The effect of obesity on survival in patients with ovarian cancer (repost from 2008)

Conclusion

Although obesity has been reported as an independent prognostic factor for survival, this data demonstrates that survival rates are similar between obese and non-obese patients when optimal debulking statuses are the same. Therefore, maximal effort should be directed towards optimal debulking obese patients with EOC.

news item: Colonoscopy Fails to Identify Many Colorectal Cancers

Daily Cancer News - CancerConsultants.com

While researchers have long estimated that colonoscopy reduces colorectal cancer deaths by 90%, the results of this analysis indicate that the reduction might be closer to 60%. More research is needed to understand the implications of this analysis. In the meantime the researchers caution that the results of this study should not change the colonoscopy screening recommendations. A 60% reduction in mortality is still an important benefit; in comparison, mammography reduces breast cancer mortality by only 25%.

Globe and Mail: 2 articles: Obesity and Ovarian Cancer and McHealth stories leave us all hungry

globesports.com: McHealth stories leave us all hungry

Media articles of interest:

Obesity / Ovarian cancer article: http://tinyurl.com/9ak8st

McHealth stories: http://tinyurl.com/7xmwsf



My online response as below: http://tinyurl.com/9554b6

(S Pniauskas, from Canada) wrote:

A prime example of the ethical, moral and professional duty of apparent
medical reporting is Andre's recent article:  "Obesity raises risk of ovarian cancer".

In fact, the paper Body Mass Index and Risk of Ovarian Cancer (2009 American Cancer Society/Cancer Journal) as published:

"Conclusions: Based on the results of the current study, the authors SUSPECT that obesity....As observed in numerous previous investigations summarized in a recent meta-analysis of the available literature, BMI at baseline was associated with a modest but statistically NONSIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN RISK for ovarian cancer in our cohort as a whole... "

The whole article in the Globe regarding Obesity and Risk of Ovarian Cancer is significantly pathetic including the fact that the last sentence regarding risk of recurrence/higher rate of death is not accurate. What is accurate is the fact that if chemotherapy treatments are given according to BMI then the risk is Nil.

Ovarian Cancer and most cancers cannot simply be explained away by simple one page articles and to try to do so places additional burdens on our populations which are in fact fighting for and often losing the challenge of trying to live with life threatening cancers. Research communities publish their work as a 'work in progress' and not as the final solution to extremely complicated issues. Many factors influence the onset and risk of ovarian and other cancers and we simply are not there yet in understanding the full implications of any particular one or two potential issues.

It is an old lesson yet learned that medical reporting has a duty to understand the full context of the issues, as well as a duty to do no harm, which is not exclusively held to medical professionals but to also to medical reporting.

There are educational courses available to medical journalists and consumers, one being through the Cochrane Collaboration.

Diagnostic experience among 4,334 women reporting surgically diagnosed endometriosis

"...Sometime before diagnosis, 63% were told nothing was wrong with them."

(Editorial note: since there is a known connection between endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancer cell types to endometriosis, it would be interesting to note followup on those subsequently diagnosed not only with endometriosis but also with ovarian cancer)

OEDC 2008 Renumeration of General Practitioners and Specialists in 14 OECD Countries

41925333.pdf (application/pdf Object)

The government’s role in health care | Health Innovation Forum

The government’s role in health care | Health Innovation Forum

"More importantly, after nearly 30 years of overt attempts to manage provincial systems, they are still not stable or sustainable. This worrisome outcome results from the convergence of three probably uncontrollable and partially self-imposed factors I like to call the “Bermuda Triangle” of health care."

Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer--What the Primary Care Provider Needs to Know

Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer--What the Primary Care Provider Needs to Know -- Afonso 22 (1): 43 -- The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine