cancer

Are Teenagers Capable Of Making Life-Or-Death Decisions?

11:54am February 11, 2015

by Nancy Shute

The case of Cassandra, a 17-year-old who says she doesn't want chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma, has sparked fierce debate. A medical ethicist says teenagers should be able to determine their fates.

Health & Safety

What Causes Breast Cancer? These Families Want To Help Find Out

9:27am February 11, 2015

by Paige Cowett

Many things raise the risk for cancer, including exposure to various toxins and radiation. But our knowledge about the range of chemicals and compounds that can trigger cancer is limited.

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Find other stories in the Living Cancer series at WNYC.org.

Cancer Patients And Doctors Struggle To Predict Survival

6:56pm February 10, 2015

by Amanda Aronczyk

After being diagnosed with cancer, people often ask one question first: "How long do I have?" Doctors usually overestimate the time, and patients often don't understand it's a range, not one number.

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Kathy Liu and her son Joey Xu talk to friends back home in Gainesville, Fla., from his hospital room in Cincinnati.

Health & Safety

Son's Rare Cancer Leads Family On Quest For Cure

6:50pm February 10, 2015

When a child falls ill with cancer, many of the drugs that might help are either experimental or unapproved for use in kids.

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Marder says immunotherapy has side effects but is less tiring than chemotherapy.

Harnessing The Immune System To Fight Cancer

4:35pm February 10, 2015

by Rob Stein

Our immune systems constantly fight off disease — protecting us from colds, flu and infection. An experimental treatment called immunotherapy is helping patients' immune systems fight off cancer.

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Robert Schwimmer, 66, and his son Scott Schwimmer, 21, spoke with NPR about Robert's wish to hasten his death under certain circumstances. Here — as in the family photo above — they're in Kauai, Hawaii, on the family's "last big trip" after Robert rec

Health & Safety

Family Struggles With Father's Wish To Die

1:36pm February 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

Robert Schwimmer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013 and wants to hasten death if he finds himself in agonizing pain. His family stands ready to help, but have legal and spiritual concerns.

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Indian sand artist Sudersan Pattnaik touches up his sculpture for World No Tobacco Day at Golden Sea Beach in Puri, India.

What's Most Likely To Kill You? Hint: Probably Not An Epidemic

9:35pm January 21, 2015

by Jason Beaubien

Noncommunicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease are now the biggest killers on Earth. They account for 68 percent of deaths — and have an even greater impact in the developing world.

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A year after his cancer diagnosis, Henning Mankell is working on a new novel, and he just directed Shakespeare's Hamlet in his adopted country of Mozambique.

'Wallander' Author Henning Mankell On The Catastrophe Of Cancer

9:11pm January 17, 2015

by Martin Scholz

The famed Swedish author of the Kurt Wallander mystery novels was diagnosed a year ago — "a catastrophe for me," he says; since then, he's talked more about the disease than the drama of forensics.

Jackie Fortin's daughter, Cassandra, last summer.

Can Connecticut Force A Teenage Girl To Undergo Chemotherapy?

5:58pm January 08, 2015

by Lucy Nalpathanchil

A 17-year-old says she doesn't want to undergo treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, but her doctors and the state say she will die without it. The Connecticut Supreme Court is hearing the case.

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Dr. Richard Schlegel and postdoctoral fellow Nancy Palechor-Ceron use a microscope to look at human epithelial cells growing on mouse fibroblasts at Georgetown University Medical Center.

A Bed Of Mouse Cells Helps Human Cells Thrive In The Lab

12:35pm January 07, 2015

by Richard Harris

Researchers have developed a powerful method for growing human cells in the laboratory that has led to some unusual findings. Cell tests suggest a malaria drug might work against cervical cancer.

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