Few smokers get free lung cancer scans
Lung cancer screening has proved to be stunningly unpopular. Five years after government and private insurers started paying for it, less than 2 percent of eligible current and former smokers have sought the free scans, researchers report. The study didn’t explore why, but experts say possible explanations include worries about false alarms and follow-up tests, a doctor visit to get... READ MORE
Latest news in breast cancer treatment
Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient’s risk. The study is the largest ever done of breast cancer treatment, and the results are expected to spare up to 70,000 patients a year in the... READ MORE
Spouses help spot skin cancers early
There’s an extra bonus to marriage for melanoma patients: They tend to be diagnosed in earlier more treatable stages than patients who are unmarried, widowed or divorced, a new study found. Spouses may be apt to notice suspicious moles on their partners that could signal melanoma — the most dangerous type of skin cancer. More importantly, they may also be more inclined to nag their... READ MORE
Glow-in-the-dark dyes to identify cancers
It was an ordinary surgery to remove a tumor — until doctors turned off the lights and the patient’s chest started to glow. A spot over his heart shined purplish pink. Another shimmered in a lung. They were hidden cancers revealed by fluorescent dye, an advance that soon may transform how hundreds of thousands of operations are done each year. Surgery has long been the best way to ... READ MORE
New test profiles patients’ cancer genes
U.S. regulators have approved a first-of-a-kind test that looks for mutations in hundreds of cancer genes at once, giving a more complete picture of what’s driving a patient’s tumor and aiding efforts to match treatments to those flaws. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Foundation Medicine’s test for patients with advanced or widely spread cancers, and the Centers for... READ MORE
