Tracy has agricultural roots and affordable homes, but a new
study reveals a less obvious distinction for this Central Valley
city: Doctors use internal radiation to treat men for prostate
cancer at the highest rate in California, more than four times
the state average.
By comparison, men living just 60 miles away near Stanford
University are much less likely to undergo the procedure known as
brachytherapy, or radiation seeds — only about half as often as
the state average.
Geographic differences also exist in treatments for early-stage
breast cancer, the study found. Livermore women are 92 percent
more likely than the state average to have a lumpectomy without
radiation. But across the bay in San Mateo, women are much more
likely to have a lumpectomy with radiation.
FEW sticker shocks are as bracing as the price of hiring someone
to help with the simplest activities — bathing, toilet use,
dressing, eating and moving. Whether recovering from surgery or a
stroke or suffering a chronic illness like arthritis, those
needing skilled help need deep pockets indeed.
And those requiring full-time nursing or assisted-living care
face even steeper costs.
A 2013 report by Genworth Financial, an insurance provider based
in Richmond, Va., estimates the national median daily cost of a
private room in a nursing home at $230 a day, an increase of 3.6
percent over 2012 — some $6,900 per month. Sharing that room is
only $27 less a day, according to the report.
For more than two decades, Wanda Remo has battled one illness
after another. Asthma, chronic lung disease, heart disease, high
blood pressure, arthritis, depression, chronic pain, strokes.
Specialists treat her lungs, her heart and her joints.
Today, on National Healthcare Decisions Day, authors Kate
O’Malley of the California HealthCare Foundation and Nancy
Zweibel of the Retirement Research Foundation, discuss how
foundation efforts have contributed to the adoption and expansion
of a standard paradigm for end-of-life planning.
As CEO of Eastern Plumas Health Care — which operates the only
critical care facilities in rural Plumas County, north of
Sacramento — Hayes oversees care for a good percentage of the
population of a county the physical size of Delaware.
On Wednesday, state lawmakers, hospital leaders and labor unions
rallied at the State Capitol in support of a bill (AB 900) that
would stop a retroactive 10% cut to Medi-Cal reimbursements for
hospital-based skilled nursing services, the Sacramento Business
Journal reports (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 4/10).
California is reporting statewide improvements in key public
health measures, including rates for many chronic diseases,
sexually-transmitted infections, motor vehicle crashes and
accidental deaths, according to the County Health Status
Profiles 2013 report released today.
On Monday [April 1, 2013], a new state law took effect that
requires physicians to notify women if they have dense breast
tissue, which could be associated with a higher risk of breast
cancer, KQED’s “State of Health” reports (Aliferis, “State of
Health,” KQED, 3/29).
About the New Law
In September 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill
(SB 1538) — by former Sen.
Expert says annual fecal blood test is equally
effective
MONDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) — A new study finds that
getting screening colonoscopies may reduce the risk of developing
advanced colon cancer.
In average-risk people, screening colonoscopies were associated
with a 70 percent reduction in risk for new, late-stage colon
cancer, including hard-to-detect cancers on the right side of the
colon.Advanced colon cancer is the least curable form.
Although colonoscopy is widely used as a screening test for colon
cancer, there is little research that proves it is effective in
reducing colon cancer deaths, according to the study authors. The
researchers wanted to answer a simple question: If you ended up
with late-stage cancer, were you more or less likely to have had
a screening colonoscopy as many as 10 years before the disease
was discovered?
California children with special healthcare needs receive worse
care than those in most other states, according to an analysis by
the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health.
The foundation ranked California 46th in effective coordination
of medical care and 50th for referrals to specialty care.
November is Diabetes Awareness Month and Californians for Patient
Care would like to help you become more aware of the signs and
symptoms of this chronic disease - diabetes – as well as
what you can do to prevent type 2 diabetes.
Click here and take this quick test today to learn your risk
for type 2 diabetes.
What are the warning signs and symptoms of diabetes? How can you
reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes?
Click here to learn more.
Partnership HealthPlan of California, a health insurer covering
roughly 200,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries in six Northern California
counties, has decided to offer the optional benefit of palliative
care to its members.
“It’s part of health care, and part of life,” said Richard
Fleming, the regional medical director for PHP. “That’s why we’re
arranging for greater availability of palliative care.
But their total death rate for cancer has dropped in
past 3 years, report shows
MONDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) – Cancer is now the
leading cause of death among U.S. Hispanics, a new report
reveals.
While death rates for both cancer and heart disease have declined
among the Hispanic population in the United States, cancer has
edged out heart disease as the number one cause of death,
according to the report published online Sept. 17 in CA: A Cancer
Journal for Clinicians. Heart disease remains the top cause of
death among non-Hispanic whites and blacks in America.
An estimated 112,800 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and
33,200 cancer deaths will occur among U.S. Hispanics in 2012, the
American Cancer Society noted in a news release about the report.
Bay Area health advocates and doctors welcomed the
recommendations by federal health officers Friday [May 18,
2012] that all Baby Boomers get tested for the
liver-destroying virus hepatitis C.
The draft recommendations issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention called for anyone born between 1945 and
1965 to get a one-time blood test for the liver disease,
believing that doing so could identify 800,000 people infected
with it, prevent many cases of cirrhosis and liver cancer caused
by the infection, and save more than 120,000 lives.
If you have diabetes or kidney problems and have been taking a
combination of drugs to control another issue — hypertension –
you might want to consult your doctor to make sure you’re using
the pharmaceuticals safely. The FDA issued an alert to healthcare
professionals “of possible risks when using blood pressure
medicines containing aliskiren with other drugs called
angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin
receptor blockers (ARBs) in patients with diabetes or kidney
(renal) impairment. These drug combinations should not be used
(are contraindicated) in patients with diabetes.”
Four years ago, Raychel Kubby Adler opted to have a prophylactic
double mastectomy because of a genetic mutation that gave her an
87 percent lifetime chance of developing breast cancer. Now, the
mother of two daughters and a wellness coach in Davis is
considering having her ovaries removed.
The mutation in the BRCA2 gene that led to Kubby Adler’s
mastectomy also carries a significant risk for ovarian cancer. A
new online, interactive tool, developed by Stanford University
School of Medicine researchers, is helping her weigh whether to
have the surgery now or wait several years.
Researchers have found a way to classify breast cancer tumors
into 10 distinct categories ranging from very treatable to
extremely aggressive, a major step on the way to the long-sought
goal of precisely targeting therapies for patients.
The new categories, described in a study released Wednesday
[April 18, 2011], should help scientists devise fresh approaches
to treat some of the cancers and could spare many women the risks
and pain of unnecessarily toxic treatments, oncologists said.
When John Hobart first found out he had colon cancer, he was
supposed to be asleep.
“I was on the table [after my colonoscopy], and they had just put
me in a recovery room,” Hobart said. “I was supposed to be
out still, but I could overhear a doctor talking about my cancer
and how they were going to tell me.”
Hobart said he was “dumbfounded. It really doesn’t register at
first.”
A nurse later confirmed what Hobart already knew – the doctors
had found a large cancerous tumor in Hobart’s lower colon.
While the diagnosis was definitely not what Hobart wanted to
hear, part of him wasn’t surprised. Coming from a family
that rarely went to the doctor, Hobart had waited until the last
second to get screened.
March 14, 2012 — No one wants to hear the words, “you have colon
cancer.” For patients diagnosed with an advanced form of the
disease, these words can be particularly devastating. The
five-year survival rate can be a little as 6 percent. The
top-of-mind question becomes, “Which treatment or clinical trial
will work for me?”
That’s why the College of American Pathologists (CAP) announced
today [March 14, 2012] its partnership with CollabRx to
provide patients with late stage colon cancer access to
cutting-edge information that could change their lives.
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