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Dr. Ward's Newspaper Columns
Is bigger always better? In healthcare, that is certainly the perception propagated by media coverage and advertising, and cancer medicine is no exception. The airways are crowded with advertising trying to convince the public that big downtown cancer...
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The 2005 sound bite for cancer medicine is "check out those abs." MoAbs that is; Monoclonal antibodies. Trastuzumab (Herceptin) was in the news and the New England Journal of Medicine this past month, being hailed as a wonder drug for a parti...
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Carol Burnett and breast cancer, Gilda Radner and ovarian cancer, Lance Armstrong and testicular cancer, Katie Couric and colon cancer, General Norman Schwarzkopf and prostate cancer - every cancer seems to have its celebrity spokesperson or victim. We...
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Forgive me as I invoke Terri Schiavo and the tragic, inappropriately public debacle that played out in front of the whole world last spring. It's as if it was just the latest reality TV show. But, it is a logical entry point to a subject that may other...
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Representative Jay Inslee chortled and Senator Cantwell's brow furrowed. The occasion was last month's Relay for Life, where they were being honored for their Capitol Hill efforts on behalf of community based cancer care, and I was introducing the keyn...
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Normal cells make a variety of proteins, some of which are fairly unique to specific organs, and can be found in the blood stream. When cancers make the same proteins in higher than normal amounts, we call it a tumor marker. Often patients ask why we d...
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How do you find the best cancer doctor? Not too long ago, options were limited. You might choose a hospital or large clinic and hope they had quality oncologists, or turn to friends and family who'd had contact with cancer care to get an opinion. Most...
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A couple of weeks ago I found myself struggling with our state's largest health insurer for urgent preauthorization for a PET scan. After getting nowhere with the entry-level bureaucracy for a couple of days, I left a voice mail for the medical directo...
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Last week I hungered for some comfort food - one of those dishes that mom made that evokes warm memories as well as a satisfied stomach. Instead of calling or emailing my mom, I got on the Internet and Googled a recipe. Some lady named Martha had one....
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It seems that it has become routine that January brings angst to the cancer care community. The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 isn't providing the promised senior drug benefit for another year, but in each of the last two Januarys it has cut...
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