Navigators improve cancer screening rates

Copyright: Andose, used under license 123rf

CANCER DIGEST – June 22, 2016 – Having a navigator is an ancient method of ensuring you get where you want to go. It appears it is no less true when it comes to navigating the complex US healthcare system.

A new study by the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows that patients who had navigators, individuals who assist patients in receiving healthcare services, may improve comprehensive cancer screening rates among patients who are not likely to seek recommended screenings.

Mid-life PSA test predicts prostate cancer death

CANCER DIGEST – June 19, 2016 – A single PSA test in midlife can predict future prostate cancer death a study in the June 13, 2016 Jounal of Clinical Oncology concludes. 

Led by Mark Preston, MD, MPH, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital study started in 1982 followed more than 22,000 male physicians aged 40 to 59 who gave blood before being randomly assigned to groups, one taking aspirin and beta carotene the other given a placebo.

Universal cancer vaccine can attack any cancer

CANCER DIGEST – June 7, 2016– German scientists have reported inching closer to a long sought universal vaccine that will attack cancer, any cancer.

Research groups around the world for decades have been pursuing the vaccine approach, which will rev up a cancer patient’s immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells.

Being physically active may lower your cancer risk

Higher levels of leisure-time physical activity may lower your risk for 13 types of cancers, according to a new study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Steven C. Moore, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md., and coauthors pooled data from 12 U.S. and European cohorts (groups of study participants) with self-reported physical activity (1987-2004). They analyzed associations of physical activity with the incidence of 26 kinds of cancer.

The study included 1.4 million participants and 186,932 cancers were identified during a median of 11 years of follow-up.

Prostate cancer cure minus the side effects

Credit: University of Michigan Health System

CANCER DIGEST – May 12, 2016 – The trade-off for eradicating prostate cancer has always been about weighing the benefits of surviving the cancer against a reduced quality of life due to the risks of incontinence and sexual dysfunction.

With the careful use of MR imaging, however, researchers say they can tip the balance in favor of survival while minimizing the risk of adverse effects on quality of life.