What if I tell you that there is no good evidence that marijuana does any good for treating glaucoma, anxiety, or Parkinson's disease. Despite this, it is often prescribed to treat these aliments in states that have legalized marijuana. According to a large meta analysis of 79 studies published in Journal of the American Medical [...]
There has been a lot of buzz around the new scanning contrasts that have come into limited usage for evaluating metastasized cancer cells that are in the bones. Despite the enthusiasm from the prostate and breast cancer communities, CMS (Medicare) continues to limit its financial coverage for PET scans using the contrast NaF-18 even though [...]
I have been relatively quiet about the skyrocketing cost of drugs, but it has now become impossible to remain out of the fray. A Pharmaceutical company recently acquired a drug called Daraprim, the drug treats potentially fatal parasitic infections. After its acquisition the company raised the price of Daraprim by almost 5,0000%. When confronted with [...]
In the treatment of prostate cancer the first very expensive drug we had that was FDA approved was Provenge, with an initial cost of $93,000 for a one-month’s treatment protocol. Today, the cost is in excess of $106,000. According to the phase III clinical trial result Provenge extends life by a median of 4.1 months, [...]
Somehow I have been negligent and not let people know that I have written and posted a major update of my “Guide to Advanced Prostate Cancer.” As in the past, it is available as a free download from the Malecare web site. Helping me to update the book was prostate cancer survivor Craig Pynn and [...]
The state of cancer care is in crisis and getting worse. There is an ever growing demand for cancer care, a shrinking workforce, rising healthcare costs and an increasing complexity of treatment of cancer. According to the Institute of Medicine (IMO) cancer care in America is in a deep crisis! In analysing the current state [...]
The new Health Care law (Obamacare) is scheduled to take effect in 2014 with the first open enrollment period beginning on October 1, 2013. That is only 2 months away! We all have hear the constant din about the new law, but most of us don't have the slightest understanding of how it will work. [...]
Infections are among the scariest possibility whenever we go into the hospital, especially for any type of surgery. The good news is that since 2008 the national rates of certain hospital infections have declined significantly. We cancer survivors are more vulnerable to infection since many of our treatments including chemotherapy temporarily suppress our immune systems. [...]
That dirty word, sequester is making it mark, especially medical and cancer research. Hospitals and researchers are feeling the pain directly and hard. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, is cutting an estimated $1.6 billion from its budget through the end of the fiscal year. They have sent a letter to all of [...]
How much money is a drug worth and how much money should we be willing to spend for it have been questions that have been increasingly asked by economists, doctors and cancer survivors. Last month in an Op-Ed article three doctors from Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center in New York (Sloane) let the world know [...]
