News coverage of the US Preventive Services Task Force’s new recommendation against prostate cancer screening (published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine) was often hyperbolic and sensational, ignoring the fact that today’s published recommendation first appeared in draft form in October – fully 7 months ago – and that it was available for public [...]
Some reactions to the announcement that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer diagnosis were a little out of control. CNBC, for example, posted a piece entitled, “Buffett’s Cancer Scare Has Doug Kass Rethinking Berkshire.” Kass is a strategic investor. A stage one prostate cancer in a man Buffett’s age should [...]
Fox News uses Dr. David Samadi, a New York urologist and “Chief of Robotics” at his NY hospital, as a “medical contributor.” We’ve seen and heard him promote his pet approaches in the past. He did it again this past Sunday, touting his own favorite approach over another approach known as the Cyberknife, along with [...]
We’ve written numerous times on this site about the costly proliferation of newer forms of radiation therapy – intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and proton beam therapy. A paper in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association compares the two for localized prostate cancer. The authors’ conclusion: Among patients with nonmetastatic prostate cancer, use of [...]
Aaron Carroll, blogging on The Incidental Economist was “all riled up to get angry” over a Health Affairs paper that suggested “that the higher-cost US system of cancer care delivery may be worth it.” He wrote: So much wrong here. First of all, it uses the old “survival rate”/”mortality rate” swap that I’ve discussed here and [...]
A couple of studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) don’t present as clearcut a picture of colon cancer screening evidence as some stories might suggest. One study pointed to benefits of colonoscopy screening. Another described potential benefits of a form of blood stool testing called Fecal Immunochemical Testing (FIT). An editorial [...]
I was pleased to be asked to be the guest on the #BCSM (Breast Cancer & Social Media) twitter chat last night (Monday, Feb. 20). This is a community that meets online every Monday night at 9 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central, 6 pm Pacific time. One of the hosts, and chat co-founders, Jody Schoger, [...]
A “research letter” in the Archives of Internal Medicine this week concludes: “To our knowledge, we show for the first time that the availability of a technology, in this instance a proton beam facility, in one’s HRR (hospital referral region*) is associated with a higher likelihood of receiving proton beam therapy compared with those living [...]
Breast cancer specialist Dr. Susan Love has an essay in the New York Times, “Real Race in Cancer Is Finding Its Cause,” in which she says the recent Komen/Planned Parenthood “furor misses an important fact: Women have been led to believe that screening is the best prevention.” She continues: “…the original screening study done in [...]
As far as I can tell, Marilynn Marchione of the AP is the only mainstream news media journalist to report that “A study of Medicare records found that men treated with proton beams later had one-third more bowel problems, such as bleeding and blockages, than similar men given conventional radiation.” She reports that results “were [...]
This story focuses on a family that may have a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, the “rare” part wasn’t mentioned until 1,600 words into this 2,100 word story.
While this story adequately addressed 7 of our 10 criteria, the 3 on which it missed were significant omissions, yet could have been easily addressed.
Solid medical conference reporting, with many expert interviews and good context provided. Goes far beyond the conference presentation itself.
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