Blog

June 14, 2018

In 2012, a federal advisory committee discouraged the routine use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA tests) to screen all men for prostate cancer. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said the harms of aggressively treating some early-stage malignancies detected using the PSA test outweighed any benefit.  However, a recent study showed Read More

Most women with early-stage breast cancer can skip chemo

June 6, 2018

A recently released result of the largest breast cancer study ever conducted provided yet another reason why diagnosing breast cancer early is so important: the majority of women with the most common type of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy after surgery.  According to the study, the two groups Read More

Colorectal cancer screening should start at age 45, not 50

June 2, 2018

The new recommendation by the American Cancer Society to screen for colon cancer starting at age 45 rather than age 50 is in response to the finding that since 1994, there has been a 51 percent increase in the rate of the disease in those younger than 50, and the Read More

Pre-eclampsia can cause stroke in a pregnant woman

April 27, 2018

It is important to know that pre-eclampsia during pregnancy can cause significant injury, such as a stroke, to a mother as well as cause harm to her unborn baby.  In fact, it almost doubles a woman’s risk of having a stroke.  Fortunately, a recent study showed that treating a mother’s Read More

Immune therapy plus chemo prolongs survival for advanced lung cancer

April 16, 2018

In a study reported today in the Washington Post, patients with late stage lung cancer getting immune therapy plus chemo were found to be 51 percent less likely to die, compared with patients getting chemo only. One of the researchers stated that “[i]mmunotherapy is rapidly, in combination with other treatments Read More

New tiny pediatric heart valve will save lives

April 13, 2018

A tiny heart valve (the size of a dime), small enough to be put in the heart of a newborn baby, has been given approval to be used in very young children with severe heart defects. Larger sizes have been on the market for a long time, but the medical Read More

Doctors have more time to treat strokes

April 2, 2018

For years doctors believed they had just six hours to save threatened brain tissue from lack of blood flow after a stroke. A new study found they may actually have as long as 16 hours in many cases and another study found the outer limit at 24 hours for some Read More

Women Are Dying Because Doctors Treat Us Like Men

April 1, 2018

Excerpts from MarieClaire, Women Are Dying Because Doctors Treat Us Like Men, by Kayla Webley Adler, April 25, 2017: For years, physicians have assumed they can diagnose and treat both genders the same way.  But it’s costing women their lives. The best-known incidents of medicine gone wrong in female patients are the many Read More

Fertility clinic machine malfunction damages hundreds of eggs and embryos

March 25, 2018

A San Francisco fertility clinic experienced a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank holding thousands of frozen eggs and embryos.  The March 4 incident followed a similar malfunction the same weekend at an unrelated clinic in Cleveland where more than 2,000 frozen eggs and embryos may no longer be viable after temperatures in Read More

Artificial Intelligence to fight hospital acquired infections

March 19, 2018

Clostridium difficile (often referred to as “C-diff”), a deadly bacteria spread by physical contact with contaminated objects or infected people, thrives in hospitals causing 29,000 deaths a year in the United States. Traditional methods, such as monitoring hand washing and attempts to spot the infection early, often fail to stop Read More