Health Watch is a Public Service of the Office of News and Publications and is intended to provide general information only and should not replace the advice of a medical professional. You should contact your physician if you have questions about any of these topics.
This week on Health Watch, we’re talking about recent research into predicting, preventing and treating cancer. When patients are initially diagnosed with cancer, they may wish they had a crystal ball to tell them what their chances really are and which treatments are most likely to help them. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a statistical model that can do this, looking 12 years into the future to predict the outcome of kidney cancer.
Kidney cancer can be difficult to treat because it’s often diagnosed in late stages and it is usually resistant to radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Dr. Ganesh Raj, a
UT Southwestern urologist, says this statistical model can help doctors counsel patients at the initial diagnosis to let them better understand what their long-term chances are for the cancer to return after surgery. The model is based on patient characteristics, such as the presence or absence of symptoms, gender and the size of the tumor.
Visit
http://www.utsouthwestern.org/cancercenter to learn more about
UT Southwestern’s clinical services in cancer treatment.
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February 2009
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