cancer surgery

(Karolinska Institutet) A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that most patients who survive for at least five years after oesophageal cancer surgery recover an average quality of life.

However, quality of life deteriorates significantly for one in six patients to a level that remains much lower than the average population in the five years after surgery.

This suggests, say the researchers, that hospitals must be better at identifying this patient group.

In a story Oct. 5 about Steve Jobs' cancer, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Dr. Martin Heslin is cancer surgery chief at Vanderbilt University.

He is at the University of Alabama at Birmingham....

An interesting article appeared last month in the Los Angeles Times.  The article, written by David Lazarus, sheds some light on why we need price transparency in our health care system.  His article reveals true life cases where patients were billed excessively for services – and how much these services were actually discounted.  Read the full article.

Case #1

(Northwestern University) After men have surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland, up to 80 percent of them will lose the ability to have an erection because of damage to a critical nerve that runs along the prostate.

New research from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shows the damaged nerve can be regenerated more quickly with a protein called sonic hedgehog delivered via a nanofiber gel.

The finding may help preserve erectile function.

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) People with diabetes who undergo cancer surgery are more likely to die in the month following their operations than those who have cancer but not diabetes, an analysis by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests.

Nearly half of breast cancer survivors are plagued by persistent pain years after cancer surgery, researchers found.

(Wiley-Blackwell) A German-Hungarian research team has developed a mass-spectrometry-based technique by which malignant tumor cells and the surrounding healthy tissue can be distinguished in real time during cancer surgery.

TOKYO (MedPage Today) -- Endoscopic surgery to remove early gastric tumors can be made easier by the use of magnets, researchers here found.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hospitals in about a dozen states are testing whether some simple steps, such as arm-strengthening exercises, could reduce the risk of one of breast cancer's troubling legacies - the painful and sometimes severe arm swelling called lymphedema.

Lymphedema has long been a neglected side effect of cancer surgery and radiation: Many women say they never were warned, even though spotting this problem early improves outcomes....