Word: lymph
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...SURER CURE As horrific as it sounds, castration may be the best way to prolong the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer. A small but significant study shows that men whose cancer has spread to their lymph nodes are five times as likely to survive if they're castrated--chemically, with medication, or surgically, by removing the testes--soon after the prostate gland is removed. Most doctors hold off, sometimes for years, in part because of the heavy consequences: libido usually plummets, and many men experience hot flashes, muscle loss and fatigue. These may be a small price...
Some insurers, however, had long dug in their heels over transplant therapy, and last week's announcement may make them dig deeper still. The five new studies looked at two types of breast cancer: high-risk cases, in which the disease has spread to 10 or more lymph nodes; and metastatic cases, in which it's migrated even further. Of the three studies that focused on high-risk cases--surveying a total of 1,462 breast-cancer patients--only one found a statistically significant advantage for transplant therapy. The two studies that focused on metastatic disease showed no real advantage...
GOOD NEWS ON LYMPH NODES...
...technique may reduce the number of lymph nodes surgeons need to remove to see if breast cancer has spread. Last week a report noted that by using a radioactive tracer, it's possible to pinpoint the few nodes most likely to harbor stray cancer cells --and biopsy just those instead of 20 or more. The advantages: less pain and lower risk of permanent arm swelling...
...homemaker in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., Bradfield is one of the lucky cancer patients who have already benefited from the new generation of gene-based treatments. She was 47 years old when she discovered a large lump in her breast. Tests showed that the malignancy had spread to her lymph nodes. Bradfield got the works: a double mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy, followed by radiation and then more chemo. It bought her 18 months of symptom-free life. Then one hot August night, she recalls, "I went to rub my neck, and there was a tumor about the size...