Tag: Cancer

Good News!

Had my 6 weeks update from the oncologist….scans showed the cancer in my left lung is a bit smaller so infusions will continue….the tumor in the prostrate is nearing remission….treatment for that one will continue as well and will be re-evaluated in 3 months.

The news was so good I have decided to stop for a few beers to celebrate.

I want to thank all my readers that have been so supportive…..you guys have help me get through the loss of Sue and my struggle with cancer…I do not think I would have made it without your support and please know that it is all much appreciated.

I should be ready to get back to regular writing and posting tomorrow.

Thanx again for everything you guys have done.

 

Your PSA Is Essential

It is the end of the month and a good time for some FYI….I try to keep an eye on health news so I may pass it on to my readers….

Since I suffer from prostrate cancer I am always looking for info on the disease and write about it with the hope that more men will take it seriously and have their PSA tested….and this is an IST FYI post….I hope it helps.

PSA is from a blood sample and is an indication on how healthy your prostrate is at the time of the sample.

But the PSA test is not conclusive…..

News that former President Joseph Biden has advanced prostate cancer has revived long-standing questions about the benefits versus the harms of a blood test that screens for the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the U.S.

Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, screening tests are an imperfect tool for detecting prostate cancer, doctors and public health experts say.

Part of the problem is identifying and treating aggressive cancers like Biden’s while not unnecessarily treating men with slow-growing cancers unlikely to sicken them. Autopsies found the disease to be so widespread that more than one-third of white men and half of Black men in their 70s had prostate cancers that would never do any harm.

“PSA testing alone leaves a lot to be desired as a cancer screening test,” said radiation oncologist Dr. Brent Rose, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

The test measures the level of PSA, a protein produced by normal as well as malignant prostate gland cells, in the blood. Elevated PSA can be a marker for cancer. It also can signal a false positive or an inactive cancer, triggering a painful biopsy, and leading to overtreatment with punishing side effects, including impotence, incontinence and bowel dysfunction.

“PSA screening is beneficial,” Rose said. “There are risks, though, and so it is a personal decision whether or not to do PSA screening.”

The key is to target and treat aggressive cancers while waiting and watching cancers that might never become troublesome, Rose and other oncologists told NPR. Physicians have been walking this tightrope since they began regularly using PSA tests to screen for prostate cancer in healthy men in the 1990s. There is no other test that effectively screens for prostate cancer — the second deadliest cancer for American men, oncologists said.

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5405613/prostate-cancer-psa-test-age

AS we men get older it is a good chance that something will go wrong in your prostrate…..please talk with your doctor about this test and ask as many questions as you can think of at the time.

As long as this is an FYI and about cancer…..let us look at another problem….colon cancer and what we eat…..

It’s often recommended as part of a balanced diet, but Italian researchers suggest too much of this meat could raise certain health risks.

It may be well known that vices such as smoking and drinking alcohol can up your risk for cancer, but so can your diet. What you eat or drink could potentially affect your health more than you’d think, as past studies have confirmed how sugar-sweetened beverages or processed meats could also increase cancer chances…and now another type of meat is getting a closer look.

The peer-reviewed journal Nutrients in April published the results of a study conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Gastroenterology in Bari, Italy. Reviewing data from 4,869 participants residing in southern Italy, researchers set out to see “for the first time” if there was a link between white meat consumption, gastrointestinal cancers, and all other causes of death, “focusing on the effects of poultry consumption.”

More than a quarter of all new cancer cases around the world are gastrointestinal, says a 2023 JAMA Network Open article. These include cancer of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, small bowel, colon, rectum, and anus. Notably, colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.

A Surprising Meat Has Been Linked With Colon Cancer in a New Study

These two cancers can be very common so please as you grow older consult your doctor about ways to help you detect these killers early.

Please try to have a lovely weekend and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

All That Cancer Research

Once again we have arrived at a Sunday and the day that I try to help my readers with subjects that may not be readily available for them.

Since my better half, Sue, has been battling cancer I try to keep up with all the research that is available….and then I read something like this and it just sends me into a spiral….

Cancer research is big business, sorry to pout it that way, and there have been some fraud going on….

Dana-Farber was rocked this January by a blog post by Sholto David, a molecular biologist and internet data sleuth, in which he presented evidence of widespread data manipulation in cancer research published by leading researchers including the institute’s CEO and COO. David reportedly contacted the institute with concerns about 57 papers, 38 of which were ones for which the institute had “primary responsibility for the potential data errors.” The institute has requested retractions for 6 of them and initiated corrections for 31.

These data manipulations, to be clear, were not subtle. (David’s fairly bombastic blog post announcing the evidence calls it “pathetically amateurish and excessive.”) Many of the cases he identifies involved reusing the same images over and over in different figures, with different labels, and with the figures having been clumsily rotated or stretched in Photoshop or a similar image editor. Plots of data collection on different days are mysteriously perfectly identical. Test results are visibly copied and pasted.

It raises the question: Assuming that there was some misconduct behind the copied-and-pasted images, how were people so emboldened to commit such blatant fraud, so publicly, for such a long time? How much grant money was secured on the basis of fabricated data, and how much was the crucial fight against cancer set back by inaccuracies promulgated in these papers?

And perhaps most importantly, is this only the tip of the iceberg?

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24086809/fake-cancer-research-data-scientific-fraud

This story raises questions for me….if the research is faked then are the treatments really doing any good?

What happens to those faking the test results?

Cancer research is a multi-billion dollar cash cow for some….what is the government doing to stop this sort of fraud?

All good question but with few answers.

Sorry to be a bummer on this Sunday.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Sunday FYI–Colon Cancer

****First off…I am not a medical professional and any info I present is purely FYI and if you need more information then please visit your doctor for accurate information.****

The news is not good for there seems to be a rise in colon cancer among young adults and as we all know the older one gets the more ones needs to be vigilant on our health.

Colon cancer is on the rise among young adults, and the cases have been much more aggressive than they used to be. That’s why scientists hope the public pays attention to info out of a new study from St. Louis’ Washington University School of Medicine, which looked for early signals that someone may have colon cancer. NBC News notes that young adults typically don’t qualify for colonoscopies—that procedure is usually only offered at or after age 45—which is why the “red-flag signs and symptoms” spelled out in the research published Thursday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute are so important to look for and keep tabs on.

Among those early symptoms cited by the researchers, who looked at data from more than 5,000 patients diagnosed with early-onset colorectal cancer: extended bouts of diarrhea that seem to come out of nowhere, bellyaches, and iron-deficiency anemia. A fourth symptom, rectal bleeding, should especially raise eyebrows. These signs appeared up to two years before the patients’ diagnoses, with almost half of the study’s subjects experiencing at least one of those symptoms three months before diagnosis.

Researchers say people are often shy about talking to anyone about such things, especially when it comes to bloody stools and other subjects related to that part of the body, but that they shouldn’t be. “It can be difficult or embarrassing to talk about,” Dr. Matthew Kalady of Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center tells NBC. “But the reality is everybody deals with something like this.” The study’s authors urge anyone with such symptoms, especially if they last more than a week, to see their doctor, as they stress that colon cancer is a very treatable condition if caught early enough.

Again please check with your doctor if you have any signs or just want answers to your questions.

Have a great Sunday…..I will be grilling with my daughter and granddaughter….ribs and brisket…..beans and slaw.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Cautionary Tale Update

I recently wrote a post about the health issues with my better half, Sue, and her battle with aggressive skin cancer…….this is for my new readers and a refresher for all others……https://lobotero.com/2021/06/05/a-cautionary-tale/

Sue is in Houston with my daughter…I had to remain here in Mississippi …they are very close and I am glad Sue has her there for her time with the procedures….

She had surgery on 27 July to remove her right breast.

Surgery went well both of them….her reconstructive surgery was a success…she is now in recovery waiting for a room assignment.

After a few hours Sue was released to her room….she is doing well some minor problems but nothing serious.

She needed a large gauze pad to cover her wounds and she ran out…..she talk with the hospital for some extras….she was told to go to Target.

This hospital may be one of the best cancer hospitals in the US….but it seems that billing is more important that the actual health care.  I am not impressed with their administrative side of the institution….appointments are cancelled or re-scheduled because of ‘executive meetings’ (probably billing demands and changes)

Sue is bored to death for she has to wait for 04 August for her follow up and cannot get too far from the hospital in case there is a problem….so her days are being filled with TV, shopping at the gift shop and the restaurant (which is raping the people with their prices)….and talking with me on the phone (of course she says talking with me is the highlights of her day)

She is in good spirits and that is important.

Through all this my daughter has been a trooper….I do not know what I would have done without her help….

Let me add and reiterate…..if you or anyone you know has had radiation treatment for a cancer and they develop a bruise that will not heal then go directly to you doctor and have it checked for skin cancer….

DO NOT IGNORE THE BRUISE!

I am so happy for Sue that all the surgeries and the worrying is getting close to being over….

I want to apologize to my friends for my tardiness in getting to their posts…..I have been in a bit of a state for about a week….things should get back to what passes as normal for me soon.

I will update my readers as soon as it becomes necessary.

Thanx for all the well wishes….Sue and I appreciate them deeply.

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