “the medicine of the future,” gene therapy left an 18-year-old dead and three others with leukemia; in July it was tied to the death of a 36-year-old Illinois woman undergoing treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, although further investigation cleared her therapy of the blame. Gene therapy scientists, however, believe they can put the bad news behind them, thanks to a handful of recent developments and others just over the horizon.

Gene therapy describes any treatment in which doctors insert new or modified genes into a person’s cells to treat or prevent disease. Researchers initially planned to treat hereditary disorders such as cystic fibrosis, in which normal gene products are deficient, by delivering functional copies of missing genes to cells that need them. Since then, scientists have expanded gene therapy’s possible applications to include “training” immune cells to hunt down cancer, building new blood vessels and making the immune system resistant to infection.

[More]

Demand for Rheumatologists Expected to Exceed Supply in Coming Decades
An increase in older adults combined with a greater ability to effectively manage many inflammatory musculoskeletal disorders is expected to require an increase in the number of practicing rheumatologists over the coming decades.

PC-Doctor Service Center 6

PC-Doctor Service Center 6

New Breast Cancer Treatments Help Sufferers Gain Ground [Scientific American Magazine]

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among women and, after lung cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in North America. Yet unlike the survival rate for individuals diagnosed with lung cancer, the rate for women diagnosed with breast cancer has been rising dramatically over the past decade–to the point where breast cancer could soon lose its ranking as the second-greatest cancer killer. Nothing would delight clinicians like us more.

This improvement in overall outlook for women diagnosed with breast cancer is attributable in part to earlier detection, which results from greater awareness of, and access to, regular breast screening. But breast cancer patients are also benefiting from accelerated research that has led to a much better understanding of the disease and a wider variety of treatment choices that doctors can mix and match to tailor therapy for a particular patient. In just the past decade, it has even become possible to target drugs to specific molecules within tumors that help to drive the disease.

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My righy kidney

My righy kidney
Question:

My righy kidney is five times as large as my left. The left one is working fine. They say my right one is full of cancer. Should I let them take the right one out or fight the cancer with a regime of herbs that are known to work.

Answer: If the right kidney is the only area suspicious for cancer in your body then surgery is clearly the only way to go. Herbs have been tried before but do not have an effect on a large cancer mass. Some herbs can be of benefit and a lot of doctors are studying herbs as anti-cancer treatment. But at thi . . .

Ask an Expert: Thomas Olencki DO, Cancer

THCB is underwritten by Overlake Medical Center

THCB is underwritten by Overlake Medical Center
Overlake Medical Center is a 337-bed, nonprofit, state-of-the-art medical facility equipped to deliver the highest standards of medical care to the Puget Sound Region. Overlake is seeking primary care and specialty physicians to join our growing network of clinics located…

Can Cancer Advances Save Kennedy?

Can Cancer Advances Save Kennedy?
Doctors are hopeful that the senator will be able to tolerate treatment.

Letter: A Malian Festival
To the Editor: We were pleased to see The New York Times take note of the Festival au Desert in Mali (“In Mali, S.U.V.’s and Camels Deliver the Fans,” May 11). Unfortunately, the article flattened the richness and complexity of the festival, which combines entertainment with the functions of a county fair, town-hall meeting and community clinic. We heard great music, but also saw workshops on AIDS prevention, witnessed Doctors Without Borders at work and heard a discussion of “the duties of a good citizen” presented in French and Tamashek.

30 Applicants for Electronic Health Record Demonstration Project
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today applauded the more than 30 communities that have applied for a new demonstration project that will provide Medicare incentive payments to primary care physician practices that use certified electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care.

Can Cancer Advances Save Kennedy?

Can Cancer Advances Save Kennedy?
Doctors are hopeful that the senator will be able to tolerate treatment.

Did You Know?

Did You Know?
Almost half of female doctors consider providing weight-loss and nutrition advice to their patients a top priority, according to a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The…

The Right vs. the Right to Die in California

By Rod Mackenzie

A decade ago, after the people of Oregon had passed the Death with Dignity Act, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in declaring it constitutional wrote that people have a right to the option of physician assistance to shorten a “protracted” and/or “agonizing” death.

Among the many safeguards of this law are the following:

1.Patient must be a resident of the state

2.Patient must be diagnosed with terminal illness within six months of death, by two physicians

3.Request must be voluntary, with no evidence of coercion

4.Patient must make three requests, one in writing, witnessed by someone other than family or primary care-givers

5.There is minimum 15 day waiting period between the first request and the dispensing of medication

6. Patient must be determined to be mentally capable

7. Patient may rescind request at any time

8. Physician will refer patient to counseling, if appropriate, make all treatment options known, and clearly discuss consequences of patient’s request

9. Physician will encourage patient to inform family

10. The Oregon Health Division enforces compliance with the law

This certainly is a rational and safe law, isn’t it? It has been operating for ten years now, without a single case of abuse being found, despite the efforts of the National Right to Life, and local allies, to pursue any opportunity to subjugate us to their personal dogma.

Yet we have not been able to pass a corresponding bill here in California, despite the fact that the law proposed here, would have even more safeguards. One could write a book about the relatively small number of people Right To Life has organized to assist them in their cruel efforts to prevent even dying people from having choice. In fact, Jon Eisenberg, a great lawyer, has done just that in his book, USING TERRI, which was recently published in paperback as “The Right versus The Right To Die.”

Sen. Kennedy released from the hospital

Sen. Kennedy released from the hospital
Doctors said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy would be released from the hospital on Wednesday after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor that experts say is almost certainly fatal.

Men carry breast cancer genes too
Doctors are encouraging a new group of people to consider getting tested for genes that raise the risk of breast cancer: men.

Health Watch: Heart Defect Patients Benefit From Procedure

Health Watch: Heart Defect Patients Benefit From Procedure
What once was a painful, slow recovery is now often a one-night stay in the hospital. But now doctors can correct heart defects and patients benefit by avoiding long stays in the hospital.

Surgery Not Responsible For Long-Term Cognitive Decline In Bypass Patients
Among the many factors involved in deciding how to treat coronary artery disease, physicians must evaluate overall outcomes and the potential for complications. Some studies have found that cognitive decline and neurologic complications, such as stroke, have been associated with coronary artery bypass surgery.