If You ’ re Happy and You Know It …
The Radiation Generation
Something to Talk About
CLINICAL NEWS
If You ’ re Happy and You Know It …
According to Medscape ’ s annual Lifestyle Report , cancer specialists ranked seventh in happiness , with 36 % of oncologists ( including hematologists ) reporting being happy at work . Among all surveyed physicians from more than 30 specialties , the happiest were :
1 . Dermatologists ( 43 %)
2 . Ophthalmologists ( 42 %)
3 . Allergists and immunologists ( 41 %)
4 . Orthopedic professionals ( 37 %)
5 . Psychiatrists and mental health professionals ( 37 %)
6 . Pulmonary medicine professionals ( 37 %)
The Radiation Generation
The rate of secondary malignancies among children with cancer is declining , which is linked to treatment era-related changes in the amount of radiation therapy administered , according to an analysis by the National Cancer Institute – sponsored Childhood Cancer Survivor Study .
7 . Oncologists ( 36 %)
In addition , amount of happiness at work might be associated with levels of burnout . On a burnout severity scale of 1 (“ It does not interfere with my life ”) to 7 (“ It is so severe that I am thinking of leaving medicine altogether ”), the average severity rating for oncologists was 4.5 – the third highest among all physicians .
Between 1970 and 1999 , the 15-year incidence of subsequent malignancies among 23,603 patients who were diagnosed before 21 years of age and had survived for at least five years decreased by decade of diagnosis :
2.1 % in the 1970s
Source : Medscape Oncologist Lifestyle Report 2017 : Race and Ethnicity , Bias and Burnout , January 11 , 2017 .
1.7 % in the 1980s
Something to Talk About
1.3 % in the 1990s
Both patients and physicians want better communication about the cost of cancer care , but few actually have these discussions , according to results from a literature review published in Cancer .
Health economics researchers identified 15 articles that evaluated patient-physician communication about treatment costs and patient attitudes , physician acceptance , and associated outcomes , but they found some disconnect between patient and physician expectations about cost communication .
During the same time period , the use and intensity of radiation therapy also decreased :
Percentage receiving radiation therapy :
from 77 % to 33 %
Among patients :
> 50 % desired some communication about costs
< 33 % reported actually discussing costs with their physicians
Among physicians :
75 % considered discussions with patients about out-of-pocket costs to be their responsibility
< 30 % felt comfortable discussing this with their patients
The prevalence of these conversations varied widely , from < 10 % to 60 % among the study populations , but researchers could not explain why cost communication was relatively low .
Source : Shih YT , Chien CR . A review of cost communication in oncology : Patient attitude , provider acceptance , and outcome assessment . Cancer . 2017 ; 123:928-39 .
Median dose of radiation therapy :
from 30 Gy to 26 Gy
Though the risk for developing secondary malignancies is still higher among childhood cancer survivors than non-cancer patients , “ Radiation dose changes were associated with reduced risk for subsequent malignancies , meningiomas , and non-melanoma skin cancers ,” the authors concluded .
Source : Turcotte LM , Liu Q , Yasui Y , et al . Temporal trends in treatment and subsequent neoplasm risk among 5-year survivors of childhood cancer , 1970-2015 . JAMA . 2017 ; 317:814-24 .
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