Colorectal Cancer News in Brief: July 7

News in Brief catches up today after celebrating the Fourth of July with swimming, sailing, and time with family.  We hope you had as good a time relaxing as we did.

Research shows that children whose parents have cancer have more social and psychological problems, mice who are fed a high-fat Western-style diet don’t benefit from exercise and develop more colon polyps, and adding irinotecan to 5FU after surgery to remove liver mets adds no benefit but has more serious side effects.

The VA is upgrading equipment to sterilize endoscopes and train staff to clean them properly with $26 million from its reserve funds.  Two scientists at MIT are sampling and freezing their own stools each day to study changing patterns of millions of  microbes in the intestinal tract. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on July 7th, 2009
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: diet, intestinal microbes, liver metastases, parents with cancer, VA

VA Colonoscopy Infection Update: Tennessee Patients Have Hepatitis

Just reported by the Associated Press:  The Veterans Administration has confirmed 10 cases of liver infections among patients who had colonoscopies at the Murfreesboro, TN campus of the Veterans Administration Healthcare System.

VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said Friday that four Tennessee patients have tested positive for hepatitis B. Six have tested positive for hepatitis C, a potentially life-threatening form of the viral infection that can cause permanent liver damage.

The Veterans Administration says that patients will get care for hepatitis even though it is not known whether the infections came from the colonoscopies or the VA facilities.

Previously 6,000 patients in the Tennessee Valley VA Healthcare System were warned that they might be at risk for hepatitis B or C or HIV infection because of improperly cleaned colonoscopy equipment.

Posted by Kate Murphy on March 27th, 2009
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | 2 Comments »
Tags: colonoscopy, hepatitis, VA