Archive: Cancer
More fodder for the fat-but-healthy debate
One of the most divisive and emotional debates regarding obesity is whether being fat automatically equals being unhealthy. While many experts point to mounds of evidence linking excess weight to such life-shortening conditions as cancer, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, others argue that those conditions aren't necessarily caused by...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | November 5, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (8)
Patrick Swayze and Pancreatic Cancer
I join just about everyone everywhere in feeling sad about the death yesterday of actor Patrick Swayze, whose brave and public fight with pancreatic cancer helped raise awareness of this most deadly disease. But feeling sad's not enough. Want to support those who are seeking a cure -- or even...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | September 15, 2009; 07:35 AM ET | Comments (13)
Does Infection Boost Prostate Cancer Risk?
Scientists have more evidence that a common sexually transmitted infection may increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer. Previous research has suggested that an infection known as trichomoniasis might increase the risk for prostate cancer, which is the second most common cancer and cause of cancer death among men. In...
By Rob Stein | September 10, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Prostate Cancer Caused By a Virus?
Researchers reporting online in yesterday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences think prostate cancer may be related to a virus. Scientists at Columbia University and the University of Utah have determined that a virus that's already known to cause certain other cancers in animals is present in human prostate...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | September 8, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Prostate Cancer Screening's Toll
One of the most controversial issues in men's health is whether a blood test commonly used to screen for prostate cancer is being overused. Well, there's new evidence out this week that the test has led to a lot of men getting unnecessary treatment. The test, known as the prostate-specific...
By Rob Stein | September 3, 2009; 08:00 AM ET | Comments (16)
Beware the CT Scan?
There's more evidence out today that CT scans and other medical procedures that expose patients to radiation may be putting many Americans at risk. While CT scans and other procedures are very useful for accurately diagnosing a variety of medical conditions, a growing body of evidence has been raising concerns...
By Rob Stein | August 27, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (10)
Is That Right? Cancer Society Birthday Cake
What to make of the American Cancer Society's new birthday cake recipe? The ACS had a nice, though kind of unsettling, idea with its campaign to celebrate birthdays as a remarkable achievement for cancer survivors. As part of that campaign, the organization sponsored a competition for students at the Culinary...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | August 14, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (11)
Peter Tork's Cancer, In His Own Words
(Photo: Ivan Iannoli) My blog last week about musician Peter Tork's taking his current battle with a rare form of cancer to the pages of Facebook drew passionate responses from readers, many of whom thought I'd been unfair to Mr. Tork. So I invited Tork (my favorite former Monkee)...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | July 1, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (18)
A Former Monkee with Cancer
Peter Tork (center) performs with his band members in 2001. (Photo by Rich Lipski) Set aside, if you can, the initial shock of learning that Peter Tork, a former member of the pop foursome The Monkees, is 67 years old. Tork and his fellow Monkees live on in my...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | June 22, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (34)
Is That Right? One A Day with Selenium and Prostate Cancer
(Photo by Jeff Cronin, Courtesy of CSPI) The food-industry watchdog organization Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has set its sights -- not in a good way -- on Bayer One A Day Men's vitamins for the company's claim that the selenium in those supplements helps protect...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | June 19, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Will Men Get Gardasil?
The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve Gardasil for men. But the question is: Will men be willing to get a vaccine for mostly altruistic reasons? A new study raises questions about that. The vaccine protects against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection....
By Rob Stein | June 4, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Mysterious Missing Fingerprints
Here's something that sounds like it could come straight out of a James Bond movie: A man trying to get through customs in New York was detained for hours because his fingerprints disappeared. In a letter published online yesterday by the Annals of Oncology, Eng-Huat Tan of the National Cancer...
By Rob Stein | May 28, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Here Comes the Sun. And the Sunscreen.
If I were really rich, I would fund huge, well-designed studies, free of ideological or academic bias and commercial concerns, that would get to the bottom of the big health issues of the day. One of the first research projects I'd tackle would tell us once and for all how...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | May 12, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (12)
PSA Testing Gets A Boost
An important doctors' group is breaking with other leading medical experts and continuing to recommend PSA testing for prostate cancer. Not only that, the group is actually lowering the age at which it recommends men start getting the test. PSA testing has become one of the most controversial issues in...
By Rob Stein | April 30, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (7)
Running with Cancer
Taking a break from training for the More magazine half marathon, (from left to right) Judy Fitzpatrick, Anne Foster, Dr. Pamela Peeke, Jessica Glickman and Marlyn Glickman pose in Rock Creek Park. (Eric Hughes) What are you doing Sunday morning at 8? Three area women will be taking a...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | April 24, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Pancreatic Cancer News You Can't Use
A new study in the Journal of the American Cancer Institute shows that people with certain blood types may be more likely to develop pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly of all malignancies. Specifically, folks with type O blood face the lowest risk for pancreatic cancer, while those with...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | March 13, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
Another Good Reason to Exercise
More than 100,000 people are diagnosed with colon cancer in the U.S. each year. New research suggests a straightforward, if not downright simple, way to cut that number by almost a quarter. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University analyzed 52 studies about exercise...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | February 13, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
New Test for Prostate Cancer?
Scientists have made a discovery that could lead to a simple test to help doctors decide which men who have prostate cancer require treatment and which do not. More than 180,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in the United States, making it the second leading form of...
By Rob Stein | February 12, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Green Tea Setback?
Green tea has a growing reputation as a health-promoting dietary supplement. Research in recent years has shown that it may reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and several kinds of cancer, for instance. Many people use green tea to help cope with chemotherapy's side effects. But a new study casts a...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | February 9, 2009; 07:30 AM ET | Comments (7)
To Protect Kids From Melanoma, Skip the Shore Vacation?
This bitter-cold weather has me dreaming of Ocean City, Md., where my family has vacationed every summer since we've been a family. Some of my favorite photos are of our tiny children plunked diaper-down in the sand, relishing the salt air and sunshine, radiating health and happiness. So a new...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | February 6, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
How Risky Are Hormones?
There's important new research out today about hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. A new analysis of the landmark Women's Health Initiative has shown just how much of a risk women face from taking estrogen and progestin to relieve hot flashes and other problems due to menopause, and how quickly...
By Rob Stein | February 5, 2009; 07:30 AM ET | Comments (1)
Colonoscopy Still Saves Lives
You may have read about the new study showing that colonoscopy might not be as good as everyone thought at detecting cancerous or precancerous polyps. But that's no excuse to skip this time-tested form of cancer screening. (You're not getting off the hook that easily!) The study, conducted in Canada...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | December 17, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Does Breast Cancer Go Away?
Can breast cancer just disappear on its own? That's the provocative question raised by a new study creating some waves this week. Per-Henrik Zahl of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and colleagues compared breast cancer rates between two groups of more than 100,000 women ages 50...
By Rob Stein | November 27, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Giving Pancreatic Cancer its Due
I didn't plan to write about pancreatic cancer today. But sometimes a topic demands your attention. A reader commenting on my Friday blog about my reckoning with mortality by reading obituaries noted that pancreatic cancer, the 4th-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., doesn't attract anywhere near as much...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | November 10, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (21)
Study Questions Antibiotics' Safety in Preterm Labor
There's important new information out today for pregnant women and their doctors: Giving antibiotics to some pregnant women who have gone into labor too early could be dangerous for the long-term development of their children, according to a major new study. Now, it's important to make it clear right away...
By Rob Stein | September 18, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Cancer Screening: Me Vs. the Big Picture
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) last week handed down the startling recommendation that men over 75 should not be routinely screened for prostate cancer, and that younger men should weigh their screening options with a physician. That news came shortly after the release of a new study...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | August 11, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (8)
Countertops, Cellphones and Cancer Risk
Lots of alarming news on the cancer front yesterday. There was this report in the New York Times about granite countertops oozing cancer-causing radon. And this Associated Press story, featured in the Post and elsewhere, about a cancer-center head in Pittsburgh who's cautioned his staff to lay off the cellphones...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | July 25, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (9)
Prostate Cancer Treatment Questioned
A new study is casting doubt on an increasingly popular therapy for prostate cancer -- the second most common cancer and second most common cause of cancer death among men. Typically, men who are diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer undergo surgery or radiation or simply keep an eye on the...
By Rob Stein | July 10, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
Does Gum Disease Cause Cancer?
It took a lot of lectures from my dentist, but I long ago became a dedicated flosser. Now a new study is making me glad I did. And it's not just because flossing my teeth daily may help me avoid dentures. The new research indicates that people who have gum...
By Rob Stein | May 29, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Pancreatic Cancer: Is the Money Where the Mouths Are?
37,680 new cases a year. 34,290 deaths. Those are the grim statistics for pancreatic cancer, the fourth-leading cause of cancer death and one of the scariest diagnoses a person can get. Pancreatic cancer's been getting lots of press lately--little of it good--from accounts of the deaths of Luciano Pavarotti in...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | April 16, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
