Word: colon
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AILING. CHARLES SCHULZ, 77, Peanuts cartoonist and creator of Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty and Snoopy; with colon cancer; in a hospital in Santa Rosa, Calif. Doctors discovered the cancer after operating last week to repair a blocked abdominal artery...
...REACTION All kinds of fiber can help prevent colon cancer, but now a preliminary report on pigs suggests that one type--wheat bran--may do an especially good job. Researchers fattened up some 20 hogs on a typical American diet--feed containing the same nutrients found in burgers, fries and other fatty Happy Meal fare. The pigs were also given fiber from potatoes and corn, but some got an extra sprinkle of wheat. These were the lucky pigs. In the lower part of their bowel (where most tumors occur), the pigs had more butyrate, a substance that prevents early cellular...
...almost anyone what's wrong with HMOs these days, and the answer is often the same: precertification. Before ordering tests for colon cancer or even scheduling surgery, many doctors must submit their therapies and plans to company reviewers. Examples of denied care have produced the worst horror stories associated with managed care. The process has left doctors frustrated and patients anxious. It also fueled a revolt in Congress last month in which a band of rebel Republicans rolled over the House leadership to pass a bill giving patients the right to sue their insurance companies for the medical decisions they...
INSIDE INFORMATION Colonoscopy is probably the world's most unpopular procedure, but the notoriously uncomfortable test, in which a probe is snaked through the anus and into the bowel, is still considered the gold standard for detecting colon cancer in its earliest, most treatable stage. Now there may be a less traumatic alternative. A study shows that a "virtual colonoscopy"--basically, a fancy CAT scan--is nearly as accurate (82%) as the real thing in detecting tiny precancerous polyps. The procedure zaps patients with radiation equivalent to about five chest X rays, but it's noninvasive, requires no sedation...
Within five years, early detection will be available for many other types of cancer as well. A stool sample will be all that is needed to search for colon-cancer cells on their way to becoming tumors, and drugs like the new COX-2 inhibitors, which are improved versions of pain killers, can prevent those precancerous cells from progressing. By the end of the next decade, a simple blood test could alert doctors to a wide variety of cancer precursors...