Over the past few years, several celebrities have come forward to discuss their diagnoses and treatment for thyroid cancer, most recently South Korean actress, Park So-dam, one of the lead actors in the Oscar-winning film Parasite. Park was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in late 2021, and she publicly shared her diagnosis in an official statement put out by her professional representation. She regularly posts to her social media accounts to update her fans on her progress and provide...

Although there is no international data sharing, most chemotherapy drugs cause hypersensitivities reactions (HSRs).   Chemotherapy drugs have been prescribed for seven decades. Their use has persisted alone or in combination with other antineoplastic agents. Recent research has shown that the drugs can cause reactions almost immediately, though they can appear hours or days later. Symptoms often appear on the skin. Among the most common presentations are flushing and/or itching, w...

Catching all solid cancers before they metastasize could prevent 26% to 32% of cancer deaths in women and 18% to 24% in men within 10 years of diagnosis, researchers in Australia estimate. Those figures translate to 2064 to 2677 fewer cancer deaths annually in the state of New South Wales between 2005 and 2014, the most recent period studied. "While it is well established that diagnosing cancers at an earlier stage is 'better,' our study is unique in that it quantifies what that...

While you might know that chemotherapy and radiation can cause side effects such as nausea and fatigue, you might not know they can also cause you to lose your sense of smell and taste. Taste buds and smell receptors have some renewable cell tissue, and chemotherapy and radiation work by stopping cell renewal.
We perceive five different types of flavour: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savoury. Usually, we taste a mixture of all these flavours, but when taste receptors have been altered (due ...

We all know that the pressures on our medical system, both for providers and for patients, are greater than ever. We hear about staffing issues in every industry, and health care is not exempt. There probably are fewer people trying to do the same amount of work. Therefore, it is important to prepare thoughtfully for your meetings and to try to ensure that you will leave the office feeling heard and understood. Separately, for general health care, it's essential to know where to go b...

Cold caps or scalp cooling is a process designed to help some women lose less hair during chemotherapy. Let us note at the start at this does not work for all chemo drugs, and that the results can be variable. Let us also add some history. Perhaps twenty years ago, there was briefly a lot of hype about cold caps to preserve hair during chemotherapy. The theory, then and now, is that the cold constricts blood vessels that run to the scalp and reduces or stops chemo drugs from going there. Thes...