Posts Tagged ‘physicians’

Vocal Physicians Group Renews Health Law Fight

Vocal Physicians Group Renews Health Law Fight
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has been vocal in the country’s health care debate, and other groups assert that its positions are outside the mainstream.

Read more on The Tuscaloosa News

Man Discovers He Has Advanced Prostate Cancer Following Years Of Physicians Not Doing A Follow Up Biopsy

Prostate cancer is a dreadful disease. Although not 100% accurate there are diagnostic tests that help doctors to verify if the cancer is present in a patient. Still as a consequence of the chance of false negatives (a negative test result despite the fact that the patient in reality has cancer) physicians should follow up and repeat tests as appropriate when patient complaints and screening tests keep showing the possibility of cancer. The failure to do so may reslt in a malpractice claim.

In one published claim a patient communcated to his primary care doctor that he was suffering from urinary frequency and burning. The doctor began the man on antibiotics and refered the man to a urologist. The urologist conducted a cystoscopy which showed that the man had an enlarged prostate. The urologist additionally ordered a PSA blood test which registered a 16.3 (a level higher than a 4.0 is ordinarily accepted as abnormal). Consequently the urologist performed a biopsy 2 months later. The biopsy was interpreted by a pathologist as benign.

The next year the patient returned to the urologist. On this occasion the PSA blood test was a 2.9 (ordinarily accepted as in normal range). The urologist concluded that the individual had BPH (a benign enlargement of the prostate). After 3 months the individual consulted the PCP for fever and nocturia (needing to urinate during the night). The doctor put him on another round of antibiotics. A follow up urine culture showed up negative. The PCP hence referred the individual back to the urologist. The urologist did a PSA test which came back a 6.4 (again, high).

A biopsy analyzes portions of the prostate. Thereby, it is possible for a biopsy to not catch the cancer. But, the urologist decided to depend on the prior year’s biopsy and to not perform another one as a follow up. Rather, the urologist failed to follow up on the man’s complaints and elevated PSA. The next year the patient went back to his family doctor. His symptoms continued to include nocturia. On physical examination the physician noted that the patient had a markedly enlarged prostate. Yet, the physician failed to order a PSA or re-refer him to a urologist. Regular blood testing four months subsequently showed that the man’s PSA was at 7.4 Neither doctor followed up in any way.

One more year goes by at which time the family doctor recorded that the PSA level was 9.8 Once more, no follow up or referral to a urologist. Yet another year and the individual continues to have problems with nocturia. On this occasion the PSA was 9.7 No follow up and no referral. Five years after the man’s earliest claims of urinary problems the family doctor again documented a considerably enlarged prostate gland and a PSA that had reached a 31. The doctor at last refered the individual back to the urologist.

The urologist verified that the patient’s prostate was enlarged and started the man a 2 week regimen of antibiotics to be followed by another PSA test. Once the PSA test was repeated 2 weeks afterwards it recorded a 33. A biopsy was then at last done which revealed cancer every sample taken.

Testing subsequently uncovered that the man had prostate cancer which had spread to the lymph nodes, the liver and bone. Notwithstanding a course of both hormone therapy and radiation therapy the man died around eighteen months following his diagnosis. The law firm that represented his family published that a settlement for $1,000,000 was reached in the case.

When Physicians Fail To Follow Up After PSA Results Indicate The Chance Of Prostate Cancer

Men often possess a lack of awareness of prostate cancer, their own risk for the cancer, and how to determine whether they have prostate cancer. Most male patients do not even know what it means to test for prostate cancer or that screening should be done before they develop symptoms. Yet, far too often, doctors diagnose the cancer only after it is past the early stages on account of deficient of screening.

There are several different factors that might result in a delayed diagnosis. This article will analyze the following pattern: the doctor (1) orders a PSA blood test, (2) discovers that the individual has an elevated PSA level, but (3) neither informs him of abnormal results (and what they indicate) nor orders diagnostic tests, like a biopsy, to rule out prostate cancer. Examine the following lawsuit, for instance:

In this reported case a male patient discovered he had prostate cancer after he followed up when told by his internist that he most likely had cancer. The problem in this case was that the internist did not tell the patient that he might have cancer until the third year of elevated PSA test results. The year before the man’s PSA level had increased to 13.6. Two years prior to that it had been at 8.0 Throughout these years the physician took no action to rule out prostate cancer as the cause of these high readings and did not tell the patient. By the time he was diagnosed he had metastatic prostate cancer and surgery was no longer among the treatment alternatives. Treating doctors instead recommended radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Neither of these would eliminate the cancer but they might impede the cancer’s progress and further spread. The law firm that handled this matter reported that they took the case to mediation where they achieved a settlement of $600,000.

When they do not do anything in the presence of abnormal test results and the man subsequently learns that he had prostate cancer and that the delay lead to it growing outside the prostate therefore limiting treatment alternatives and lessening his likelihood of surviving the cancer, he might have a claim for medical malpractice against the doctor.

This case illustrates a type of mistake that can lead to the delayed diagnosis of a patient’s prostate cancer. It comes about when the doctor actually follows the guidelines and screens male patients for prostate cancer but does not follow through when the test results are abnormal.

Hospital raising money, teaching physicians and community

Hospital raising money, teaching physicians and community
EDINBURG — Doctors Hospital at Renaissance sold close to $19,000 last week at its first Masquerade Fundraising jewelry sale, but only about $4,000 will benefit the hospital’s cancer foundation.

Read more on The Brownsville Herald

Physicians use MRI to Detect Early Breast Cancer

www.uchospitals.edu Thanks to expert University of Chicago physicians and advanced MRI imaging techniques, Debbie Bricker’s breast cancer was detected at an early stage and treated successfully. Video transcript: Bricker: I was told, at another institution, that I had a normal reading–no sign of cancer. Debbie Bricker chose the University of Chicago Hospitals when she learned of our advanced breast cancer detection using new MRI technology. Bricker: I had the MRI, and I was diagnosed with early breast cancer. Our doctors use a unique team approach that helps them develop an individualized treatment plan for each patient. Dr. Newstead: We develop new techniques and protocols and make them available sooner than would be the case in a standard hospital. We are leading the way in cancer research and treatment options including new, cancer-fighting drugs not generally available elsewhere. Bricker: They could identify early breast cancer in me and treat it so quickly, when it hadn’t even been diagnosed anywhere else before. Only one hospitals cancer care has ranked highest in Illinois for 10 years in a row. Bricker: Compassion, the conferencing approach, and the speed with which we could eliminate my breast cancer were really unique experiences–really wonderful.

Seventeen Texas Oncology Physicians Present Clinical Trials Research That Could Lead To New Cancer-fighting Treatments

Seventeen Texas Oncology Physicians Present Clinical Trials Research That Could Lead To New Cancer-fighting Treatments
The oncology community gathers this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago to discuss the latest research breakthroughs in fighting cancer. Seventeen Texas Oncology physicians were chosen to present their findings on a wide range of cancers at ASCO. (PRWeb Jun 5, 2010) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/ASCO …

Read more on PRWeb

First Physician’s Minute 6 – Breast Care

Dr. Michael Klouda, ETMC Breast Care Center medical director, discusses breast cancer treatment options in Tyler, Texas.

Biologist have isolated a compound from Pacific yew trees that physicians have been able to use…?

… as an effective treatment for ovarian and breast tumors. Biologist have also isolated a compound from the Madagascar periwinkle that is effective against childhood leukemias, which are forms of cancer. In both cases, the molecules act by binding to the proteins of the spindle and interfering with the spindle’s separation of chromosomes in mitosis. Why would these compounds be more harmful for cancer cells than normal cells?

Ladies and physicians only please?

Does anyone out there think that bras, antiperspirants, and mammographys can cause breast cancer?

Breast Cancer Treatment in India at Jaslok Health Group under Professional Physicians

Breast Cancer Treatment in India is taken under Jaslok Health Group under experienced and certified medical team of physicians. The term “breast cancer” refers to a malignant tumour that has developed from cells in the breast. Usually breast cancer either begins in the cells of the lobules, which are the milk-producing glands, or the ducts, the passages that drain milk from the lobules to the nipple. Less commonly, breast cancer can begin in the stomal tissues, which include the fatty and fibrous connective tissues of the breast. Breast Cancer is the most common cause of cancer in women and the second most common cause of cancer death in women. While the majority of new breast cancers are diagnosed as a result of an abnormality seen on a mammogram, a lump or change in consistency of the breast tissue can also be a warning sign of the disease. Jaslok Health Group introduces recreational packages with the help of Medical Tourism to provide better benefits and recovery from the disease. Physicians providing Breast Cancer Treatment in India at Jaslok Health Group are professionally trained and certified from renowned institutions across the globe.

Breast Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of breast cells. To better understand breast cancer, it helps to understand how any cancer can develop. Cancer occurs as a result of mutations, or abnormal changes, in the genes responsible for regulating the growth of cells and keeping them healthy. The genes are in each cell’s nucleus, which acts as the “control room” of each cell. Normally, the cells in our bodies replace themselves through an orderly process of cell growth: healthy new cells take over as old ones die out. But over time, mutations can “turn on” certain genes and “turn off” others in a cell. That changed cell gains the ability to keep dividing without control or order, producing more cells just like it and forming a tumour.

Some Breast Cancer require the hormones estrogen and progesterone to grow, and have receptors for those hormones. Those cancers are treated with drugs that interfere with those hormones, usually tamoxifen, and with drugs that shut off the production of estrogen in the ovaries or elsewhere; this may damage the ovaries and end fertility. Low-risk, hormone-sensitive breast cancers may be treated with hormone therapy and radiation alone. Breast cancers without hormone receptors, or which have spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits, or which express certain genetic characteristics, are higher-risk, and are treated more aggressively.

Abnormal development of cells leads to the growth of tumour, when tumour is malignant in nature they are termed as cancer. Breast Cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women today. Around the world breast cancer statistics shows that after lung cancer breast cancer is the second most death-causing factor in people who develops cancer. The risk factor of developing breast cancer increases with the age, it does not only relate to women, figures show that out of every 100 women there is one male who is diagnosed of breast cancer. Breast cancer does not mean a specific category of disease rather it is the different types of cancer generally found in breast is collectively termed as breast cancer. Though the most common understanding suggests that, abnormal growth of cells in the breast causes breast cancer.

The exact cause of Breast Cancer is unknown and there are no fixed causes for breast cancer. Myths in identifying the causes of breast cancer are more prevalent than the real cause. Some of the causes that have been collectively associated with breast cancer are:

The chances of breast cancer depends on age, as the person gets older the chances of it are more Family history of close relative like mother, sister and daughter who has been diagnosed with breast cancer increases the risk factor Early start onset of menses and early menopause are also associated with breast cancer Exposure to radioactive rays are carcinogenic and increases the chances of breast cancer Using hormone replacement therapy might also cause it Exposure to harmful chemicals (working in a chemical factory that uses harmful chemicals like Organo chlorine) Late childbearing

The first symptom, or subjective sign, of breast cancer is typically a lump that feels different from the rest of the breast tissue. More than 80% of Breast Cancer cases are discovered when the woman feels a lump. According to the American Cancer Society, the first medical sign, or objective indication of breast cancer as detected by a physician, is discovered by mammogram. Lumps found in lymph nodes located in the armpits can also indicate breast cancer. When breast cancer cells invade the dermal lymphatics small lymph vessels in the skin of the breast’s presentation can resemble skin inflammation and thus is known as inflammatory breast cancer . Symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer include pain, swelling, warmth and redness throughout the breast.

Another reported symptom complex of Breast Cancer is Paget’s disease of the breast. This syndrome presents as eczematoid skin changes such as redness and mild flaking of the nipple skin. Symptoms may include tingling, itching, increased sensitivity, burning, and pain. Occasionally, breast cancer presents as metastatic disease, that is, cancer that has spread beyond the original organ. Metastatic breast cancer will cause symptoms that depend on the location of metastasis. Common sites of metastasis include bone, liver, lung and brain. Unexplained weight loss can occasionally herald an occult breast cancer, as can symptoms of fevers or chills. Bone or joint pains can sometimes be manifestations of metastatic breast cancer, as can jaundice or neurological symptoms.

The most important factor behind any disease is the way you cope with it and find a safe treatment. Breast Cancer is a serious disease but with time and proper breast cancer treatment you will recovery from the initial trauma of the disease. Eating healthy and maintaining a balanced lifestyle along with family and friends cope to a great extent in coping with the disease. Ask all your queries and share your anxieties, going through clinical trials also helps to a great extent. Breast Cancer Treatment or diagnosis done at the proper time can prevent the disease before its too late. Breast Cancer is common in women as compared to the men. Jaslok Health Group provides one of the best medication treatments for Breast Cancer in India for the benefit for curing the disease as soon as possible. Currently Breast Cancer in India is taken under the medical team from the Jaslok Health Group.

Jaslok Health Group providing Breast Cancer Treatment in India consists of skilled physicians at par with the international standards. Which is why a lot of people from the UK, USA and Canada are preferring to visit India for their Breast Cancer Treatment as they save enormously on cost, get the same quality of treatment and can enjoy a holiday with their families or accompanying person. Jaslok health group is an innovative health care delivery system that responds to the needs of the community. Jaslok health group assure continuous quality improvement in all aspects of mission.

To know more about Breast Cancer Treatment in India please visit our website at www.jaslokhealthgroup.com or e-mail us on info@jaslokhealthgroup.com