oncologywatch

Sun V, Borneman T, Piper B, Koczywas M, Ferrell B. Barriers to pain assessment and management in cancer survivorship. J Cancer Surviv. 2008 Mar;2(1):65-71. Epub 2008 Feb 15. PMID: 18648988

In just one example of their review of pain and cancer survivorship, about half of mastectomy patients suffer chronic pain, according to researchers at City of Hope and Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center. The authors discuss three representative cases, drawn from a National Cancer Institute-funded study.

From the abstract:

"Across all three case presentations, barriers such as fear of side effects from pain medications, fear of addiction, lack of professional knowledge of the basic principles of pain management, and lack of timely access to pain medications due to reimbursement issues are prevalent in cancer survivorship.."

The article includes a brief list of resources in chronic pain, and an even more useful list of references.

OncologyWatch: Posts about free-access articles on aspects of oncology theory, practice and policy (about the blogger). This blog is not a source for medical advice.

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Anand P, Kunnumakkara AB, Sundaram C, et al. Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes. Pharm Res. 2008 Sep;25(9):2097-116. Review. PMID: 18626751

Researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center review the current evidence for cancer as a largely preventable disease.

From the article:

"The fact that only 5–10% of all cancer cases are due to genetic defects and that the remaining 90–95% are due to environment and lifestyle provides major opportunities for preventing cancer. Because tobacco, diet, infection, obesity, and other factors contribute approximately 25–30%, 30–35%, 15–20%, 10–20%, and 10–15%, respectively, to the incidence of all cancer deaths in the USA, it is clear how we can prevent cancer."

OncologyWatch: Posts about free-access articles on aspects of oncology theory, practice and policy (about the blogger). This blog is not a source for medical advice.

Technorati tags:
oncology open access prevention

Comments and Links Welcome!