National Healthcare Decisions Day
Green Bay Healthcare Decisions Day Proclamation WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for health care decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these […]
Oral Chemotherapy Bill
Presently, the state Senate is considering passing the bill on oral chemotherapy. The state Assembly last week passed the bill which would cap the amount of co-payment at $100 per month for the cost of oral chemotherapy. Currently, there is a very large disparity in the coverage for intravenous versus oral chemotherapy. The payments for […]
FDA Approves Ibrutinib
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ibrutininb in November 2013 for the treatment of relapsed mantle cell lymphoma. Ibrutinib is a new drug which was developed to specifically block a particular enzyme called the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase which goes by the acronym, BTK. This enzyme, BTK, is over-active in many types of malignancies […]
First in a series: Contributing Factors – Colorectal Cancer
Over the last fifteen years, the number of new cases of colorectal cancer has gone down by 2 to 3 percent per year. There are a number of factors that still result in over 140,000 new cases of colorectal cancer being diagnosed each year. The following is an overview of these factors. The incidence of […]
Colorectal Cancer: Being Physically Active is Better
A study published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in March of this year and sponsored by the American Cancer Society has reported that patients with localized colorectal (large bowel ) cancer had improved overall survival with increased physical activity; whereas a more sedentary lifestyle was associated with reduced survival. In this study, participants […]
Gender Differences in Grief
It is no surprise that men and women are profoundly different in a variety of ways and one of these key differences is the area of grief. It can be helpful to understand how gender differences play a part in how we grieve, whether we are the person grieving or if it a family member […]
Living Long and Well with Cancer: Can Exercise Help?
A century ago, when illness struck, patients were sent to bed, isolated and ‘let’ of blood. Fortunately, sanatoriums and leeches have been done away with, but the concept of bed rest or inactivity is still one that has been debated until just recently. Historically, there have been concerns that exercise could make cancer spread or […]
Electronic Cigarette Devices
The roots of the modern cigarette go back to the 9th century when the Mayans and Aztecs used tobacco in religious ceremonies. It was not until 1880 a cigarette machine was invented and cigarettes were manufactured in mass numbers. At that time cigarettes became available to many more people. We did not have what […]
Diffuse B-cell large cell lymphoma: Beware of the double hit
Lymphomas are cancers of lymph cells (lymphocytes). B-lymphocytes play an important role in the immune system and are involved in producing antibodies against viruses and bacteria during an infection. When B-lymphocytes become malignant, they can form slower growing tumors (low grade lymphomas) or faster growing tumors (high grade lymphomas). Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is one […]
Stand Up For Your Health
This is not just a “catchy” slogan but is actually a fact. There is a growing body of evidence that has shown that sitting for long periods of time can be extremely bad for your health, almost as much as smoking. Periods of prolonged sitting is being studied by researchers to be linked to multiple […]
