Half of New York City residents over 50, the age at which the American
Cancer Society recommends beginning screening tests, have not received
a colon cancer-screening test within the recommended time intervals,
according to a new study. The report, published in the September 1,
2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer
Society, says those New Yorkers least likely to have received screening
include those with low-income, the uninsured, Asians and current
smokers.

More than 56,000 Americans are expected to die this year from
colorectal cancer, making it the third leading cause of cancer death in
both men and women. Screening tests, which include the fecal occult
blood test (FOBT), flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS), and colonoscopy, have
been proven to reduce mortality and be more cost-effective than breast cancer
screening tests, which are more widely used. Current screening
guidelines recommend annual FOBT, FS every 5 years, or a colonoscopy
every 10 years, but only 53 percent of Americans receive timely
screening.

Source:  MedicalNewsToday.com

One of those Aflac trivia facts flashed across the screen this morning.  The question was something like..How much have medical malpractice payouts or verdicts increased in the last few years?

Answer was only 5%…but then they went on to say that malpractice premiums increased over 100% in the same time period.

So verdicts go up 5%…and premiums increase over 100%. It must be the lawsuits that cause the problem, right?  WRONG.

This is a very interesting report on the number of hospital-acquired infections in Pennsylvania.   This is a very big problem across the US and any effort to obtain good accurate numbers on this problem should be supported.  It will lead to better methods of avoiding and treating these infections.  Here are some numbers from the report.

In the first report of its kind, Pennsylvania hospitals reported 11,668 confirmed hospital-acquired infections in 2004, according to a Research Brief titled Hospital-acquired Infections in Pennsylvania released today by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4).

The hospital admissions in which these infections occurred were associated with 1,793 deaths, and an estimated 205,000 extra hospital days and $2 billion in additional hospital charges. These numbers are out of a total of 1.5 million discharges from 173 general acute care hospitals.

Sources:  Medical News Today

Researchers have found a gene that is related to the growth of Melanoma.  The MITF gene had 13 extra copies of it in some tumors and researchers believe that it may drive the accelerated growth of melanoma tumors.  Now that the gene has been found, researchers can try to target the gene and see if they can develop effective treatments for this skin cancer.

Read the article at the BBC News

Skin cancer (Melanoma) is preventable and treatable at its early stages.  Here are some tips from the American Cancer Society.

Source:  Daily News Transcript