Peter MacNamara has been battling prostate cancer since 2011 and has found immunotherapy via a clinical trial to be hugely helpful. FOR MOST MEN of my generation, the idea of going to see a doctor to have your prostate checked out is not something you want to think about too much. In my case, a …
Researchers developed a model to identify high-value oncology care in episodes of initial, survivorship, and relapse care (JCO Oncol Pract. 2021 Mar 1;OP2000462. doi: 10.1200/OP.20.00462). “To estimate the value of cancer care and to compare value among episodes of care, a transparent, reproducible, and standardized cost computation methodology is needed,” explained Douglas Blayney, MD, Stanford …
Small dreams have no power to move hearts, and in a new six-year strategic plan, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is thinking very big. What would it take to drastically increase cure rates for childhood cancer worldwide? St. Jude’s answer: $11.5 billion and an additional 1,400 jobs. To get a rough sense of scale, work …
The complexity of cancer care and unwarranted variation in treatment can serve as a barrier to improving care quality. As a result, health systems are increasingly turning to clinical pathways as a way to provide standardized, high-quality care. During a March 18 webinar hosted by Becker’s Hospital Review and sponsored by Elsevier, James Weese, MD, FACS, Vice …
Parking at some prestigious cancer centers can run into hundreds of dollars. The overlooked cost is finally drawing scrutiny from hospital administrators. For cancer patients, the road from diagnosis to survivorship feels like a never-ending parade of medical appointments: surgeries, blood work, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, scans. The routine is time-consuming and costly. So, when hospitals …
Congress is about to debate legislation—the Lower Drug Costs Now Act(H.R.3)—that would give Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices. The bill focuses on lowering prices of drugs that treat a wide range of diseases including asthma, arthritis, and diabetes. But less well appreciated is the power of the proposal applied to cancer drugs. The …
AT 10 PM ET TONIGHT ON THE HEELS OF MOTHER’S DAY, PBS IS RELEASING THROUGH THE NIGHT, A DOCUMENTARY THAT DELVES INTO THE “WOMEN’S WORK” BLACK WOMEN & LATINAS SHOULDER. Celebrating mothers and caretakers doesn’t have to stop when Mother’s Day ends this year. Tonight, tune in to PBS or stream online for a national watch …
On 12 July, she walked up to a manager at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, and said she felt unwell. Shortly afterwards, she had a seizure on the floor. She was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with brain cancer. She’s exactly the type of person you might expect to have supported a recent vote …
A recent study indicates that a U.S. ban on the use of tanning beds among minors would prevent thousands of cases of melanoma in adolescents and would save millions of dollars in healthcare costs. The findings are published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Indoor tanning has been linked to …
The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on the limits of GoFundMe, whether to identify as L.G.B.T.Q. and unequal inheritances My grandchild is being treated for leukemia. A friend of the child’s parents set up a GoFundMe page for them. They’re both well loved and have siblings who know a ton of people. So the goal was surpassed …