Early this summer, the American College of Physicians (ACP) said that for many women, there is no need for a routine, annual pelvic examination. Like many such sweeping conclusions about a longstanding clinical practice, it caused confusion among patients and disagreement in some medical corners. An article called “You don’t need that annual pelvic exam…..
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Manufacturer Yanks Cancer-Spreading Device from the Market
As lawsuits mount over the incidence of cancer associated with the use of a medical device in the surgical removal of uterine fibroids, Johnson & Johnson announced last week that it’s recalling all of the power morcellators it has manufactured in recent years. And early this week, a major East Coast health insurer said it….
Continue ReadingDigital Mammography Costs More and Isn’t More Effective
The U.S. is renowned for having the most expensive health care, but not necessarily the best. One reason for the high cost is our lust for fancy technological tools that might be best in some cases, but often fail to justify their cost. So says yet another study about digital mammography. As reported by ModernHealthCare.com,….
Continue ReadingHospital Settles Case of Doctor Who Photographed His Patients
There’s no doubt that Dr. Nikita A. Levy was a creep of the highest order, a gynecologist who secretly recorded his patients’ intimate body parts during routine exams. Last week, the hospital where practiced agreed to pay $190 million to more than 7,000 women. Although Levy killed himself last year during the investigation of his….
Continue ReadingFDA Warns of Cancer Risk with Uterine Procedure
A couple of months ago, we retold the shocking story of Dr. Amy Reed, an anesthesiologist who had otherwise routine surgery to remove uterine fibroids (benign growths), and who later was found to have advanced cancer, apparently as the result of the process by which the fibroids were removed. Now, federal officials have warned the….
Continue ReadingMiscommunicating the Science of Mammography
The more we discover about cancer screenings, it seems, the less clarity there is about who should have them, when and what to do about the results. Mammography is one of the more common footballs being kicked around in the best-practice screening arena, and we’ve regularly covered the news about this imaging test. So has….
Continue ReadingA Real, If Remote, Risk of Spreading Cancer with Surgery for Uterine Fibroids
Every year, hundreds of thousands of women undergo what can be routine surgery to remove benign fibroid tumors from their uterus. But the “routine” can be dangerous, perhaps life-threatening, because of the potential to spread cancer. The concern, as explained last week in the New York Times, is over the procedure called morcellation, which cuts….
Continue ReadingMammograms Take Another Hit from Researchers
If regular mammograms really saved lives, they ought to show lower death rates in a big systematic study. But they didn’t, in the latest and biggest research study, published this week, on this once sacrosanct pillar of preventive medicine. The numbers say it all. Some 90,000 Canadian women were assigned by a coin flip into….
Continue ReadingA Possible Association Between Consuming Sweet Drinks and Endometrial Cancer
Americans love their sodas and sweet coffee beverages that taste more like melted ice cream than caffeine delivery systems. But for one group, drinking too many sugary drinks might pose a cancer risk. As reported in the New York Times, a new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention found that drinking….
Continue ReadingFortunes of Two Drugs May Change as a Result of FDA Scrutiny
Last week, FDA attention on two drugs – Avandia and Plan B – may change things for, respectively, people with diabetes and many women seeking emergency contraception. As reported in the New York Times, the FDA removed some restrictions how doctors prescribe and patients use Avandia. A couple of years ago, as we blogged Avandia….
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