CLINICAL NEWS
Pounds of Prevention
Obesity may replace smoking as the leading cause of preventable cancers in
women in the next 25 years, according to a report from Cancer Research UK.
Overweight and obesity are already linked to an increased risk for 13 types
of cancer, and based on those trends, the authors projected that:
By 2035, 10% of cancers
could be caused by
smoking (25,000 cases)
vs. 9% by excess weight
(23,000 cases).
By 2043, those numbers
would flip: 9% of cancers
would be caused by
smoking and 10% by
excess weight.
10%
Better communication between patients and
providers can improve outcomes for patients living with cancer.
In a survey of nearly 4,600 cancer survivors, those who said their health-care providers
listened carefully, explained things in an easy-to-understand way, and spent adequate
time with them had better outcomes than those with less communicative providers.
They were:
8%
Stop, Look, and Listen
37
%
39
%
6%
4%
2%
0%
2035
more likely
to have better
mental health
more likely
to have better
general health
2043
The authors claim that this swap is attributable to public-health campaigns
that have educated people about the dangers of cigarette smoking but
added that “we also need to act now to halt the tide of weight-related
cancers and ensure this projection never becomes a reality.”
Source: Cancer Research UK, Report from the Cancer Intelligence Team, August 2018.
Better communication also lowered patients’ number of annual office visits (6.3 vs. 7.4
visits) and the amount of annual health-care spending ($26,995 vs. $34,071).
Source: Rai A, Han X, Zheng Z, et al. Determinants and outcomes of satisfaction with healthcare provider communica-
tion among cancer survivors. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2018;16:975-84.
Also:
Drive-Thru Cancer Care?
Clinicians at the Medical College of Wisconsin
are testing an innovative way to deliver care
to patients with cancer:
A 24-hour clinic that reduced emergency
department use and increased patient
satisfaction.
The 24-hour clinic was staffed with 1 hematology/oncology
advanced practice provider and 2 nurses, or a nurse and a
technician, who provided services like supportive care, urgent
labs, and basic diagnostics.
In the clinic’s first year,
emergency department use
among oncology patients
dropped by 26%.
inpatient admission
rates dropped from
46% to 21%
radiology orders
dropped from
75% to 11%
lab orders dropped from
87% to 71%
(no p values provided)
More than 90% of patients and staff reported high satisfaction with the 24-hour clinic’s
services.
Source: Curtis T. Right place, right provider, right time: Implementing our 24-hour cancer clinic. Presented at the ACCC
National Oncology Conference, October 17, 2018; Phoenix, Arizona.
ASHClinicalNews.org
ASH Clinical News
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