July 23, 2009
1 min read
Save
KRAS mutation label changes and other news items from the web
- It took a few months, but the label changes for KRAS status finally went through the FDA for panitumumab and cetuximab (according the the Wall Street Journal, not using these drugs in KRAS mutants will save $600 million!)
- Are we overdiagnosing breast cancer? And what are the implications of that overdiagnosis?
- From JAMA: In the era of better and better chemotherapy for colorectal cancer, you now have good evidence now to forgo colectomy and instead undergo chemotherapy for metastatic colon cancer.
- Pill endoscopy will not replace colonoscopy for polyp and colorectal cancer screening (Access the full study here).
- A Sanofi-Aventis panel of paid experts dismisses the insulin glargine-cancer link? Shocking!
- Beastie Boy MCA (otherwise known as Adam Yauch) has recently been diagnosed with what sounds like localized salivary cancer. More about salivary gland tumors at this link.
- Poetry to help deal with cancer and its side effects. One of my favorite lines from poet and prostate cancer patient Don Winslow from his poem "Compassion 101":
Do doctors take Compassion 101?
Are they taught how to treat us with kindness?
Can considerate cancer care be instilled from without?
Compassion must come from somewhere, but where?