I happened to stumble upon an article this week that
really go me thinking about breast cancer genetic testing and how it is being
portrayed by some doctors, physicians and other health care
professionals. Here is the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-a-belli-md/chemo-breast-cancer_b_4124702.html
The article is titled "Safely Avoid Chemotherapy in Breast cancer With New Genetic Test"
While the title seems a bit biased at first, there is much truth to her statement. She delved into the topic of a new genetic test, called Mammaprint, that was recently used in a study to classify patients as either "low risk" or "high risk patients" for breast cancer metastasis. This new genetic test, she describes, looks at 70 genes in the patients.
Not only does Dr. Belli clearly explain the benefits of the new test, but she also back ups her statements with studies that support her. She mentions all the studies that the new Mammaprint is used in, and the results, as well as includes an extensive list of references. It is very clear that not only is she knowledgeable about the subject area, but also is very concerned about the well being of her patients and women world wide.
Kudos to you Dr. Belli for publishing an article that is well written, clear, concise, and most importantly informative.
Two thumbs up!
Picture References:
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This is great! Now patients will be able to know whether they are at low or high risk of their benign tumors becoming cancerous. This will probably help reduce the amount of tests being done because know they know which patients really need to be tested and which patients do not!
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Especially after we saw how many unnecessary test are done. Great article.
ReplyDeleteThe power of this blog is that it clearly paints the importance of writing clearly, especially in fields related to healthcare. Medicine, pharmacy, nursing, public health, all entails very complicated topics and ideas; therefore, it is important to communicate ideas effectively and in simple terms for the general public. This is a great article because it is a perfect example of how clear and concise writing skills by healthcare providers can give power to the patient to decide their future.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Merna. The article was informative and helpful because it contains hyperlinks that direct the readers to primary sources, and I think this inclusion of citations is what separates the good articles from the bad ones. Your comments and critiques are substantiated with examples - good job! Dr. Belli’s approach to disseminating scientific findings should be a model for news reporters, especially those from FOX news.
ReplyDeleteThis is great! By finding out whether they have a high risk or low risk for cancer also means that the amount of test needed varies for different people. This can eliminate all the unnecessary test patient need and can save them time and money! Great information!
ReplyDelete