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Average folks should start being screened at age 45 to prevent colon cancer, five years earlier than is now recommended, the nation's top preventive medicine panel says.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force currently recommends that people aged 50 to 75 be regularly screened for colon cancer, one of a handful of cancers that can be prevented outright.

But new data suggest...

If Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is repealed, pediatric cancer patients could lose critical insurance coverage, a new study warns.

Kids with cancer often require intensive treatment and long-term follow-up to beat the disease. The ACA allows them to stay on their parents' insurance coverage to age 26 and bans exclusion of patients with preexisting conditions.

...

A combination of two "targeted" therapies can beat back a rare form of blood cancer -- without the toxic effects of chemotherapy, a new study has found.

In a trial of 63 patients, researchers found that the drug regimen frequently wiped out all signs of the cancer -- a subtype of the blood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). And at 18 months, 95% of patients were still aliv...

Actor Jeff Bridges announced on Monday that he has been diagnosed with lymphoma.

Telling his fans on Twitter, the acclaimed thespian said, "Although it is a serious disease, I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good. I'm starting treatment and will keep you posted on my recovery."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prev...

Early diagnosis of colon cancer is crucial to improve a patient's chance of survival, an expert says.

Colon cancer is on the rise, especially among younger people, so it's important to know the symptoms and how to prevent it, according to Dr. Sameet Shah. He's a gastroenterologist with Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Group in Verona, N.J.

The risk is the same for me...

While men can take solace in a new government report that shows prostate cancer cases have been declining overall in the past two decades, the same analysis finds that the opposite is true for advanced prostate cancer cases.

In fact, the number of cases of cancer that had already spread from the prostate to other parts of the body doubled between 2003 and 2017, going from 4% to 8&...

Breast cancer in men is rare. But because it's not often suspected in men, diagnosis often comes only after a tumor has begun to spread throughout the body, new research shows.

"Approximately one-half of males with breast cancer received a diagnosis after it had already spread," either to nearby or distant tissues, said a team of researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Weight-loss surgery significantly reduces the risk of pancreatic cancer in obese people with diabetes, a new study finds.

For the study, the researchers analyzed 20 years of data from 1.4 million people, including more than 10,000 who'd had weight-loss surgery. About three-quarters of those who had weight-loss surgery were women.

People who'd had weight-loss surgery were les...

Young women with cancer are at a high risk for employment and financial consequences, a new study finds.

"Our study addresses the burden of employment disruption and financial hardship among young women with cancer -- a group who may be at particular risk for poor financial outcomes after cancer given their age and gender," said researcher Clare Meernik, a fellow at the University of...

DNA mutations in skin cells may signal a risk for melanoma long before it's visible to the eye, a new study suggests.

Exposure to sun damages skin and DNA, and this damage can be measured. Using a new method for analyzing DNA harm, researchers say they can estimate the risk of developing melanoma.

"It turns out that a multitude of individual cells in so-called normal skin ...

Research following patients for nearly three decades finds that surgery plus radiation beats surgery alone for women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) -- a common, early form of breast cancer that can become invasive cancer.

However, the study also found that any survival advantage for the combo treatment appears to fade over the long term.

Still, "overall, the addition o...

A newly approved drug for the leading form of the number one cancer killer, lung cancer, does improve patient survival, a new study confirms.

The immunotherapy drug Tecentriq (atezolizumab) was approved earlier this year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), which comprise up to 85% of all lung tumors.<...

Girls who are vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) may drastically cut their chances of developing cervical cancer by age 30, a huge, new study finds.

Researchers found that of more than 1.6 million young Swedish women, those who'd gotten the HPV vaccine were about two-thirds less likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer than their unvaccinated peers.

Those odds ...

Risky, groundbreaking surgery saved a 12-year-old dog that had an aggressive tumor and was given only weeks to live, University of Florida veterinarians report.

Cello, a female goldendoodle, had a rare tumor that caused a life-threatening obstruction of her major veins.

"This was one of the most advanced cases of tumor invasion that any of us had seen, and there was a very h...

Among breast cancer patients in the United States, Black women are more likely to start treatment later and to have a longer treatment period than white women, new research shows.

For the study, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed data from more than 2,800 patients (about equal numbers of Black women and white women) with stage 1 to 3 breast cancer ...

Patients who have surgery for bladder cancer fare worse if they smoke, new research shows.

"This study is important because while it is known that tobacco smoking is the leading cause of bladder cancer, this is the first study to suggest that smoking puts bladder cancer patients at risk after diagnosis," said study co-author Dr. Giovanni Cacciamani. He's an assistant professor of res...

People with cancer are at increased risk for severe COVID-19. Now, a preliminary study suggests that certain cancer therapies may heighten those odds even further.

Researchers found that of 3,600 U.S. cancer patients who contracted COVID-19, the highest risk of death was among those who'd received cancer treatment within the past three months.

And the type of therapy mattere...

Women diagnosed with an early, highly treatable form of breast cancer still face a higher-than-normal risk of eventually dying from the disease, a large new study finds.

The study looked at women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), where cancer cells form in the lining of the milk ducts but have not yet invaded the breast tissue. Sometimes it's called a "pre-cancer," other times a "...

An immunotherapy drug significantly improved survival in patients with the most common type of bladder cancer, according to a new study.

About 550,000 new cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed worldwide each year, making it the 10th most common type of cancer, the study authors noted.

Chemotherapy is the initial standard of care for advanced bladder cancer. After chemotherap...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, the court announced. The cause was complications from pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg was 87.

First appointed to the court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, Ginsburg was the longest serving member of the liberal justices on the bench. Her many votes in support of abortion rights, access to health care, same-sex marriage and o...

Many Americans at high risk for colon cancer don't know how often they need to have a screening colonoscopy, researchers say.

The report follows the recent death of actor Chadwick Boseman, who died Aug. 28 at age 43 after a private, four-year battle with colon cancer. Boseman was best known for playing the superhero Black Panther.

Colon cancer is the third most common cause ...

Nearly 90,000 Americans between 15 and 39 years of age will be diagnosed with cancer this year and more than 9,200 will die, a new report projects.

One hematologist who deals with younger cancer patients said the shock of a diagnosis at this point in their lives can be overwhelming.

"This population is unique, they're in the prime of their lives," said Dr. Tina Bhatnagar, w...

Just a few cups of coffee a day may help slow down the deadly progression of advanced colon cancer, new research finds.

Of the nearly 1,200 patients in the study, those who drank four or more cups of java on a daily basis had 36% higher odds of surviving during the 13-year study period.

Metastatic colon cancer, which has spread from its original location, "remains an inc...

More U.S. kids are getting a recommended vaccine that protects against several cancers -- but there is still much room for improvement, a new study finds.

At issue is the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV). Certain strains of HPV are sexually transmitted, and some of those are "high risk" -- meaning that if the immune system does not clear the infection, it can eventually lead...

New research reveals what may be fueling racial disparities in U.S. prostate cancer deaths -- disparities that have black patients dying at higher rates than whites.

What are they? Education, income and insurance.

"Socioeconomic status and insurance status are all changeable factors. Unfortunately, the socioeconomic status inequality in the United States has continued to inc...

Even light smokers are much more likely to die of lung disease or lung cancer than nonsmokers, a new study warns.

"Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but it's easy to assume that if you only smoke a little, the risks won't be too high," said study co-leader Pallavi Balte, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, in New York City.

The new study shows how wrong ...

Millions of people color their own hair, even though some of the chemicals in permanent hair dyes are considered possible carcinogens.

So, is home hair coloring safe?

According to a new study, the answer is a qualified yes.

After tracking cancer risk among more than 117,000 U.S. women for 36 years, the investigators found that personal use of permanent hair dyes wa...

Cancer patients who need radiation therapy shouldn't let fear of COVID-19 delay their treatment, one hospital study suggests.

Over six days in May, during the height of the pandemic in New Jersey, surfaces in the radiation oncology department at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., were tested for COVID-19 before cleaning.

Of 128 samples taken in...

As many as one-third of doctors may be sending patients for a thyroid ultrasound for reasons not supported by guidelines, a new study finds.

The use of ultrasound to detect thyroid cancer has led to a large increase in thyroid cancer cases, but many of these cancers are low-risk and won't cause serious harm, the study authors explained.

For the study, the researchers quest...

Erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra may do more than restore sexual function -- they may also prolong the lives of men with colon cancer.

That's the conclusion of a new Swedish study, which reported that the risk of premature death dropped by as much as 18% among colon cancer patients who used ED drugs.

The medications were also linked to...

Instead of weeks of radiation following a lumpectomy, a new study shows that many women with early breast cancer do just as well with only a single dose of targeted radiation that is given during their surgery.

"Breast cancer outcomes, in terms of cancer coming back, breast cancer survival, dying from breast cancer, being mastectomy-free, being free of disease elsewhere in the body, a...

Women smokers already have one bad habit. A new study finds another: They're less likely than others to go for cancer screenings.

Moreover, they're more likely to have spreading cancer when diagnosed, according to findings.

For the report, researchers collected data on more than 89,000 postmenopausal women who took part in a long-running U.S. study.

More than hal...

Women with early-stage breast cancer whose surgery has been postponed during the coronavirus pandemic need not worry about the delay, new study findings suggest.

A longer time from diagnosis to surgery doesn't affect overall survival of women with early-stage tumors, the researchers found. They also said a delay didn't lower survival among women with estrogen-sensitive, early-stage b...

Adding to an ongoing debate over the timing of mammography, a new British study finds that screening women aged 40 to 49 for breast cancer saves lives, with only small increases in overdiagnosis.

"This is a very long-term follow-up of a study which confirms that screening in women under 50 can save lives," researcher Stephen Duffy, from Queen Mary University of London, said in a unive...

Fewer Americans have been dying of lung cancer in recent years -- partly because of advances in treatment, a new government study finds.

The researchers found that after a gradual decline, lung cancer deaths in the United States started to drop more quickly in 2013. That coincided with the introduction of new "targeted" drugs that can more precisely go after certain lung tumors.

Taking a daily low-dose aspirin may speed the progression of cancer in the elderly, a new clinical trial shows.

Daily aspirin doubled the risk that a person 70 or older would die from a stage 3 cancer, and increased the death risk associated with stage 4 cancers by nearly a third, according to data from more than 19,000 older people in the United States and Australia.

Older ...

Contrary to recommendations set by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, many Americans are getting screened for cancer even when old age or poor health would likely render such screenings risky and pointless, new research finds.

The task force notes that screening always entails some degree of risk, and cancer treatment can be harsh. So the reasoning is that neither the risk nor t...

As COVID-19 continues to impact nearly all aspects of American health care, researchers warn that the United States has seen a troubling drop in cancer diagnoses since the pandemic began.

The drop is not being attributed to a downturn in cancer incidence, but rather a COVID-driven reluctance to get screened.

"Our research found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, between Marc...

Scientists for the first time have identified an aggressive bone cancer in a dinosaur that lived nearly 77 million years ago.

The cancerous lower leg bone (fibula) is from a horned dinosaur called a Centrosaurus apertus. At first, researchers thought the bone had been broken and was healing when the animal died, but state-of-the-art technology showed it had a cancer known as...

Cities around the world are increasingly turning to streetlights emitting so-called "blue light," and it's also common in smartphones, laptops and tablets. Now, a study hints that excess exposure to blue-spectrum light might raise a person's odds for colon cancer.

As a team of Spanish researchers noted, prior studies have suggested that blue light emitted by most white LEDs (light-emi...

There's a low level of awareness among American women about a form of lymphoma that can occur around breast implants, a new study finds.

Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) is an immune system cancer. It's estimated to occur in between 1 in 3,000 and 1 in 12,000 women with textured breast implants. Smooth-surfaced implants are associated with a lower ra...

An updated guideline from the American Cancer Society calls for more simplified cervical cancer screening, administered less often.

The new guideline calls for an initial cervix screening at age 25, followed by the human papillomavirus (HPV) test every five years, continuing through age 65, the guideline says.

"These streamlined recommendations can improve compliance and re...

Despite rampant fears that cancer patients are at higher risk of having severe cases of COVID-19, a new study suggests gynecologic cancers do not boost the chances of hospitalization or death.

"Our study should be reassuring for women with gynecologic cancers who are worried that having cancer increases their risk of becoming seriously ill if they go to the hospital because of COVID-1...

COVID-19 is no joke for tens of thousands of ill Americans, but a new report shows just how dangerous it can be for those already fighting cancer.

The study was based on an analysis of the health records of 212,000 people living with cancer. It found that a COVID-19 diagnosis raised a patient's odds of death 16-fold, compared to cancer patients without the coronavirus.

Cance...

Want to avoid cancer? Consider brushing and flossing more often.

Why? Folks with bad gums might be at higher risk of developing certain types of cancer, new research suggests.

A history of gum disease appears to increase the risk of stomach cancer by 52% and throat cancer by 43%, according to data from two major long-term health studies.

People who'd lost t...

Immunotherapy for cancer patients with COVID-19 appears safe, a preliminary study suggests.

The treatments activate a person's immune system against cancer.

Researchers have been wary, because many COVID-19 complications result from an overactive immune response that leads to increased production of proteins called cytokines that can cause issues such as respiratory failur...

Want to boost colon cancer screening rates? Mail testing kits to patients' homes, a new study says.

Colon cancer is easily diagnosed by routine screening, such as colonoscopies and at-home stool testing.

But despite recommendations that adults get screened from ages 50 to 75, more than 33% of Americans are not up to date with screening.

Ways to increase screen...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced Friday that she is undergoing chemotherapy to help fight a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, CNN reported.

The cancer has arisen once more, this time in her liver, according to a report from the court. Cutting-edge immunotherapy had been tried to shrink the tumor, but it wasn't effective. Standard chemotherapy does appear ...

FRIDAY, July 17, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Fans of "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek got a health update for the first time in months on Thursday when he told followers that his treatments for pancreatic cancer are "paying off."

"I'm doing well," the 79-year-old host said in a video recorded at his home. "I've been continuing my treatment and it is paying off, though it does fatigue me a gr...

Irene Johnson noticed a big, blue bus bearing the words "Breathe Easy" outside the Benton, Tenn., library during the 2019 Labor Day weekend.

Inside, a librarian told Johnson that the bus was a mobile CT unit that travels around screening smokers for lung cancer.

Former longtime smokers, both Johnson and her husband, Karl, fit the criteria for getting screened, so they decide...