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Guidelines for sites linking to mayoclinic.orgView syndicated health information from Mayo Clinic.
If you've ever been in the hospital, you know that it's usually not much fun. You may have to take medicine that makes you feel lousy, have tests and are no doubt a little anxious about being there. Doctors at Mayo are working on making the hospital experience easier for patients and their families.
Resource: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Over the last decade, medicine has seen great advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Many people with the disease are living longer and many are cured. That's thanks to cancer research and people who are willing to make sacrifices. Sacrifices such as donating bone marrow.
Resource: Bone Marrow Transplant
Marathons, 10-K's, bike rides and telethons. Events to raise money for diseases like cancer seem to happen all the time. Many of these fund raisers really do make a difference in the race to find a cure. More on how one marathon is raising money to help researchers learn about cancer genes so they can work towards developing better treatments.
Resource: Breast Cancer
Every year about 250-thousand women in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer. Most of these women were not known to be at high risk. That's why researchers at Mayo Clinic are looking for better ways to identify who's at increased risk in order to enhance early detection and, perhaps some day, help these women prevent the disease. They're finding clues in breast tissue.
Resource: Breast Cancer
Research shows that screening for colorectal cancer saves lives. That's because screening can catch cancer early, while it's still curable. But let's face it, having a colonoscopy to look for cancer or precancerous polyps is not fun. Doctors at Mayo Clinic have studied and improved upon a non-invasive screening test that requires no preparation or procedure. The test detects cancer or precancerous polyps by measuring DNA in your stool.
Resource: Colon Cancer
For thousands of years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used the herb ginseng to increase energy, endurance and brain power. Research shows that in many cases, the herb may help. Researchers at Mayo Clinic led a study with ginseng and found it may also help fight fatigue in cancer patients.
Resource: Cancer Treatment at Mayo Clinic
Cover up and use sunscreen to protect yourself from skin cancer. Sound familiar? Those words of warning should be taken seriously because a certain type of skin cancer called malignant melanoma can kill. How can a tiny mole on you shoulder or leg be so deadly?
Resource: Treatment of Melanoma
Most men know that when they head to the doctor's office for a check-up, they'll be screened for prostate cancer. The tests are routine. But the man you're about to meet also has routine breast exams. Why? Because he is a breast cancer survivor.
Resource: Breast Cancer
Doctors at Mayo Clinic did a study to find out if giving women information before they have a mammogram makes a difference in their experience.
Resource: Mammography Screening
Imagine being diagnosed with bladder cancer as a young woman, and also being told that after surgery you might end up having to use an outside bag to collect urine. It would change your life and make some activities difficult. Doctors at Mayo Clinic strive to make this situation better for patients. They're constructing new bladders so people like the cancer survivor you're about to meet can live normal lives.
Resource: Bladder Cancer
You're at the doctor's office and he or she tells you there's a tiny spot in your lung. It could be cancer. To find out, your options have been to wait and see if it grows or go to surgery for a biopsy. Now there's another option.
Resource: Treatment of Lung Cancer
Cancer of the esophagus is like many other types of cancer. It's often curable if caught early. Treatment for esophagus cancer, even in the early stage, has traditionally been surgery — removal of the entire esophagus. But now, doctors at Mayo Clinic are using minimally invasive endoscopies to treat early cancers. Patients have the procedure and go home the very same day.
Resource: Esophageal Cancer
Every day, doctors use ultrasound, CT scans and MRIs to see inside the body without making an incision. Those tests are great at showing size and structure, but they don't show important physical properties such as tissue stiffness, which, for example, is a sign of fibrosis in the liver. But researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed technology that uses sound waves to see if a patient's liver is harder than it should be — if it's developing fibrosis. It's called Magnetic Resonance Elastography, and it offers a noninvasive alternative to liver biopsy.
Resource: Treatment of Liver Disease
Brain cancer is one of the most common cancers in children, second only to leukemia. But unlike leukemia, the genes that cause pediatric brain cancer continue to be somewhat of a mystery to researchers. They don't know why some tumors just don't respond to treatment. Doctors at Mayo Clinic are working hard to find the genes responsible for tumor growth in hopes of one day finding an easier cure for patients like the 15-year-old you're about to meet.
Resource: Treatment of Pediatric Brain Tumors
Occasional heartburn is usually nothing to worry about. But if heartburn hits two or more times a week, you may be at risk of developing a condition called Barrett's esophagus that increases your risk of cancer.
Resource: Treatment with Photodynamic Therapy
Remember the story "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer?" When bad weather almost stopped Santa from delivering gifts on Christmas Eve? Well, the same thing almost happened to the Santa you're about to meet. But instead of dealing with bad weather, this Santa faced an even bigger problem. Throat cancer. And just as the legendary light from that story guided Santa through the storm, a laser light helped this Santa weather the storm of cancer. More from Mayo Clinic.
Resource: Throat Cancer Treatment at Mayo Clinic
Research has shown that for some cancers, screening for early detection most definitely saves lives. Examples are mammograms for breast cancer and colonoscopy for colon cancer. But not all cancers have screening tools that have been proven to work. Let's go to Mayo Clinic to learn more about screening for lung cancer.
Resource: Treatment of Lung Cancer
In the spring of 2006 the National Cancer Institute released initial results of the STAR trial for breast cancer prevention. The study compared the drug tamoxifen to another drug called raloxifene. Both reduced the incidence of invasive breast cancer by 50 percent in high-risk postmenopausal women.
Resource: Treatment of Breast Cancer
If you have kidney cancer, you might not get symptoms until it's rather advanced. Not long ago a diagnosis like that was bad news. But now, thanks to technology, teamwork and medical expertise, people are beating this deadly disease.
Resource: Treatment of Kidney Cancer
Ten years ago, 48,000 women -- mothers, wives, sisters -- died every year from breast cancer. Today, that number has dropped to 40,000. But it's still too high. That's why many women who are at high risk of getting breast cancer choose genetic testing.
Resource: Breast Cancer Risk Assessment
Wouldn't it be great to go to a doctor who makes you feel relaxed, who really listens to you, and answered all your questions? Research shows that people who go to doctors who have good bedside manners get more from office visits than those who don't. Mayo Clinic is taking that information seriously. They're teaching residents and med students how to communicate with patients.
Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer win the battle and are cured. Unfortunately some do not. The little girl you're about to meet lost her dad to prostate cancer. And she turned an event that was extremely tragic into something hopeful. At age 10 she participates in triathlons to raise money for prostate cancer research.
Resource: Prostate Cancer
For many years, doctors have been using the vibrations of ultrasound to diagnose and even treat many conditions. Now research shows that the vibrations of a harp may help improve the condition of people nearing the end of life.
Colon cancer can be cured if it and pre-cancerous polyps are caught early. But doctors at Mayo Clinic say only half of all people at risk of colon cancer get screened for the disease. That's because some people don't know they should be screened and others simply don't want to undergo colonoscopy. But a new test developed at Mayo Clinic makes the screening process a whole lot easier. It's called virtual colonoscopy or CT colonography.
Resource: Virtual Colonoscopy
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