Sunday, June 17, 2018

Healing Hope and Survivorship

Last weekend, I attended the 2018 Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey's Survivor's Day. Over the past 10 years, I have attended a number of Survivor Day events and heard many wonderful advocate/speakers from Valisia LeKae to C Vivian Stringer to Bruce Feiler.



This year the keynote speaker was survivor, physician and cancer advocate Wendy S. Harpham (http://www.wendyharpham.com/). During her keynote speech I found myself shaking my head in agreement. You see she was talking about hope - Healing Hope in particular - an  how we can be healthy survivors. 



Many of the points she made were part of her latest book- Healing Hope Through and Beyond Cancer. As part of the day, we were each given a copy of the book to take home. The book includes graphics to describe each topic.

Over the past few days I have been working my way through the book. This page, Don't Wait and See ... Live and See, is one that I felt really spoke to those of us survivors who worry as we wait for scan results.




"I have today.While waiting for news or anything else I'll live and see"


Great advice!

If you are a survivor or a caregiver I strongly recommend that you purchase a copy. You can find it on Amazon by visiting here.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

#ASCO18 Twitter Highlights June 4, 2018

Many gyn cancer research topics as well as survivorship issue  were covered on Monday at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

If you were at the meeting and think I missed any important developments please share a link to it in my comments section below.

Genetics / Genetics Counseling




Risk Reducing Surgery




CA-125


Endometriosis and Cannibis Treatment
Mindfulness

Neuropathy


Patient Reported Outcomes- Pain
Enodmetrial Cancer- Posters

Ovarian Cancer - Posters

Fertility Preservation

Metformin in Cancer Treatment

HIPEC

Palliative Care

Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy - OC

 Further details may be found at 

Cediranib and Olaparib for recurrent OC
Further info may be found at


Thank you to all the researchers , advocates, and cancer centers who tweeted from this year's Annual Meeting.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!


 
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Monday, June 4, 2018

#ASCO18 Twitter Highlights June 3, 2018

What do you do on a windy, cloudy, raining Sunday in NJ?
Follow tweets from the ASCO of course.

My Twitter news stream was filled with comments on these two non-gyn cancer studies.

Breast Cancer -
The Adjuvant Chemo and 21 Gene Expression Assay study reported at ASCO by Dr J Sparano may be found in this NJEM article https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1804710.
"Investigators “found that gene tests on tumor samples were able to identify women who could safely skip chemotherapy and take only a drug that blocks the hormone estrogen or stops the body from making it.” From the ASCO Cancer in the News e-mail  .

Lung Cancer - Keytruda Study (Pembroluzimab)
Keytruda "boosts the immune system outperforms chemotherapy in fighting advanced lung cancer, a new trial shows. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) extended life four to eight months longer than chemotherapy in lung cancer patients whose immune systems had been duped by their cancer cells.
"This trial shows that pembrolizumab used alone improves survival as opposed to chemotherapy," said lead researcher Dr. Gilberto Lopes, a medical oncologist with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Health System." From HealthDay / ASCO Cancer in the News e-mail.
https://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/lung-cancer-news-100/cancer-drug-keytruda-a-new-weapon-against-advanced-lung-tumors-734492.html


Now on to the gyn Tweets/ Studies.
OVARIAN CANCER :

Keynote - niraparib and pembrolizumab
(Median duration response rate of 9.3 months)
 

Vaccine Trial


Genetic Testing

HPV / Cervical Cancer

Immune environment
Trial Design


 Communication

Cancer Prevention

Will check into the #gyncsm and #ASCO18 tweet streams a few times today to catch more news from the meeting. If you are there feel free to use those hashtags or tag me @womenofteal in your posts.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

Sunday, June 3, 2018

#ASCO18 Twitter Highlights June 1 & 2, 2018

What does the first weekend in June mean for oncologists and cancer researchers throughout the world? It means it is time for the  ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. I was not able to attend the ASCO Annual Meeting in person this year so I am following the tweets my friends who are attending are sharing.  I was able to take part in a Guideline meeting held at the Meeting on Saturday afterbiib via Webex. So I was there in a sense.
As i the past I will be following the meeting via tweets by doctors , researchers and advocates who are attending. It is not as much fun or exhausting as being there in person but it allows me to keep up to date on the latest results. I'll share the Tweets I found most interesting in the next few blog posts.

I also have been getting e-mail updates from ASCO regarding breaking news and important topics from the meeting. Below the tweets you will find some articles from the ASCO Daily News and ASCO Post that you may find of interest.

First the Tweets:

MATCH TRIAL
Lynch Syndrome:

Survivorship
Endometrial Cancer

Clinical Trial Participation:

ASCO POST or DAILY News Articles:

Lynch Syndrome:
www.ascopost.com/News/58898

Patient Communication:
https://am.asco.org/addressing-patient-communication-challenges

Patient Survivorship Care:
https://am.asco.org/patients-moderate-severe-anxiety-or-depression-symptoms-recognizing-assessing-referring-and

IMPACT Trial :
http://www.ascopost.com/News/58897?email=865aa94a58f0b27b9edd2aa71d80e9a99b924971f7ce90316a0d742b2e9c9b1c

Patient Education and Quality of Care:
https://am.asco.org/patient-education-essential-element-quality-cancer-care
Economics and Value Discussion:
https://am.asco.org/bringing-economics-back-value-discussions

I'm looking forward to the next few days when there will be a greater emphasis on Gynecologic Cancers.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!