Introduction

 

Understanding the basics of cancer can give you confidence and help you feel more in control. While cancer remains a serious and complicated illness, the number of cancer survivors has been increasing thanks to better detection, treatments, and care.

In the column to the right, you will find links to information that will give you the cancer basics you need quickly: how cancer develops and how it is diagnosed, practical help, cancer terms, and more.

Latest Cancer News
Birth weight appears associated with leukemia

July 2, 2009 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There may be an association between high birth weight and an increased risk of overall leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appears to be associated with the high and low extremes of birth weight.

Kennedy, Dodd health plan cost drops to $611 bln

July 2, 2009 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Key Senate Democrats said on Thursday the cost of their plan to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system has dropped to $611 billion over a decade, a figure they hope will help draw wider bipartisan support in Congress.

Preoperative PET-CT Reduces Number of Thoracotomies but Does Not Improve Survival of Patients with NSCLC

July 2, 2009 — Researchers from Denmark have reported that “The use of PET-CT for preoperative staging of NSCLC [non–small cell lung cancer] reduced both the total number of thoracotomies and the number of futile thoracotomies but did not affect overall mortality.” The details of this study appeared in the July 2, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Select news items provided by Reuters Health