New Tests May Help Doctors Pinpoint Cancer Faster With Higher Accuracy
In other oncology news, a cancer scientist is racing against his own diagnosis, experts caution against optimism over immunotherapy and more.
The Wall Street Journal:
New Nuclear-Imaging Tests Show Promise In Locating Cancer
Cancer cells remain elusive and tough to locate, but a new crop of nuclear-imaging tests promises to lead to more accurate prognosis and treatment. The tests use imaging agents that combine radioactive isotopes with targeted molecules that can spot cancer at the cellular level. The ability to accurately locate the cancers helps physicians make better and earlier diagnoses—and may eventually make possible targeted nuclear-medicine therapies that identify and kill cancer cells, but not the surrounding healthy cells. (Or, 9/25)
Stat:
A Cancer Researcher Races To Find A Cure — For His Own Incurable Cancer
With two decades of cancer research under his belt, Tom Marsilje is no stranger to project deadlines. But he’s never faced one quite like this before. He’s racing against the clock in an improbable quest to cure his own incurable colon cancer before it takes him away from his wife and their two little girls. (Robbins, 9/26)
Stat:
Beware The Hype: Top Scientists Cautious About Fighting Cancer With Immunotherapy
There’s been a lot of excitement about immunotherapy as a tool to treat cancer. But as leading experts gathered here on Sunday, several struck an unexpected note of caution. (Begley, 9/25)
East Bay Times:
Charlotte Maxwell Center Treats Cancer Patients’ Other Symptoms
[Martina] Herrera, from San Pablo, is in remission from uterine cancer, a cancer that has been removed and one for which she underwent chemotherapy for eight months. Four months into her treatment, her legs froze. Herrera is also a client of the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, a facility that offers alternative therapies like reiki (a form of touch therapy), massage, guided meditation, herbal treatments, acupuncture and other homeopathic treatments to patients who are also receiving traditional cancer therapies. Because Herrera has a low income, she receives her treatments for free. (9/23)
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Prostate Cancer Survivor Promotes Screening For Men At High Risk
The use of the PSA test to check average-risk men with no symptoms of cancer has always been somewhat controversial. But in 2012, an influential federal advisory panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, declared that routine PSA testing should be abandoned, even for high-risk men. (Rush, 9/25)
Philadelphia Inquirer:
PSA Tests On The Ropes - But Not Gone
Free, walk-in PSA screening-fests, often at manly events such as car shows, became a big thing, especially during September, which is prostate cancer awareness month. Advocacy groups, urologists, and hospitals embraced the strategy, presuming that catching cancer early would save lives. But that strategy - like that presumption - is now seen as dangerously simplistic. (McCullough, 9/25)
