Healthy Living Oncology Content

• Pap Tests Often Given When Not Needed

  

  Posted 10:44 PM 1/3/2013

  Dec. 3, 2012 -- Against clinical guidelines, many women are still getting Pap smears (a test that's meant to find cancer of the cervix) even after they've had a total (More)
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• Coffee May Lower Risk of Dying From Oral Cancers

  

  Posted 5:51 PM 12/12/2012

  Dec. 12, 2012 -- Heavy coffee drinkers -- those who drink more than four cups a day -- may cut their risk of dying from cancers of the mouth and throat by nearly half, according to new research.

  "We examined coffee drinking habits in nearly 1 million men and women," says Janet Hildebrand, MPH, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society.

  "Those who reported drinking at least four cups per day of caffeinated coffee incurred about half the risk (More)
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• Existing Breast Cancer Drugs May Help More Women

  

  Posted 10:40 PM 12/7/2012

  Dec. 7, 2012 (San Antonio) -- Current screening tests may miss as many as 1 in 50 women with breast cancer who would benefit from treatment with highly effective breast cancer drugs.

  At issue is HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that was difficult to treat until the FDA (More)
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• Fruits, Veggies Tied to Lower Breast Cancer Risk

  

  Posted 8:07 PM 12/6/2012

  Dec. 6, 2012 -- Women now have one more reason to eat their fruits and veggies.

  A new study suggests that women with higher levels of carotenoids (nutrients found in fruits and vegetables) have a lower risk of breast cancer -- especially cancers that are harder to treat and have a poorer prognosis.

  When researchers from Harvard Medical School pooled the results of (More)
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• UV Nail Lamps Safe, Study Suggests

  

  Posted 8:31 AM 12/6/2012

  Dec. 6, 2012 -- Widely used UV nail lamps are highly unlikely to cause skin cancer, even if used weekly for 250 years, a new study suggests.

  The finding contradicts the feeling of many dermatologists that the devices are as harmful as tanning beds. That feeling is largely based on a 2009 report of (More)
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• Longer Tamoxifen Use Helps Breast Cancer Survival

  

  Posted 8:30 PM 12/5/2012

  Dec. 5, 2012 -- Doubling the time that breast cancer patients take tamoxifen cuts the risk that the cancer will come back and further lowers the risk of dying of the disease, a new study shows.

  The study is expected to change the way doctors prescribe tamoxifen, a drug that (More)
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• Breath Test May Detect Colon Cancer

  

  Posted 4:01 AM 12/5/2012

  Dec. 5, 2012 -- A breath test similar to the one used to determine when a driver has had too much to drink shows promise as a screening tool for cancer.

  In a new study from Italy, researchers were able to identify patients with colorectal cancer with an accuracy of over 75% by analyzing samples of their breath.

  Cancer Breath Test

  Similar research is under way to develop (More)
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• Diabetes Drug Metformin May Fight Cancer

  

  Posted 4:01 AM 12/3/2012

  Dec. 3, 2012 -- One of the oldest, cheapest, and most widely used diabetes drugs may be a promising new cancer treatment.

  In new research from the Mayo Clinic, ovarian cancer (More)
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• 'Chemo Brain' Real, Not Just Patient's Imagination

  

  Posted 8:58 PM 11/29/2012

  Nov. 29, 2012 (Chicago) -- For cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who have found their complaints of general mental fogginess and haziness dismissed by their doctors as not being a real medical condition, vindication has arrived.

  Using (More)
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• Breast Cancer: Are Yearly Mammograms Worthwhile?

  

  Posted 9:01 PM 11/21/2012

  Nov. 21, 2012 -- Women over age 40 are often urged to get yearly mammograms with the promise that early detection is their best hope for beating breast cancer.

  But a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that mammograms may not save as many lives as doctors once thought.

  The study also finds that the tests may be responsible for (More)
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