Category: Cancer

The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer

California has one of the lowest rates of new lung cancer cases in the country, attributed largely to its aggressive anti-tobacco policies. But gaps in the state’s health care system mean that people who are diagnosed with the disease, or at a high risk of getting it, often fall through the cracks.

In India’s Burgeoning Pain Market, U.S. Drugmakers Stand To Gain

What began in India as a populist movement to bring inexpensive morphine to the diseased and dying poor has paved the way for a booming pain management industry. Now, new customers are being funneled to U.S. drugmakers bedeviled by a government crackdown back home.

Modern Wildfires Pose New Health Risks For Firefighters

Studies long have linked urban firefighters’ on-the-job exposure to toxins with an increased risk of cancer. More recently, as urban-style development reaches into once remote stretches of California’s mountains and forests, wildfire crews are exposed to fuels and carcinogens more typical of urban fires. We talk with Tony Stefani of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation about the health risks that poses for firefighters.

Kathy Brandt, A Hospice Expert Who Invited The World Into Her Own Last Days With Cancer, Dies

Kathy Brandt and her wife, Kim Acquaviva, national experts in hospice and palliative care, shared intimate details of Brandt’s experience with terminal cancer before her death Sunday.

Why It’s So Hard To Predict How Much Funding 9/11 First Responders Need

Eighteen years ago, most first responders were not thinking about their future health when they spent hours searching “The Pile” for the remains of terror victims. Today, their illnesses are a slow-moving epidemiological nightmare that has been as difficult for scientists to study as it has been easy for politicians to overlook.

Have Cancer, Must Travel: Patients Left In Lurch After Hospital Closes

As the rural town of Fort Scott, Kan., grapples with the closure of its hospital, cancer patients face new challenges as they try to continue their treatments in different locations.

Curing Cancer: Easy Politics, Difficult Science

As the 2020 campaign season kicks off, both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden say they’ll cure cancer. If only it were that simple.

Never Say ‘Die’: Why So Many Doctors Won’t Break Bad News

It’s never easy to tell a patient about a terminal illness, but a longtime doctor whose own diagnosis was botched says physicians must do better.

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.

‘Living Their Values’: Palliative Care Power Couple Faces Cancer At Home

Kathy Brandt and Kim Acquaviva are both leaders in the world of hospice and palliative care. When Brandt learned she was dying of ovarian cancer, the couple decided it could be a teachable moment.