cancer
cmonforton | December 21, 2010By the end of 2011, the Labor Department's worker safety agencies expect to issue six new rules to better protect workers from on-the-job hazards. In the Department's regulatory plan issued yesterday, OSHA projects it will finalize four rules while MSHA expects to complete two new standards. As I've written before, these plans quickly become stale because target dates are missed, new issues emerge and political winds shift, but they still give us a snapshot inside the agencies and the Administration's regulatory strategies at a moment in time.
Of the four rules OSHA expects to finish in…
oracknows | December 11, 2010Has it really been six years?
Six years ago today, on a dim and dreary Saturday in December, almost on a whim I sat down, went to Blogspot, and started up the first version of Respectful Insolence with an introductory post with the cliched title, Please allow me to introduce myself. Here it is, six years later. On this cold December Saturday, I still find it difficult to his blog is considered one of the "top" medical blogs by one measure, and some actually--shockingly--consider me somewhat of a "famous" skeptic. I know, I know, I still can't wrap my head around the concept myself. At least,…
oracknows | December 9, 2010I was originally going to switch it up and blog about something other than cancer. In fact, there is a particularly juicy bit of anti-vaccine nonsense that I wanted to write about because it shows the utter mendacity of a certain anti-vaccine website that, believe it or not, is not Age of Autism. I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but there actually is an anti-vaccine group that is giving Generation Rescue a run for its money when it comes to sheer crazy. It'll keep, though, until next week. In the meantime, I have even worse crazy to deal with. In the meantime, I have even more despicable…
oracknows | December 8, 2010Two women died of breast cancer yesterday. One was named Kim Tinkham. One was named Elizabeth Edwards.
In some ways, these women were similar. True, one was older than the other, but both of them died far sooner than they should have, one at age 53, the other at age 61. Both engaged in activism about breast cancer. Both were ambitious, driven women. Both died in the presence of their friends and family. Both died within hours of each other. Both demonstrated the implacable killer that breast cancer can be.
There the similarities end. One of these women (Kim Tinkham), for example, died…
oracknows | December 7, 2010It's been pointed out to me that it was announced three hours ago on the Caring for Kim Facebook page that Kim Tinkham has passed away. A woman named Dana Ponder announced:
Kim just passed. I was there by her side and it was peaceful. Thank you for all the kind words. I tried to read all the post to her, hoping she heard them all. She was (is) so loved.
From all indications I've been able to find, Kim died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer. And so a quack claims another victim.
And so Oprah Winfrey contributed.
And so a family mourns the loss of a mother, a spouse, a…
oracknows | December 7, 2010I'm still perturbed about yesterday.
I'm still perturbed that a cancer quack was able to convince a woman who had everything to live for that he could cure her of her breast cancer without surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. I'm still perturbed at this particular cancer quack's attitude, where he tried to claim that he didn't know the woman who is dying, Kim Tinkham, and imply that her cancer recurred because didn't follow his regimen carefully enough, that she had stopped living the quack's "alkaline diet." I thought of my mother-in-law, who died in 2009 of metastatic breast cancer, and…
oracknows | December 6, 2010In the wake of the revelation that Kim Tinkham is dying of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer to bones, lungs, and liver after having rejected conventional therapy for her disease in favor of Robert O. Young's acid-base woo, Young's response is now (possibly) known. In the comments after part 6 of Young's interview with Kim Tinkham (discussed by me here), a commenter by the 'nym of inhisgrace7 reports:
I wanted to find out for myself the truth so I wrote to Dr. Young and here is his response. Kim has always made her own decisions about cancer. Before I met her she had…
oracknows | December 6, 2010(NOTE: The videos of Robert O. Young's interview with Kim Tinkham have been removed, as I predicted in this post that they would be. Fortunately, I downloaded copies before he managed to do that. Part 6 appears to be still there--for now.)
(NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer.)
I hate stories like this. I really do. I hate them with a burning passion that makes it hard for me to see straight when I first find out about them. They make me want to grab a shotgun and go looking for the quack responsible. It's a good thing I've never by…
kbonham | November 30, 2010Cancer sucks. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that - it's one of the leading causes of death in developed countries, and our treatment options are pretty thin. Basically, it amounts to cutting out the tumors that can be seen, and then giving a controlled administration of poison in the hopes that the cancer cells die before you do. Don't get me wrong - advances in oncology have saved many lives, but it's no surprise that there's a lot of research happening to find better options.
One promising avenue of study is augmenting the immune system to fight cancer directly. It's known that the…
cmonforton | November 30, 2010No doubt that a federal agency's website can be a useful public relations tool. We all have much better access now to government data, reports and other records. That's certainly a good thing. But even the most content-rich website cannot substitute for other forms of communication and information sharing. Yet more and more lately I'm hearing reporters recount a different experience in their conversations with Obama Administration public affairs offices. During the peak of Deepwater Horizon disaster, for example, reporters were frequently told "looked at our website," "it's probably on…
oracknows | November 28, 2010Given that I've dedicated my life to treating cancer and researching the biology of cancer, the ultimate goal being to use that knowledge of cancer biology to develop ever more effective treatments directed at the specific molecular derangements that lead to cancer, it's not surprising that I'm very much anti-tobacco. After all, arguably there is no known behavior that causes more cancer-related deaths than smoking tobacco. It's not just lung cancer, either. Smoking causes a wide variety of cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cardiovascular disease, all of which result…
Holiday weekend reader mailbag: In which Orac is chastised for "condemning someone who helps people"
oracknows | November 26, 2010The Thanksgiving holiday weekend continues here in the U.S., and, believe it or not, I plan on taking it fairly easy, hanging out with my wife and (hopefully) going to see the new Harry Potter movie later today or tonight. However, even so, I can't resist doing a bit of holiday mailbag fun, first because it's easy, but more importantly because this time around it's instructive. A new reader, who obviously found this blog through a Google search on something or other writes:
Hello Orac, I stumbled across one of your blog pages and I felt compelled to share my story with you.
Seven years ago I…
sa smith | November 17, 2010About this time last year, I wrote a post on a new cancer virus, XMRV. I had some reservations about that paper I reviewed. I have some reservations about XMRV-->prostate cancer as a whole (Im just not convinced yet. at all.).
Its one thing to be skeptical about data, but its another to say 'Hey, thats a cool paper. They did something right!'
This paper isnt perfect. I have a lot of issues with it too-- BUT! I think it is a fantastic step in the right direction of establishing the role of a virus in a cancer and establishing the biochemistry of that interaction. This not only helps…
oracknows | November 11, 2010I don't know how I missed this article. I really don't. It's over a week old, and it's exactly the sort of irritating cancer quackery that normally draws me irresistibly to it to slather it in a heapin' helpin' of not-so-Respectful Insolence. After all, being a cancer surgeon and all, I really, really hate cancer quackery, even more so than I detest other forms of quackery. I hate it even more when it comes from Mike Adams, creator of NaturalNews.com, that one-stop shop for all things quackery, anti-vaccine, and conspiracy. Basically, it's an example of Mike Adams discovering something about…
oracknows | November 9, 2010It occurs to me that I ought to thank Mark Hyman, "pioneer of functional medicine," and creator of "Ultrawellness," particularly since he started blogging for that wretched hive of scum and quackery (WHSQ), The Huffington Post. He may not post all that often, but when he does I can be assured that the woo will be flowing in torrents from HuffPo to my computer screen, thus providing me with yet another dose of blogging material. Not surprisingly, given Hyman's history, his latest bit on HuffPo is no different. Entitled Cancer Research: New Science on How to Prevent and Treat Cancer From TEDMED…
oracknows | October 26, 2010Oh, goody. Just what we need.
Some of my readers sent this to me yesterday, and I, like them, was appalled. Apparently that wretched hive of scum and quackery, The Huffington Post, has decided that it's starting a "real" health section (to be, apparently, distinguished from its old "Lifestyle" section, where previously most of its health quackery reporting and commentary resided (and presumably will still reside). Also, yes, I know I use the term "wretched hive of scum and quackery" whenever I mention HuffPo these days, but that's just because that's just what HuffPo is when it comes to…
oracknows | October 22, 2010Having gotten back from the Lorne Trottier Symposium, it occurred to me that my talk (not to mention much of my blogging about "alternative medicine" cancer cure testimonials) was nearly completely about breast cancer testimonials. This is, of course, not surprising, given that breast cancer is what I do for both patient care and research. However, there's so much more cancer quackery out there than just for breast cancer, and there are more cancer cure testimonials out there than just breast cancer testimonials. Indeed, I happened to come across one on (where else?) that wretched hive of…
oracknows | October 21, 2010Remember Hollie Quinn?
She's the woman who parlayed her "breast cancer cure testimonial" into a book deal, even though she underwent conventional surgical therapy of her cancer. When criticized for this, she came up with an incredibly lame defense of her book. Well, she's at it again. This time around, she's touting thermography:
As we describe in our book, Hollie uses thermography for ongoing monitoring of her health, and not just for her breasts but for her entire body. She hasn't had a mammogram in eight years, since her original diagnosis. Thermography isn't perfect, but it meets our…
oracknows | October 14, 2010A couple of weeks ago, as Breast Cancer Awareness Week was approaching, I was highly disturbed to see everybody's favorite wretched hive of scum and quackery (The Huffington Post, in case you didn't know) promoting a dubious breast cancer testimonial for quackery. This testimonial, contained in a book entitled You Did What? Saying "No" to Conventional Cancer Treatment and promoted in a HuffPo post by an acupuncturist named One Woman's Story: Saying No to Conventional Cancer Treatment, on the surface sounded as though a woman named Hollie Quinn had eschewed all conventional therapy after being…
oracknows | October 13, 2010October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a fact that is hard to escape. It's one of those things that I have mixed feelings about, particularly now that I've had a close relative, namely my mother-in-law, die of breast cancer less than two years ago. On the one hand, the attention that's brought to the cause of breast cancer is helpful for spurring research and donations to support research, as well as promoting screening programs. On the other hand, I do now have a bit of understanding about "pink washing," and some of the whole "pink thing" at times makes me uneasy. Be that as it may, one…