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Terminal cancer patients sometimes get chemotherapy in the belief that it will ease their symptoms. But a study finds that many who get the treatment near death actually have a poorer quality of life.
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A comparison of women in 547 U.S. counties found that getting more women in for screening mammograms didn’t lower death rates from breast cancer. More small cancers were found.
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Young cancer patients are more likely than older adult patients to be hospitalized or get chemo in the month before death, a study finds. Talking about end-of-life wishes is crucial, researchers say.
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Since 1970, the national colorectal cancer death rate has been cut in half. But progress has lagged in the Lower Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and counties in eastern Virginia and North Carolina.
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Changes in sunscreen labels designed to make them clearer don’t seem to be doing the job, a survey finds. Less than one quarter of people knew that SPF value relates to preventing sunburns.
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That’s another way of referring to gynecological cancers, which strike more than 1 million women a year — and are on the rise in the developing world.
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Medicare now pays for some long-term smokers to get an annual test. These scans could save thousands of lives each year, but some doctors still worry risks outweigh benefits.
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In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said the benefits of mammograms for women under 50 were small at best. A firestorm ensued. Now the organization is back with the same message.
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A company has priced its test for mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer at $249 — far less than the thousands of dollars another firm charges. But is there a downside for the worried well?
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The Pap smear has dramatically decreased rates of cervical cancer, but testing too often has a downside, too. Many women say they aren’t yet ready to follow new guidelines and skip the annual tests.
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Each year the U.S. spends billions of dollars on unnecessary tests and treatments that result from inaccurate mammograms, some scientists say. They’re calling for more selective screening.
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Writing in the New York Times, the actress, who had a preventative double mastectomy two years ago, says she carries a gene that gives her an elevated risk of cancer and describes the decision to undergo preventative surgery to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.
Read more her full statement at NYTimes.com.
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When you dig into the numbers on cancer, the results are mixed. Overall, deaths are up. But survival five years after diagnosis has improved for many forms of the disease, including breast cancer.
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Medical researchers have made only modest progress treating the most common cancers since the war on cancer was declare in 1971. The disease has proved far more complicated than doctors had hoped.
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A new study finds pathologists are great at spotting cancer, but less so at identifying atypical cells and DCIS, which is troubling because both conditions can go on to become invasive cancer, and misdiagnosis could lead to women getting too much treatment — or not enough.
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Our immune systems constantly fight off disease — protecting us from colds, flu and infection, but could they also help us treat cancer? An experimental new treatment called immunotherapy is helping patients’ immune systems fight cancer.
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A 17-year-old says she doesn’t want to undergo treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, but her doctors and the state say she will die without it. The Connecticut Supreme Court is hearing the case.
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