ZeroCancer.com – fight cancer through knowledge

Cancer news

O's think pink in fight against cancer
Lara Bingle's father Graham lost his battle with cancer and died on Saturday night.
Thousands of cancer beds could be lost as part of an NHS attempt to save money for other treatment.
NOT a single record exists to explain why the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) decided to publish three reports on the cancer-screening crisis on the same day.
Antidepressant drugs may help the immune system fight serious illness, research suggests. They enhance the activity of natural killer cells, key elements of the immune system, and could help the body combat infections such as HIV, and even cancer
Over 100,000 people lined up along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia to cheer on approximately 45,000 walkers, racers, and 6,000 cancer survivors who participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Kristi Gundersen got an unexpected surprise on her 40th birthday - breast cancer.     The diagnosis was a shock, Gundersen said Saturday, because there was no history of the disease in her family.
Many organizations spent Mothers' Day raising awareness about breast cancer.
NILES -- A Niles teen may soon be saying goodbye to her long locks. The 18-year-old plans to shave her head if she raises enough money for childhood cancer research.
Research conducted by scientists at the Cancer Institute has revealed that drinking two units of alcohol on a daily basis significantly increases the risks of developing breast, bowel, throat and mouth cancer.

Delayed surgery decreases bladder cancer survival

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For patients newly diagnosed with bladder cancer, delays of more than 3 months after the initial diagnosis to surgery results in decreased survival, a study shows.

“There currently are no standardized guidelines for the appropriate timing of cystectomy” (surgical removal of the bladder), Dr. Cheryl T. Lee from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan told Reuters Health. “However, there is growing evidence that cystectomy should be performed within 3 months of a diagnosis” of muscle-invasive disease.

The current study, she said, supports that “patients must undergo cystectomy within 3 months of diagnosis or their survival may be compromised.”

Lee and colleagues evaluated the timing from the diagnosis of bladder cancer to cystectomy in 214 consecutive patients to assess its impact on survival.

By investigating each delay duration, the authors were able to identify a delay of 93 days as the first cutoff point that resulted in a significantly decreased overall survival and so-called disease-specific survival.

Three-year disease-specific survival was 62 percent for patients who underwent cystectomy within 93 days of diagnosis and 49 percent for those who underwent surgery later, the researchers note.

Three-year overall survival was 51 percent and 38 percent, respectively, for patients operated within and beyond 93 days of diagnosis.

Patients who had a cystectomy delay of more than 93 days faced about twice the risk of patients who had an earlier cystectomy of dying from any cause or from bladder cancer, according to a multivariate analysis.

Nearly half the scheduling delays in patients who underwent cystectomy after 93 days were related to clinical or research appointments, the investigators say. Patient co-morbidities accounted for 15 percent of the delays, and difficulty with decision-making contributed to 12 percent of the delays.

“Rigorous coordination of preoperative counseling, medical clearance, and patient education is required to permit an efficient decision-making process and timely delivery of surgery,” Lee said.

SOURCE: The Journal of Urology April 2006.

Tags:

▼ Show related feed