OVARIAN CANCER and US

Blog Archives: Nov 2004 - present

#ovariancancers



Special items: Ovarian Cancer and Us blog best viewed in Firefox

Search This Blog

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Wisconsin Ovarian Cancer Alliance - video



 Google+

 https://plus.google.com/u/0/106529732605532629748/posts/UUFDN8Gf8te?cfem=1

Harms, limitations explored in Reuters Health's aspirin/colon cancer coverage



Harms, limitations explored in Reuters Health

  http://www.healthnewsreview.org/wp-content/themes/hnr2015/img/health-news-review-logo.png

Our Review Summary

A strong story that describes in clear terms the findings as well as the strengths and weaknesses of this study. It covered potential biases that could not be controlled, mentioned harms, and was overall very cautious. It would have been even stronger had it mentioned that the study was observational in nature and therefore not capable of telling us whether the aspirin, or some other factor, is responsible for the benefit that was seen. It also did not mention alternatives for colorectal cancer prevention such as proven effective screening practices. But these are relatively minor omissions in coverage that was otherwise quite exemplary.

Beta blockers and ovarian cancer - healthreviews (WSJ)



Beta blockers and ovarian cancer

   http://www.healthnewsreview.org/wp-content/themes/hnr2015/img/health-news-review-logo.png

Our Review Summary

This Wall Street Journal article nicely summarizes the findings of a retrospective study of 1,400 cases of women with ovarian cancer; some of whom had been prescribed beta-blockers for high blood pressure and appeared to have better outcomes than those not taking beta-blockers. It hits on nearly all of our criteria, and was more thorough and balanced than an MD Anderson news release that initially announced the findings to the world. (More on that below.) A bit more detail on the cost of these drugs, and a bit more restraint in discussing the outcomes of a small group of women who were taking a particular class of beta-blocker and had much better survival statistics, would have rounded out this story.


Why This Matters

We often say that news releases can set the tone for subsequent media coverage of new research, and that a poor news release can lead to a great deal of misinformation reaching the public. We’ve compared this phenomenon to sheep following one another. However, it’s also true that good reporting can fill in the holes left by an incomplete news release and present a more balanced portrait of findings to readers.....

Emotional harm from disrespect: the neglected preventable harm



open access - patient safety

To date, the patient safety movement has focused primarily on physical injury, but definitions of harm in healthcare are much broader:5 any ‘outcome that negatively affects the patient's health and/or quality of life’.6 When asked about consequences of adverse events, patients emphasise emotional harm more than physical harm.7 Emotional harms can erode trust, leave patients feeling violated and damage patient–provider relationships.8 ,9 Such injuries can be severe and long lasting, with adverse effects on physical health.10 Failures to acknowledge and systematically address these harms ensure that they continue......

Editorial: Genetic Cancer Susceptibility Testing: Increased Technology, Increased Complexity



full text

Survival patterns in teenagers and young adults with cancer in the UK



abstract
 Survival patterns in teenagers and young adults with cancer in the United Kingdom: Comparisons with younger and older age groups

AIMS: 

We aimed to describe and compare survival in teenagers and young adults (TYAs) with cancer to that of younger children and older adults, to identify sub-populations at greater or lesser risk of death.

METHODS:

We compared survival in cancer patients diagnosed in the United Kingdom aged 13-24years (TYAs) to those aged 0-12 (children) and 25-49years (adults) using the National Cancer Data Repository. All cases had a first cancer diagnosis between 1st January 2001 and 31st December 2005 with censor date 31st December 2010 or death if earlier.

RESULTS:

We found six distinct statistically significant survival patterns. In pattern 1, the younger the age-group the better the 1- and 5-year survival (acute lymphoid leukaemia, carcinoma of ovary and melanoma). In pattern 2, TYAs had a worse 5-year survival than both children and young adults (bone and soft tissues sarcomas). In pattern 3, TYAs had a worse 1-year survival but no difference at 5-years (carcinoma of cervix and female breast). In pattern 4, TYAs had better 1-year survival than adults, but no difference at 5years (carcinoma of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts, germ cell tumours of extra-gonadal sites). In pattern 5, the younger the age-group the better the 5-year survival, but the difference developed after 1-year (acute myeloid leukaemia, carcinoma of colon and rectum). In pattern 6, there was no difference in 1- and 5-year survival between TYAs and adults (testicular germ cell tumours, ovarian germ cell tumours and carcinoma of thyroid).

CONCLUSION:

TYAs with specific cancer diagnoses can be grouped according to 1- and 5-year survival patterns compared to children and young adults. To further improve survival for TYAs, age-specific biology, pharmacology, proteomics, genomics, clinician and patient behaviour studies embedded within clinical trials are required.