Cáncer (Continuación)

InternacionalSalud Pública,

Numerous media reports followed a federal task force's announcement this month that there is insufficient medical evidence to assess the risks and benefits of prostate cancer screening in men younger than 75 and that doctors should stop testing men over age 75 [" U.S. Panel Questions Prostate Screening; 'Dramatic' Risks for Older Men Cited," front page, Aug. 5].

It's important to note that consideration was not given to the overwhelming body of emerging evidence that screening with PSA tests and digital rectal exams saves lives. Rates of death from prostate cancer and rates of diagnosis at advanced stages have decreased markedly since testing became widespread.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública,

As we saw in the run-up to this past weekend, World AIDS Day provides a spike in media coverage on an issue whose everyday impact on middle-class North Americans, thanks to medical advances, is virtually nil. But some of those medical advances may have created another threat to those infected with HIV.

In the 25 years or so since the term "acquired immune deficiency syndrome" was coined, HIV-AIDS clinicians and scientists have witnessed a virtually unprecedented transformation in disease management. Most notable is that antiretroviral drugs now enable many individuals who have HIV to survive indefinitely with good quality of life, instead of suffering a rapid disease progression and certain early death.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

"You're so brave," people would say. "You're a real hero."

I used to get that a lot after my hair fell out. The effects of chemotherapy made me look like some plucky child protagonist in a movie of the week. Volunteering to have cancer to spare someone else the pain of it would have been heroic. But I was no volunteer.

"I'm not brave," I would say, "I'm just unlucky."

This made people uncomfortable. But I would rather do that than accept unearned praise or, worse, listen to comments that, to me, dishonor those who have died of cancer.

During the 10 years I've been a cancer survivor, my marriage has grown stronger, my bouncing baby has blossomed into a gorgeous virtuoso of sarcasm, and my career has taken flight.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

El cáncer se ha convertido en uno de los mayores problemas de salud pública en los países desarrollados. Los esfuerzos de los investigadores durante estos últimos treinta años han permitido mejoras sustanciales en la prevención y tratamiento con adelantos en cirugía, radioterapia y farmacología que han disminuido notablemente el índice de mortalidad en varios tipos de cáncer. Otros cánceres todavía se resisten, mostrando respuestas poco duraderas a los más sofisticados tratamientos.

Que el éxito sea demasiado limitado tal vez se debe a nuestra obsesión por actuar contra el crecimiento del tumor primario, cuando en realidad el problema está en otra parte.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalSalud Pública,

The disheartening news that Elizabeth Edwards and White House spokesman Tony Snow are each battling a recurrence of cancer has sparked a much-needed national discussion about this devastating disease and its toll on patients, survivors and their families.

Like millions of Americans, I come to this topic with deep, personal experience. My sister, Susan G. Komen, died in 1980 from advanced, or metastatic, breast cancer. As an advocate and a 23-year breast cancer survivor myself, I am constantly asked a key question that's been largely overlooked in recent days: Where do we stand in the fight against cancer?

Thirty-six years after President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, there is much to celebrate.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

1) To break the disease, break the mold

By Susan Love, the president and medical director of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation.

With the cancer recurrences of Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow the question arises: Why does this still happen? As is often the case, the answer isn’t very satisfying: not all cancers are alike, early detection doesn’t always work and treatments are still far from perfect.

But there’s another problem: we keep focusing on doing the same thing better rather than trying something new. It is as if we are wearing blinders that let us see only one path and not the alternatives.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSanidad y Salud Pública

Por Esther Bendahán, escritora (EL PAÍS, 20/10/06):

Como otras muchas mujeres que padecen el cáncer de mama, una enfermedad que obliga a reflexionar sobre la salud y la enfermedad, el cuerpo y la apariencia, he aprendido a amar mis heridas.

He descubierto que el paso de la salud a la enfermedad supone una alteración para el enfermo en su relación con el mundo y consigo mismo, porque se es enfermo después de que se está enfermo. No tiene que ver tanto con la verdad, cuanto con una alteración de la imagen, del lugar donde uno se sitúa. No es tanto el síntoma ni el dolor, cuanto el descubrirse enfermo, una nueva dimensión del ser.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSanidad y Salud Pública

Por Joan Massagué, director adjunto del Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (Barcelona) y director de departamento del Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Nueva York (LA VANGUARDIA, 16/10/06):

Hace muchos millones de años, algunos organismos unicelulares decidieron empezar a asociarse y formar organismos más complejos. La vida en comunidad reportaba más posibilidades de supervivencia frente a las agresiones del entorno inmediato. Sin embargo, vivir en sociedad exigía también renunciar a cierto grado de libertad en pro de la convivencia. Por ejemplo, se convertía en socialmente inaceptable que una célula de la comunidad se dividiera o se moviera a su aire, ajena a la opinión de las demás.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública,

By Zoe Williams (THE GUARDIAN, 06/09/2006):

As the vaccine for cervical cancer becomes available in the UK for the first time, conservative opinion mobilises - rather sluggishly, I think - against the advance. The problem is, like so many of these pesky vaccines, the jab only works on women who have not already contracted the human papilloma virus (HPV). There is no point in administering it to girls who are already sexually active, and since the drug is safe from the age of nine, it would take some pretty bent priorities to dispute that sooner was better than later.

But if there's one thing a debate about women's health will always have in spades, it's bent priorities.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública,

Science Notebook by Anjana Ahuja (THE TIMES, 21/08/06):

ABIGAIL BURROUGHS, a 21-year-old American, died from squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck in 2001. According to her father, Frank, she didn’t need to die. There were drugs in development that might have reined in the malignancy, but the experimental therapies were being tested on cancers in other parts of the body.

“She had the right cells in the wrong place, and she didn’t qualify for any of the clinical trials,” her father recalls. Shortly after her death, he founded the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Experimental Drugs. This summer it scored a breathtaking victory in the courts against the Food and Drug Administration.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública,

Por Anna Veiga, doctora en Biología (LA VANGUARDIA, 14/07/06):

Los avances en el conocimiento de las bases genéticas de determinadas enfermedades permiten hoy en día llevar a cabo una prevención encaminada a evitarlas o, al menos, a minimizar sus consecuencias. Se ha establecido claramente la relación que existe entre algunos tipos de cáncer y el hecho de poseer ciertas mutaciones genéticas. Las más conocidas y de hecho las más estudiadas son las mutaciones que producen cáncer de colon y cáncer de mama y ovario. La presencia de una mutación específica en estos casos puede suponer el desarrollo de la enfermedad con una probabilidad del 80%.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSocial

Por Ana Palacio, Ministra de Asuntos Exteriores (EL PAIS, 04/04/03):

Recibo un telegrama en el que el portavoz del PSOE y candidato a la alcaldía de Valencia me pide disculpas por lo que califica de "infortunado comentario efectuado en el pleno del Ayuntamiento" el pasado 29 de marzo, y me indica no estar "en su ánimo, en ningún momento, ofenderme". Y, como la intervención se realizó en un foro público, y, además, el mismo señor Rubio ha sido prolijo en declaraciones sobre este asunto a los medios de comunicación a lo largo de estos días, me ha parecido oportuno realizar, también con publicidad, los siguientes comentarios.…  Seguir leyendo »