Eight Signs of Cancer

"A team of scientists say they've identified the top warning signs of cancer -- which could help catch the disease before it spreads.The eight symptoms they've pinpointed can accurately predict the risk of various cancers in specific age groups. Researchers are  so confident of the findings, published in the British Journal of General Practice, that they advise seeing a specialist immediately unless there's another good explanation for the problem.
-- Breast lump (possible symptom of breast cancer)

-- Rectal bleeding (indicative of colon cancer, especially in older people)

-- Blood in the urine (a sign of urology-related cancers)

-- Coughing up blood (possible symptom of lung cancer)

-- Difficulty swallowing (a symptom of cancer of the esophagus)

-- Anemia and iron deficiency (possible sign of colon cancer)

-- Bleeding after menopause (possible symptom of cancers of the female reproductive organs)

-- Rectal exam showing signs of cancerous cells (potential symptom of prostate cancer)

The researchers say having a doctor diagnose the significance of those eight symptoms as soon as they're noticed has the potential to increase the number of cancer cases caught early. That, in turn, can dramatically improve a patient's chances of survival.
The focus is more on common cancers and looking for symptoms a doctor hasn't already detected (like anemia or an abnormal rectal exam) and general warning signs of multiple kinds of cancer, like unexplained weight loss and a sudden loss of appetite.
"We recommend research and development of general practice computer systems to produce effective warning flags when the symptoms, signs or test results with a risk of 5 percent or more ... are entered for patients within the specified sex and age groups," it was noted in the study.
Dr. Kevin Barraclough, another U.K. general practitioner, wrote in an editorial published with the study that some of the symptoms would more likely mean cancer in certain age and gender groups than in others. Anemia, for instance, probably isn't a sign of bowel cancer in a 21-year-old woman but may be in a 60-year-old man.
And cancer can be difficult to detect because there are more than 200 different types and it produces a host of symptoms; ''So if you notice an unusual or persistent change in your body, it's important to get it checked out.''

To read the full article go to: http://www.aolhealth.com/condition-center/cancer/eight-signs-of-cancer

You Tube Education

 You Tube isn't just for talking cats or laughing babies. You Tube EDU educational presentations cover many subjects including medicine and cancer. The link is below:

http://www.youtube.com/edu?edu_search_query=cancer&action_search=1  

Also for new registrars or those going through registry classes, you can log into You Tube and get informational videos on many subjects--for examle: typing in  Gleason's Score or Bloom Richardson Score will get you videos of physicians explaining just what these mean.

Something I've always wanted to do: Mini Medical School

Free Medical School lectures for life long learners:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewiTunesUCollection?id=384237262
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D7B0DBD8C28BDEA2

"Stanford Continuing Studies is proud to present the Stanford Mini Med School, a series arranged and directed by Stanford’s School of Medicine. Featuring more than thirty distinguished faculty, scientists, and physicians from Stanford’s prestigious medical school, this series of courses will offer students a dynamic introduction to the world of human biology, health and disease, and the groundbreaking changes taking place in medical research and health care. The fall quarter course will get started with a journey inside human biology. We will start by familiarizing ourselves with the world of very small things. We will take a close look at DNA, stem cells, and microbes, and see how these and other small players form the building blocks of the human body. This will allow us to understand how human organs develop (and can also regenerate), how our nervous and immune systems work, and how diseases can afflict us. From there, the course will move beyond the individual and take a more global view of health. How do pandemics take shape? How does the environment affect our collective health? And how can we finally implement a healthcare system that makes sense for our nation? Various experts from the Stanford School of Medicine will address these and other big picture questions during the first course in the Stanford Mini Med School."

If your interest doesn't lie in medicine there are other free classes online:
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

And free online textbooks:
http://www.openculture.com/free_textbooks

And Audio Books:
http://www.openculture.com/category/audio_books

And I highly recommend following the Open Culture Blog.

FOLKMAN'S WAR

Dr. Judah Folkman fought a long battle with a medical community that didn't believe in the idea solid tumors could secret chemicals in order to establish their own blood supply. His steadfast work in the face of adversity hearld the dawning of a new era and greater understanding of how cancer cells ensure their development and survival.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/cancer/
The processes required for a normal cell to transform into a cancer cell include the ability to master self sufficiency in growth signals, ensuring that the cell maintains an insensitivity to antigrowth signals, evasion of the cell's encoded programmed death, continued replication and metastasis, and most importantly ensuring a steady blood supply or angiogenesis.
Cancer caught on video: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/cancer/cells.html
Through Folkman's work, science has discovered a way in which to cut off the newly formed blood supply to these rogue cells, breaking the cycle established for their continued survival. For a more detailed look at Dr. Folkman's work read the article in the July/August 2010 edition of Cancer Journal for Clinicians:
http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/full/60/4/222
And for a closer look at Dr. Folkman's life and achievements:
http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Folkmans-War-Angiogenesis-Struggle/dp/0375502440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282485925&sr=8-1

Medical Matrix

Medical matrix is your guide to peer reivewed, updated clinical medical resources.
http://www.medmatrix.org/_SPages/Oncology.asp

Pathology Outlines

"PathologyOutlines.com is a free, no-registration website with a unique, comprehensive, regularly updated textbook of surgical and clinical pathology (chapters are in center section of this page). Each chapter has numerous links to images and references. We also have extensive lists of related jobs, conferences, fellowships and books (buttons are on left side of this page)."

Examples of what you can find:

Bloods:
http://pathologyoutlines.com/leukemia.html

A good visual of Clark Level and brief points on melanoma staging :
http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/skintumorclarkslevels.html

What is Herceptin?

Herceptin (Trastuzumab) is a drug used in HER2 positive breast cancer. Here is a short video on how this drug works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66z6BmeA00I

A video at the Herceptin website:

http://www.herceptin.com/breast-cancer-resources/videos.jsp

Herceptin is approved for the adjuvant treatment of HER2-overexpressing, node-positive or node-negative (ER/PR-negative or with one high-risk feature) breast cancer.

Cancer 101

Cancer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HonoQ6mE6dY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEpTTolebqo&feature=fvw

Metastasis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrMq8uA_6iA&feature=related

What is Radiation Like?

Video posted on My Cancer Advisor let you see what it's like to undergo radiation therapy.

"Radiation treatments are used in the majority of patients with cancer, and yet most patients have little idea of what to expect. This video is helpful in showing what happens during the course of a single radiation treatment."

http://mycanceradvisor.com/2010/07/26/what-is-radiation-treatment-like/

Youtube Radiation Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK7yOyI6GLI&feature=related 

How to Highlight the CSv2 Manual

Here's step by step instructions for using tools to get the most out of your electronic manual :
http://www.cancerstaging.org/cstage/manuals/pdfinstructions.pdf 

Anatomy Pages

Nice printout of anatomy of the colon, kidney and pelvic lymph nodes.
http://acad.rosalindfranklin.edu/cms/anatomy/2009-2010/notes/anatomy/56_intestines_posterior_abd_wall/intestines.html

And a little bit more on my favorite subject:
http://acad.rosalindfranklin.edu/cms/anatomy/histohome/content.html

Pod Cast on Survivorship Issues for Breast Cancer Patients

Breast cancer has been the most studied cancer in the field of psycho oncology. Because 75% of breast cancer patients will become breast cancer survivors, needs go beyond diagnosis and treatment. Adjustment to life after breast cancer can pose special challenges. 
Some points of this webinar:
1) Psycho social distress in dealing with a cancer diagnosis--points of stress for the cancer patient,  interventions to address these stresses,
2) Use of community based services--should be routinely offered to patients, private based medical practices do not routinely employ psycho-social professionals, patients often seen many different physicians in various busy outpatient offices this creates fragmentation of care and can add an additional psychological burden, patients reluctant to discuss psycho social problems with physician
3) Lack of insurance, or mental health services provided at lower payment level, no screenings for psycho social problems
4) Programs should be put into  place and monitored with quality assurance program to ensure compliance with standards of care, physician education and training in communication skills
5) Determine eligibility criteria so that the patient population that needs these services get them and those that do not need them are not subjected to additional or unwanted services

Below is the pod cast discussing survivorship and the psychological stresses involved:
http://media.nap.edu/podcasts/nax39breastcanc.mp3

National Academy Press: More podcasts are available at their website. You may also read full texts on cancer topics free online.
http://www.nap.edu/topicpage.php?topic=387

The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academies to publish the reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the most authoritative views on important issues in science and health policy. The institutions represented by the NAP are unique in that they attract the nation's leading experts in every field to serve on their award-winning panels and committees. This is the right place for definitive information on everything from space science to animal nutrition.

Good Anatomy Reference Site

http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html 

Video Science Life on Bladder Cancer

Dr. FAQ: Gary Steinberg on Bladder Cancer
http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2010/07/15/dr-faq-gary-steinberg-on-bladder-cancer/  

Eye Cancer Network

For those registrars that frequently have eye cancer cases, or for those of us who aren't familiar with the diagnosis, here is a website that showcases cancer of the eye.

"The Eye Cancer Network is the first online-based community dedicated to eye tumor patients. This site was developed to help patients around the world find much needed information and research on the various forms of ocular tumors and related eye diseases. This includes detailed descriptions, images and information about the diagnosis and treatments for each of these disorders."



http://www.eyecancer.com/Default.aspx

Online Privacy and Security Training

Each and every day Cancer Registrars work with private medical information and security/protection of that information is vital. The NHI website  provides online educational training on information security. This training can also help you be aware of how to protect your private information in the home setting.
Visit this online course at:
http://irtsectraining.nih.gov/publicUser.aspx

Painters Face Increase In Bladder Cancer Risk

TUESDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- Professional painters may face an increased risk for bladder cancer and that risk seems to rise with the number of years they work, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed nearly 3,000 cases of bladder cancer in professional painters that were reported in 41 previous studies. Some of those studies also classified plasterers, glaziers, wallpaper hangers, artists and decorators as painters.
After taking into account smoking (a key risk factor for bladder cancer), the review authors concluded that painters were 30 percent more likely to develop bladder cancer than the general population.
While there was some evidence that female painters were more likely to develop bladder cancer than male painters, only four of the studies included separate results for women.
The number of years a person worked as a painter had a significant effect on bladder cancer risk. People who worked as a painter for more than 10 years were more likely to develop the disease than those who'd been painters for less than 10 years, according to the report published online July 20 in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
It's not known which chemicals in paint increase the risk of bladder cancer and the link between being a painter and bladder cancer is complicated by work variability, differing levels of exposure and changes to the composition of paint over time, the researchers noted. Painters are exposed to some of the same chemicals that are found in cigarette smoke, including aromatic amines, they added.
There is now sufficient evidence that painters are at increased risk, Neela Guha of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, and colleagues concluded.
"Because several million people are employed as painters worldwide, even a modest increase in the relative risk is remarkable," the researchers wrote in their report.

ICD 9 Long List for Co-Morbidity Fields

If your software doesn't have access to ICD9 codes or you don't have a coding sheet provided here is a printout of 2009-2010 ICD-9 list for comorbitity fields:
http://www.aafp.org/fpm/icd9/icd9-long.pdf

And here's another list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ICD-9_codes

ICD 10 Listing of Codes:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd10cm.htm#10update