by Rick Davis | Apr 10, 2020 | Advocacy, Blood Cancers, Brain Tumors, Cancer Caregivers, Cancer Resources, Men's Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Recent News, Women's Breast Cancer
Like other cancer advocates, we have heard many questions over the last month or so about the urgency of treatment in these surreal times of self-quarantine. This is especially relevant if the treatment is for someone whose immunology is already compromised – by chemotherapy, other systemic treatment, or possibly even radiaiton that can stress the white blood cells in some instances.
AnCan’s position, by and large, is don’t take unnecessary risks! Many treatments can be safely postponed …. and if considered elective, may be deferred automatically; for example, biopsies, especailly in a monitoring rather than a discovery function, and other elective surgeries. This is also true for many scanning procedures. Some drugs have long half lives, so if, for example you are receivng hormone thereapy or bone strengtheners and have been on them for a while, speak to your medical team whether you can skip a planned maintenance appointment.
And if in the midst of chemotherapy or immunotherapy, huddle with your medical team. Anecdotally, one of our board members, who is 2 treatments into a 6 treatment cycle, was advised by his medical oncologist to defer his infusion today .. so be sure to ask befere showing up for a scheduled appointment. You well know, especially if a blood cancer patient, that your immune system is already compromised so don’t place it under threat if you can avoid that.
ASCO is continuously updating guidelines for all types of cancer treatment here.
What about those of you about to start, or may even be in the course of radiation therapy … what to do? Our Advisory Board member, Allen Edel, recently reviewed guidelines from ASTRO for prostate cancer radiation that he wrote about on his own blog, Prostate Cancer News Reviews and Views. The bottom line for most every situation except palliative radiation for advanced disease, is that treatment should be deferred. And if you are in the midst of treatment, you probably already know that a short deferment is fine, but a longer break can impact the effectiveness of the total cycle. Whatever your cancer, be sure to consult with your radiation oncologist to discuss whether your radiation tretment can be delayed beyond the crisis … why take the risk if you can safely avoid it.
by Rick Davis | Mar 29, 2020 | Health Resources, Blood Cancers, Brain Tumors, Cancer Caregivers, Cancer Resources, Multiple Sclerosis, Ovarian Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Recent News
https://www.inquirer.com/health/expert-opinions/amid-coronavirus-stay-at-home-order-healthy-people-are-learning-ways-sick-opinion-20200326.html
Our good friend John Novack is responsible for Patient Engagement and Communications at Inspire ….. there are a few ‘Head’, and Senior VP’s sprinkled in their too! John often sources great articles and writers for major publications , one of which is The Philadelphia Inquirer, He has directed our moderator, Renata Louwers, their way.
This latest Opinion piece that appeared last Thursday struck a big chord with me … and I hope it will with you too, especially if you have lived with serious illness that has compromised your immune sytem and limited your movement.
Onward & upwards, rd
by Rick Davis | Mar 26, 2020 | Cancer Resources, Blood Cancers, Men's Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Recent News, Women's Breast Cancer
There are so many great sources of highly quality information that we at AnCan do not need to contribute to the overload. But when we see a good article we will bring it to you, especially if it pertains to any of our groups. So here are two that fall into that category.
The first follows up on a queston raised in our Advanced Prostate Cancer Group on Tuesday, when a particpant asked whether he could delay treatment … in particular androgen deprivation and bone strengthening shots. And the week before we had a discussion about hospital visits at this time of virulent crisis. This article from The Washington Post reports on how the Covid19 is effecting several different cancer patients including one advanced prostate cancer patient enrolled in a clinical trial, who has adjusted his treatment.
The second link is to a CURE Talks interview with Dr. Stephen Pergam, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, University of Washington and several multiple myeloma patient advocates on the interesection of Covid19 and MM/blood cancers. You can listen to it here .
For us at AnCan, we have definitle seen an upswing in attendance to our meetings. In response we have added two sessions, and two new meetings for blood cancers, and for ovarian cancer.
by Rick Davis | Mar 21, 2020 | Men's Breast Cancer, Recent News
Some of you are quite familiar with our Advisory Board member Richard Wassersug, an internationally recognized expert on androgen deprivation therapy in men. Richard is a research psychologist, and last year we connected him with Peggy Miller at the Male Breast Cancer Coaliton who moderates our Men’s Breast Cancer virtual group. They and others are pursuing a study on how male BCa patients respond to the word ‘survivor’. In Richard’s words:
(Peggy), I and others are collaborating on a survey study right now about how male breast cancer patients respond to the label “survivor”. As you may know, female breast cancer patients overall like that label. In contrast, prostate cancer patients typically do not. We hope to finding out whether this difference is due to a differences in how the two diseases progression and how they are treated, or instead reflect a fundamental sex/gender difference.
We’ve already collected data on about 70 male breast cancer patients, but we hope to double that.
Richard published an essay in Quilette late last month on male breast cancer “Masculinity, Emasculation, and Breast Cancer in Men”…. you’ll find it here. If you are not too familiar with this condition, it has every right to be considered a rare disease based on the number it afflicts ….. although, as Richard points out, male BCa kills more than testicular cancer! Read and learn ….
