Word: oncologist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...doctor's words may speak louder than actions, but every patient hears them differently, and doctors end up feeling they cannot win. When Cincinnati receptionist Doris Roetting had a mastectomy in the fall of 1987, her surgeon assured her that she was recuperating nicely. Her oncologist, however, was a bit more explicit, to Roetting's dismay. He quietly explained that she had a 90% chance of being alive in five years and an 80% chance of surviving ten years. Some patients might have been grateful for such candor; Roetting went home in tears. "I think everybody who has cancer knows...
...clearly no cure for cancer. Five percent to 10% of patients experience complete remission, and more have partial ones. But the majority reap no benefit at all. Given the expense and the risks, the treatment has come in for some sharp criticism. Even so, University of Pennsylvania Oncologist Kevin Fox notes that IL-2 therapy is the only treatment that works at all on advanced melanoma and kidney cancer. Admits Rosenberg: "It's a treatment in its infancy...
According to Dr. Robert R. Mayer, oncologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, current early detection techniques using monoclonal antibodies are all "limited" because some non-cancerous cells can trigger the same reaction as cancerous ones...
Still, many women have found more substantial benefits at women's centers. Long Island Interior Designer Gloria Levine credits Dr. Budoff with saving her from a mastectomy after Levine discovered a lump in one breast: "She told me how to ask my oncologist to find out if I was a candidate for a lumpectomy." Another clinic patient, Delores Burton, reports that after a painful procedure, she was offered tea. "No doctor ever gave me a cup of tea before. It's a different kind of care." That combination of service and solicitude, notes Dr. Budoff, has earned the ultimate accolade...
...must shed their fears sufficiently to go for routine cancer checkups. Once a diagnosis of malignancy has been made, the afflicted may have to take aggressive action. This could involve collisions between the patient and his family doctor and a tough-minded struggle for an appointment with an appropriate oncologist at one of the "comprehensive cancer centers" such as New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston...