Dr. Len's Cancer Blog
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J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, MD, MACP - Dr. Lichtenfeld is Deputy
Chief Medical Officer for the national office of the American Cancer Society.
He directs the Society’s Cancer Control Science Department, which produces the
Society’s widely recognized guidelines for the prevention and early detection
of cancer and guidelines for nutrition and physical activity for cancer
survivors. Additionally, Dr. Lichtenfeld is a frequent spokesperson on a
variety of cancer-related subjects and serves as a liaison for the Society with
many professional and public organizations. More >>
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I returned from vacation yesterday to a rash of comments and concerns about the use of cell phones and whether they caused cancer.
The news stories picked up on a memo written by the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, where he advised the faculty and staff of the cancer center that he was concerned there was an increased risk of cancer linked to cell phone use based on his review of the evidence.
When I took a more careful look at the memo and the supporting information, I didn’t find any new science on the subject. It was essentially one more person adding their opinion that there was a risk to using cell phones.
What the memo didn’t say was that there are others—equally expert—who do not agree with the conclusions that cell phones cause cancer.
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How often have you heard the phrase, “If the world were perfect…?”
We don’t live in a perfect world, but a recently published study in the medical journal Circulation shows what would happen if we lived in a perfect world when it comes to the impact of universal, effective medical prevention on the incidence of cardiovascular disease.
The heart of the question is what would happen if we did everything right as a country when it comes to undertaking preventive strategies, in this case for cardiac disease, and would we save any money if we did so?
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There is something that fascinates the public about the possibility of treating cancer with a vaccine. Perhaps that explains why so many abstracts and journal articles about the latest cancer vaccine research find their way into our newspapers, magazines and television reports.
A research article appearing today in the British medical journal The Lancet describes a clinical trial which investigated whether a vaccine called vitespen could improve the survival of patients with primary kidney cancer.
Unfortunately, the study points out—yet once again—that we may be hopeful that cancer vaccines will work, but we are a long way from success.
What is even more startling about this report is the editorial which discusses the results. The author of the editorial made some not-so- kind comments about how vaccine companies distort reports of vaccine trials, and how investigators make inappropriate claims regarding their research.
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