Pinboard (jm) https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/ recent bookmarks from jm Why cancer-spotting AI needs to be handled with care 2020-01-29T16:13:32+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/27/21080253/ai-cancer-diagnosis-dangers-mammography-google-paper-accuracy jm“There’s this idea in society that finding more cancers is always better, but it’s not always true,” Adewole Adamson, a dermatologist and assistant professor at Dell Medical School, tells The Verge. “The goal is finding more cancers that are actually going to kill people.” But the problem is “there’s no gold standard for what constitutes cancer.” As studies have found, you can show the same early-stage lesions to a group of doctors and get completely different answers about whether it’s cancer. And even if they do agree that that’s what a lesion shows — and their diagnoses are right — there’s no way of knowing whether that cancer is a threat to someone’s life. This leads to overdiagnosis, says Adamson: “Calling things cancer that, if you didn’t go looking for them, wouldn’t harm people over their lifetime.” As soon as you do call something cancer, it triggers a chain of medical intervention that can be painful, costly, and life-changing. In the case of breast cancer, that might mean radiation treatments, chemotherapy, the removal of tissue from the breast (a lumpectomy), or the removal of one or both breasts entirely (a mastectomy). These aren’t decisions to be rushed. Overdiagnosis, he says, “is a problem for a lot of different cancers; for prostate, melanoma, breast cancer, thyroid. And if AI systems become better and better at finding smaller and smaller lesions you will manufacture a lot of pseudo-patients who have a ‘disease’ that won’t actually kill them.” ]]> overdiagnosis health medicine cancer computer-vision automation ai google diagnosis https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2a73fa29b63c/ Expert reaction to World Health Organisation Q&A on e-cigarettes 2020-01-22T14:36:28+00:00 https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-world-health-organisation-qa-on-electronic-cigarettes/ jm“Practically all the factual statements in it are wrong. There is no evidence that vaping is ‘highly addictive’ – less than 1% of non-smokers become regular vapers.  Vaping does not lead young people to smoking – smoking among young people is at all time low.  There is no evidence that vaping increases risk of heart disease or that could have any effect at all on bystanders’ health. The US outbreak of lung injuries is due to contaminants in illegal marijuana cartridges and has nothing to do with nicotine vaping. There is clear evidence that e-cigarettes help smokers quit. “The authors of this document should take responsibility for using blatant misinformation to prevent smokers from switching to a much less risky alternative.” ]]> cigarettes smoking vaping addiction health medicine scaremongering who cancer https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7245701ccb03/ The 2018 Nobel Prize is a reminder of the outrageous cost of curing cancer 2018-10-02T12:55:23+00:00 https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/10/1/17923720/immunotherapy-cancer-cost jmOne final disturbing aspect of the cancer cost conundrum: Public money helped pay for many of the drugs that patients can’t afford to access. In a recent analysis, published in the journal PNAS, researchers found that American tax dollars helped fund the basic research that went into every single one of the drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration between 2010 and 2016 — including several cancer immunotherapies. All told, $100 billion in National Institutes of Health research grants helped advance the science behind those drugs. So the Nobel Prize this week is a reminder of the great promise of these drugs — and the incredible, lifesaving science that led to their discoveries. But it should also be a moment to reflect on who is benefiting from them and who isn’t. How will the 1.7 million Americans who are diagnosed with cancer per year gain access if prices keep rising and we don’t address this cost conundrum soon? ]]> cancer immunotherapy drugs costs money pharma science medicine research https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c1b638cdcd35/ DNA databases: biology stripped bare 2018-05-03T11:48:10+00:00 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/dna-databases-biology-stripped-bare-1.3481790 jmUnlike other biometrics, [DNA] also provides revealing [data regarding] thousands of other related individuals; even to an entire ethnic group. Such markers may reveal a genetic predisposition towards cancer, or early onset dementia. Mining that data and linking it to family trees and thus, individuals, might interest insurance companies, or state health bodies, or – as ever – advertisers. Or? Who knows? And the ability of a third-party potentially to reveal such information about me, about you, without us having any say, by providing their DNA profile for some personal purpose? Consider how furious so many have been on the basis of their Facebook profile data going to Cambridge Analytica via some Facebook friend deciding to do a quiz. Facebook profile data is revealing enough. But DNA is you, fully, irrevocably, exposed. And whatever it displays about you right now, is trivial compared to what we will be able to read into it in the future. That’s why this case isn’t just about a solitary law enforcement outcome, but about all of us doing an unintended, genetic full monty. ]]> dna-matching dna data-privacy privacy future health cancer insurance karlin-lillington https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1b6d4e726f76/ Yes, bacon really is killing us - The Guardian Long Read 2018-03-01T14:53:42+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/01/bacon-cancer-processed-meats-nitrates-nitrites-sausages jmSince we eat with our eyes, the main way we judge the quality of cured meats is pinkness. Yet it is this very colour that we should be suspicious of, as the French journalist Guillaume Coudray explains in a book published in France last year called Cochonneries, a word that means both “piggeries” and “rubbish” or “junk food”. The subtitle is “How Charcuterie Became a Poison”. Cochonneries reads like a crime novel, in which the processed meat industry is the perpetrator and ordinary consumers are the victims. The pinkness of bacon – or cooked ham, or salami – is a sign that it has been treated with chemicals, more specifically with nitrates and nitrites. It is the use of these chemicals that is widely believed to be the reason why “processed meat” is much more carcinogenic than unprocessed meat. Coudray argues that we should speak not of “processed meat” but “nitro-meat”. [...] When nitrates interact with certain components in red meat (haem iron, amines and amides), they form N-nitroso compounds, which cause cancer. The best known of these compounds is nitrosamine. This, as Guillaume Coudray explained to me in an email, is known to be “carcinogenic even at a very low dose”. Any time someone eats bacon, ham or other processed meat, their gut receives a dose of nitrosamines, which damage the cells in the lining of the bowel, and can lead to cancer. You would not know it from the way bacon is sold, but scientists have known nitrosamines are carcinogenic for a very long time. More than 60 years ago, in 1956, two British researchers called Peter Magee and John Barnes found that when rats were fed dimethyl nitrosamine, they developed malignant liver tumours. By the 1970s, animal studies showed that small, repeated doses of nitrosamines and nitrosamides – exactly the kind of regular dose a person might have when eating a daily breakfast of bacon – were found to cause tumours in many organs including the liver, stomach, oesophagus, intestines, bladder, brain, lungs and kidneys. But there IS some good news for Parma ham and sausages:
In 1993, Parma ham producers in Italy made a collective decision to remove nitrates from their products and revert to using only salt, as in the old days. For the past 25 years, no nitrates or nitrites have been used in any Prosciutto di Parma. Even without nitrate or nitrite, the Parma ham stays a deep rosy-pink colour. We now know that the colour in Parma ham is totally harmless, a result of the enzyme reactions during the ham’s 18-month ageing process. [...] the average British sausage – as opposed to a hard sausage like a French saucisson – is not cured, being made of nothing but fresh meat, breadcrumbs, herbs, salt and E223, a preservative that is non-carcinogenic. After much questioning, two expert spokespeople for the US National Cancer Institute confirmed to me that “one might consider” fresh sausages to be “red meat” and not processed meat, and thus only a “probable” carcinogen.
]]> bacon sausages meat parma-ham ham food cancer carcinogens big-meat nitrates nitrites https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:69b8bb20201b/ New DNA nanorobots successfully target and kill off cancerous tumors 2018-02-15T21:22:34+00:00 https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/12/new-dna-nanorobots-successfully-targeted-and-killed-off-cancerous-tumors/?sr_share=facebook jm“Using tumor-bearing mouse models, we demonstrate that intravenously injected DNA nanorobots deliver thrombin specifically to tumor-associated blood vessels and induce intravascular thrombosis, resulting in tumor necrosis and inhibition of tumor growth,” the paper explains. DNA nanorobots are a somewhat new concept for drug delivery. They work by getting programmed DNA to fold into itself like origami and then deploying it like a tiny machine, ready for action. ]]> dna nanorobots origami cancer cures medicine https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9ab0fd10f479/ We’re more likely to get cancer than to get married. This is a wake-up call | Ranjana Srivastava | Opinion | The Guardian 2017-09-27T13:18:12+00:00 https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/12/cancer-common-marriage-wake-up-call-macmillan jmLater, in clinic, I see patients ranging from a stoical university student to a devastated father to the frail octogenarian who can’t remember the day, let alone that he has cancer – each patient an illustration of a recent Macmillan Cancer Support UK finding that it is more common for an individual to be diagnosed with cancer than to get married or have a first child. One in two people will encounter a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, which is why the report says that, alongside marriage, parenthood, retirement and the death of a parent, cancer is now “a common life milestone”. ]]> cancer life milestones death uk health medicine https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:99cc08a79ac6/ Novartis CAR-T immunotherapy strongly endorsed by FDA advisory panel 2017-07-13T15:17:38+00:00 http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/12/536812206/living-drug-that-fights-cancer-by-harnessing-the-immune-system-clears-key-hurdle jmThe new treatment is known as CAR-T cell immunotherapy. It works by removing key immune system cells known as T cells from the patient so scientists can genetically modify them to seek out and attack only cancer cells. That's why some scientists refer to this as a "living drug." Doctors then infuse millions of the genetically modified T cells back into the patient's body so they can try to obliterate the cancer cells and hopefully leave healthy tissue unscathed. "It's truly a paradigm shift," said Dr. David Lebwohl, who heads the CAR-T Franchise Global Program at the drug company Novartis, which is seeking the FDA's approval for the treatment. "It represents a new hope for patients." The drug endorsed by the advisory panel is known as CTL019 or tisagenlecleucel. It was developed to treat children and young adults ages 3 to 25 who have relapsed after undergoing standard treatment for B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is the most common childhood cancer in the United States. While this blood cell cancer can be highly curable, some patients fail to respond to standard treatments; and a significant proportion of patients experience relapses that don't respond to follow-up therapies. "There is a major unmet medical need for treatment options" for these patients, Dr. Stephen Hunger, who helped study at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told the committee. In the main study that the company submitted as evidence in seeking FDA approval, doctors at 25 sites in 11 countries administered the treatment to 88 patients. The patients, ages 3 to 23, had failed standard treatment or experienced relapses and failed to respond to follow-up standard treatment. CTL019 produced remissions in 83 percent of patients, the company told the committee. ]]> car-t immunotherapy cancer novartis trials fda drugs t-cells immune-system medicine leukemia ctl019 https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5f3c09eabeef/ ‘This is not the end’: Using immunotherapy to target genes gives cancer patients hope - The Washington Post 2017-05-29T16:00:09+00:00 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/this-is-not-the-end-experimental-therapy-that-targets-genes-gives-cancer-patients-hope/2017/05/28/cdce31de-365c-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html jm cancer trials drugs pembro anti-pd-1 immunotherapy merck https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3bb726e6eb31/ The Forgotten Story Of The Radium Girls 2017-05-07T21:29:18+00:00 https://www.buzzfeed.com/authorkatemoore/the-light-that-does-not-lie#.wxnVKwAxA jm osha health safety radium poisoning regulation history us-politics free-market cancer radiation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d2693aa87c60/ Immunotherapy Pioneer James Allison Has Unfinished Business with Cancer - MIT Technology Review 2017-04-25T13:38:51+00:00 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604086/immunotherapy-pioneer-james-allison-has-unfinished-business-with-cancer/?set= jm ipilimumab cancer yervoy immunotherapy medicine melanoma https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:407d6158adc1/ That time a priest and a nun and a guy who were on an Irish hospital board blocked cancer treatment that required contraception 2017-04-21T12:23:26+00:00 https://twitter.com/Tupp_Ed/status/855091005573476352 jm cancer treatment contraception prolife trials medicine ethos mater-hospital boards governance https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8423dbce5ebf/ Getting good cancer care through 3D printing 2015-01-14T23:48:49+00:00 http://makezine.com/magazine/hands-on-health-care/ jmBalzer downloaded a free software program called InVesalius, developed by a research center in Brazil to convert MRI and CT scan data to 3D images. He used it to create a 3D volume rendering from Scott’s DICOM images, which allowed him to look at the tumor from any angle. Then he uploaded the files to Sketchfab and shared them with neurosurgeons around the country in the hope of finding one who was willing to try a new type of procedure. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he found the doctor he was looking for at UPMC, where Scott had her thyroid removed. A neurosurgeon there agreed to consider a minimally invasive operation in which he would access the tumor through Scott’s left eyelid and remove it using a micro drill. Balzer had adapted the volume renderings for 3D printing and produced a few full-size models of the front section of Scott’s skull on his MakerBot. To help the surgeon vet his micro drilling idea and plan the procedure, Balzer packed up one of the models and shipped it off to Pittsburgh. ]]> diy surgery health cancer tumours medicine 3d-printing 3d scanning mri dicom https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e322ac6143ac/ How much can an extra hour's sleep change you? 2013-10-09T13:40:18+00:00 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24444634 jmWhat they discovered is that when the volunteers cut back from seven-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours' sleep a night, genes that are associated with processes like inflammation, immune response and response to stress became more active. The team also saw increases in the activity of genes associated with diabetes and risk of cancer. The reverse happened when the volunteers added an hour of sleep. ]]> sleep health rest cancer bbc science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:346869ec2633/ IETF expedited publication of RFC6449 before J.D. Falk passed away 2011-11-17T13:21:08+00:00 http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2011/11_17.xml jm jd-falk death cancer rfcs ietf anti-spam people https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a7394e2b729c/ One Mutation per 15 Cigarettes Smoked 2010-01-22T17:47:14+00:00 http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=844 jm cancer lung-cancer smoking tobacco risk mutation https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:786fd16c5f8a/