Maryland Congressman who led second Trump impeachment trial reports that he has lymphoma

Jamie B. Raskin, a key member of the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, is again fighting cancer.

The 60-year-old Democrat Congressman from Maryland, who'd also led the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, announced yesterday that he is being treated for lymphoma.

Rep. Jamie Raskin

According to a story by Steve Thompson in The Washington Post, Raskin reported that “after several days of tests, I have been diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which is a serious but curable form of cancer. Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment.”

Raskin, who won reelection last month with more than 80% of the vote, said he expects to work during the outpatient treatment of chemo-immunotherapy — though physicians have cautioned him "to reduce unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus, the flu and other viruses."

Thompson's story quotes him from a press release, joking, "“I am advised that [the treatment] also causes hair loss and weight gain (although I am still holding out hope for the kind that causes hair gain and weight loss).”

Raskin has battled cancer before. Radiation and chemo helped him in 2010 get rid of Stage 3 colon cancer.

In the final session of the select committee, Raskin was the one who voiced the committee's referral of four criminal charges against Trump to the Department of Justice.

More information about life-threatening diseases and treatments can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Despite drop in cancer death rates, docs worry about continued high numbers among Blacks

A new study indicates that, despite a drop, cancer deaths in Black people remain higher than those of every other category.

Lindsey Tanner's recent Associated Press story notes that the death rates among Blacks have steadily declined — as they have for all Americans for the past two decades — apparently because of lower smoking rates and advances in early detection and treatment.

But the continued high rates among Blacks remain a concern. 

Wayne Lawrence

Those rates, according to the AP article that quotes National Cancer Institute researcher Wayne Lawrence, who led the study published online in "JAMA Oncology," likely reflect "social and economic disparities including poverty, less access to care and mistrust of doctors." 

Carla Williams, a Ph.D. and a Howard University expert in cancer-related health disparities, who had no role in the research, also was quote regarding the finding: "It's showing that we simply can't rely on medical care as a way to address and eliminate the disparities."

Tanner's article also says "an earlier report from the American Cancer Society found the racial gap was narrowing mostly because of a bigger decline" in smoking. The largest dips, it postulates, "were in lung cancer among Black men and stomach cancer in Black women."

The piece cites the following data: "Rates among Black people fell each year from 1999 to 2019, from 359 cancer deaths per 100,000 to 239 deaths per 100,000, according to the report."

The rates, however, are "almost double the lowest rate in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders."

Carla Williams, Ph.D.

Cancer prevention expert Dr. Otis Brawley of Johns Hopkins University is quoted by the the story as saying, "Other data show Black Americans get worse cancer care than White people. That's in part because they're more likely to be treated at hospitals with overworked doctors and fewer resources, and less likely to have a college degree."

Why the emphasis on a college degree? Because, the AP story quotes Brawley again, "evidence suggests that people with college degrees are more likely to exercise, not be obese, and to seek medical care when they notice changes that could signal cancer."'

More information about racial inequities and disease can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten,  aimed at male caregivers.

Button, button, who's got the button? Read this for the answer, and learn about 3 readable books

‘Tis the season in which folks often focus on family and friends.
 

The Roving I, a mostly light-hearted book that was just released, does just that — focus on family and friends. But its 70 first-person columns also include some that feature serious stuff, and numerous humorous others that showcase overheard conversational tidbits and one-liners.
 
Sounds like a perfect holiday gift to me, and it’s not too late to order one (or two, or more). I have a vested interest, of course, since I cherry-picked the essays from an archive of many more that I, Woody Weingarten, wrote over more than a dozen years.
 
Highlights, among other recollections in the collection, are an amusing tale about my pre-wife earning a slot in my Little Black Book, an upbeat story of a friend turning Parkinson’s Disease into an asset, an awesome family drama about a woman carrying her sister’s “miracle baby” inside her for five months, an inspirational adventure about a Cambodian slave-labor camp escapee becoming a successful U.S. entrepreneur, and a peek at legendary comic Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina.
 
Button, button, who’s got the button? That’s a refrain from my childhood (not mentioned in the book), but it certainly resonates today. Chanukah’s not over yet, and Christmas is in the offing. So, check out my website — http://woodyweingarten.com — and push the appropriate buy-button to purchase The Roving I.
 

Or push one for Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy co-written by my 8-year-old granddaughter and aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds. Or Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, which details how my partner and I learned to cope, and which can benefit anyone who knows someone with any life-threatening disease.
 

It's easy to find what my website labels fantasy, facts, and florilegium (an opaque, unfamiliar word meaning collection). Just go to http://woodyweingarten.com  and select your favorite book outlet.

Experimental skin cancer vaccine shows promise when used with Keytruda, new study says

A small clinical test shows an experimental skin cancer vaccine, mRNA, may be promising, a new study indicates.

The study, according to a story by Lenny Bernstein this week in The Washington Post, shows that the vaccine from Moderna performed well when used alongside an immunotherapy drug developed by Merck.

Bernstein's article contends that "for the first time, messenger RNA technology — the advance that undergirds the most commonly used coronavirus vaccines — has been shown effective against a deadly form of skin cancer, when used in conjunction with" the Merck drug, pembrolizumab, which is marketed as Keytruda.

A cautionary note: The study, which involved 57 patients with Stage 3 or 4 melanoma that had spread to a lymph node and who faced a high risk of recurrence, was sponsored by the two drug companies.

The trial showed patients seeing a 44% reduction in the risk of recurrence or death compared to those who used only Keytruda. 

Stéphane Bancel

Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive, is quoted as saying that the findings "are highly encouraging…mRNA has been transformative for COVID-19, and now, for the first time ever, we have demonstrated the potential for mRNA to have an impact on outcomes in a randomized clinical trial in melanoma." 

Frances S. Collins, ex-director of the National Institutes of Health, said recently that the development of vaccines for cancer using mRNA may be one of the great medical advances to come out of the pandemic, the Post story states. 

"Cancer vaccines have had a lot of promise," it quotes him as saying, "but they have been really not quite taking hold because the cycle time was just too long…Now with mRNAs, you can do that so much more quickly."

It should be noted that no mRNA cancer vaccine has yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the story concludes, in 2018, the last year for which figures are available, "83,996 people were diagnosed with melanoma in the United States and 8,199 died."

Information on other clinical trials can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

New book provides ‘wit, wisdom, self-exposure’ of Woody Weingarten, author of its 70 columns

The Roving I can be a holiday gift for you, your family, and your friends — and that purchase can also act as a present of sorts for me, its author, since it coincides with my 85th birthday.

Woody Weingarten enjoys his new hardcover.

The new anthology — available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook versions — delivers what its subtitle promises, to supply "the wit, wisdom, and self-exposure of Woody Weingarten." Inside are 70 of my favorite columns, including those about my wife earning a slot in my Little Black Book, a woman carrying her sister's "miracle baby" inside her for nine months, and Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina.

Another good present — for your kids or grandkids — would be Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy co-written by my 8-year-old granddaughter and aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds.

A this gift book can benefit anyone who knows someone with a life-threatening disease, Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, which details how my wife and I learned to cope.

More information about all three can be found at my new website, woodyweingarten.com.

Clinical trial of new drug for metastatic breast cancer patient shows 'unheard of' survival rates

A new clinical breast cancer drug trial has resulted in "unheard of" survival rates.

According to a recent story by Gina Kolata in The New York Times, for some patients with metastatic tumors that were not significantly affected by other forms of chemotherapy, the treatment halted their cancer's growth.

The findings of a new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, might "change how medicine [is] practiced," the article indicates.

Dr. Eric Winer, who was not involved in the study but who is director of the Yale Cancer Center and head of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, is quoted as saying that "this is a new standard of care. It affects a huge number of patients."

The Times piece notes that the new treatment, using an experimental drug (trastuzumab deruxtecan, sold as Enhehru) "that targeted cancer cells with laser like precision" was "stunningly successful, slowing tumor growth and extending life to an extent rarely seen with advanced cancers."

The trial, which focused on a mutant protein known as HER2, involved 557 patients. Tumors in those who took the experimental drug stopped growing for about 10 months, twice the length of those who took only standard chemotherapy. Those patients survived for almost two years, compared to less than a year and a half for those who received standard chemo.

Dr. Halle Moore

"It is unheard of for chemotherapy trials in metastatic breast cancer to improve survival in patients by six months," the story quotes Dr. Halle Moore, director of breast cancer oncology at the Cleveland Clinic, as saying.

Dr. Susan Domchek, a breast cancer specialist at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center, also is quoted to the effect that she plans to see — even before the Food and Drug Administration approves the drug, which has a wholesale price of about $14,000 every three weeks — if the data from the study will be sufficient to convince insurers to approve it.

More information about successful clinical trials can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Expert contends that collective voices could cut socio-economic disparities hiking cancer deaths

The ability of cancer patients to overcome inequities in insurance coverage and acquire access to the appropriate clinical care has grown quite a bit lately.

In a recent op ed by Elizabeth Helms in the Marin Independent Journal, the cancer care expert promotes advocate and collective voices to achieve those and other results for patients and their families who "live daily with chronic conditions"

Elizabeth Helms

Helms, president and CEO of the California Chronic Care Coalition, an alliance of nonprofit, social consumer and provider organizations, writes that "access to innovative, clinically appropriate cancer treatments will not only improve survival outcomes for cancer patients, but actualize a future where many cancer types can be viewed as a chronic condition to be managed in consultation with a care team."

Noting that "our collective voices are always stronger than just one advocate, " she quotes an African proverb that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

For Helms, "together" — at least in California — means supporting the mission of the Cancer Patients Bill of Rights, a resolution unanimously passed by the state's legislature in 2021. 

California, it should be noted, is the first state to adopt such a bill of rights, one that lays out six rights that every cancer patient should be entitled, including access to promising innovations and experts specializing in various cancer types.

In her op ed, Helms maintains that while biomedical research has produced life-saving innovations, cancer patients still face socioeconomic disparities that if eliminated could prevent "34% of cancer deaths among all U.S. adults ages 25 to 74."

The bottom line, she contends, is that "when patients receive early access to the treatments and expertise tailored to treat their cancer subtype, lives are saved and the quality of life remains higher during and after treatment."

In California, she write, patients insured through the Medical program "often must navigate confusing layers of subcontracted care, who managed-care plans…outsource responsibility for patients. In many cases, the heavy use of subcontracted care adds a knot of red tape on top of an already stressful time for Medical patients trying to access specialized cancer care."

She adds that cancer patients in that program "who have breast, colon, lung and rectal cancer are more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage of disease and have less favorable five-year survival rates."

"Our current one-size-fits-most system prevents many California cancer patients from accessing optimal care," she insists, "and the lack of access has translated into needless suffering and lives lost."

The cancer community, Helms says, "has a moral imperative to break down these barriers to access." 

Access that eliminates disparities can make a difference for the more than 187,000 Californians who are diagnosed with cancer every year and the thousands who "will be misdiagnosed or placed on inappropriate or ineffective treatment."

More information about care can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers. 

Despite Katie Couric's advice, doctors repudiate some ultrasound breast cancer screenings

Many doctors are questioning Katie Couric's new call for ultrasound screenings beyond annual mammograms to detect breast cancer.

A recent online Kaiser Health News story by Michelle Andrews notes that the 65-year-old former co-host of NBC's "Today" show is now pushing those sonograms because they "can sometimes identify malignancies that are hard to spot on a mammogram in women whose breasts are dense — that is, having a high proportion of fibrous tissue and glands vs. fatty tissue."

Dr. Carol Mangione

The KHN article, however, quotes Dr. Carol Mangione, professor of medicine and public health at UCLA who chairs the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of medical experts who make recommendations for preventive services after weighing their benefits and harm, as being in doubt. She says clearly, "We don't have evidence that auxiliary screening reduces breast cancer mortality or improves quality of life."

Dr. Sharon Mass, an OB-GYN in Morristown, New Jersey, and the former chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' New Jersey section, echoes that sentiment. "On the one hand," Andrews' piece quotes her as saying, "we want to do everything we can to improve detection. But on the other hand, there are lots of costs and emotional distress" associated with false-positive results.

Couric first shared the news of her own breast cancer diagnosis in September.

In addition to regular mammograms, many women are getting 3D mammograms, sonograms or MRIs as supplemental testings. That imaging in those who aren't at high risk for breast cancer, the KHN story says, "may identify potential trouble spots, which can lead to follow-up testing such as breast biopsies that are invasive and raise cancer fears for many patients. But research has found that very often these results turn out to be false alarms."

And that doesn't count the possible extra cost. "An ultrasound screening might cost $250 out-of-pocket while a breast MRI could run $1,084," according to the Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer," Andrews' story says. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) recently tweeted that she's working in conjunction with Couric on a bill to cover MRIs and ultrasounds for women with dense breasts "without any out-of-pocet costs," the article reports.

What are the real results of added screenings? Studies show, the KHN piece notes, that "if 1,000 women with dense breasts get an ultrasound after a negative mammogram, the ultrasound will identify two to three cancers. But the extra imaging will also identify up to 117 potential problems that lead to recall visits and test but are ultimately determined to be false positives."

Mass' group doesn't recommend supplemental screening for women with dense breasts who don't have any additional risk factors for cancer, the article reports. "Many other professional groups take a similar position."

Dense breasts, the story says, "are relatively common. In the United States, an estimated 43% of women 40 and older have breasts that are considered dense or extremely dense…Women with dense breasts are up to twice as likely to develop breast cancer as women with average-density breasts, research shows."

Other steps instead of extra screening could be helpful, according to Dr. Karla Kerlikowske, a professor of medicine and epidemiology/biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. "If you really want to help yourself, lose weight," she's quoted as saying. "Moderate your alcohol intake and avoid long-term hormone replacement. Those are things you can control."

Additional information on mammograms, sonograms and other screenings can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.