Category Archives: Cancer
The USPSTF Recommends Biennial Mammograms for Women Starting at 40
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th May 2023The US Preventive Services Task Force has issued a new draft recommending biennial screening mammography for women ages 40 to 74 years. This recommendation has received widespread notice in the lay press. Workers in the field along with breast cancer advocates want even more (annual) screening. Everybody commenting on this recommendation seems to support it…
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Prostate Cancer and the Federal Reserve
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th March 2023The two subjects of the above title seem to have little in common. But they are both examples of action unmoored from knowledge. If the scientific foundation of medicine is compared to that of economics, specifically the actions of the world’s central banks, the practitioners of the former are certainly closer to the dictates of…
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Cancer Statistics 2022
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th January 2022Every January the American Cancer Society publishes Cancer Statistics based on the most recent data available. The abstract from the report is immediately below. The entire report is available at the end of this article. Abstract: Each year, the American Cancer Society estimates the numbers of new cancer cases and deaths in the United States…
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Head Start as an Heuristic For Medical Students, Treatment of Strokes, and the Law of Unintended Consequences
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th March 2013For more than 25 years I have used the Head Start program to teach medical students data analysis, how to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of treatment regimens, and how belief commonly trumps evidence. This process usually followed the recommendation of a course of treatment by a consultant to a patient who was on a general medicine service…
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Public Health Programs Partner With Oncology to Conquer Cancer
Written by Charlotte Kellogg | 9th November 2012As oncology experts and cancer patients search for a cure to the disease, they are turning to public health programs to help them organize collaborative efforts to meet these goals. In today’s post by Charlotte Kellogg, she explores different methods that advocates who have trained for careers in public health help cancer-fighting communities crowdsource the…
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Warren Buffett’s Prostate Cancer
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th May 2012Warren Buffett was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. The 81 year old investor released the following statement about his disease: To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway: This is to let you know that I have been diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer. The good news is that I’ve been told by my doctors that my condition is not…
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Screening for Cancer
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th May 2012Below is the PowerPoint presentation of the talk Screening for Cancer that I gave today to Spring Cancer Conference sponsored by the Lubbock-Crosby-Garza County Medical Society. A related presentation can be found here. Screening for Cancer
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Prostate Cancer Redux – Again
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th March 2012Even Scientific American has gotten into the act. An article by Harvard oncologist Marc B Garnick says, “Evidence shows that screening [for prostate cancer] does more harm than good.” Go here for an interview with Dr Garnick. Why this great awakening about the unsatisfactory effects of PSA screening? It’s the result of reality seepage and the…
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Vaccinating Boys for HPV
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th October 2011As almost everyone more sentient than a pillow must now know, a federal advisory panel recommended that all boys be vaccinated against human papilloma virus. Thus the government recommends that, over time, the entire US population be immunized against this threat. I’ll have a detailed presentation up about this and a related topic before long. But for now consider…
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Treatment of Prostate Cancer
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th May 2011The treatment of prostate cancer has been uncertain for some time. A paper in the May 5th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine examines two approaches to the disease – watchful waiting versus radical prostatectomy. A Scandinavian group observed 695 men with early prostate cancer for 15 years. They conclude that Radical prostatectomy was…
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