Today, for school, I went to a "Speaking Frankly about Colorectal Cancer" presentation by a local medical oncologist and a nutritionist. The MD was an amazing public speaker: measured tones and cadence, minimal hand gestures, clear voice, comprehensive language when talking about some pretty complex medical stuff. There were 3 people there currently undergoing treatment, one woman with stage IV. Another woman was there from a patient advocacy group. Most everyone else (~35 ppl) seemed to be survivors and family members. I was such an interloper. I don't know how journalists do this for a living. I was self-conscious the whole time, like I was wearing a fedora with a "PRESS" sign stuck in the hat band.
Things I learned:
genetic tests for colon cancer only help the family members of the affected
cancer in the ascending section of the colon is harder to detect b/c the stools are still liquid in that section so there's less likely to be any evidence (i.e. blood) in stools; tumors in the ascending section are usu. quite big by the time they're detected
some people treated with Erbitux (the drug for which Martha Stewart went to jail over insider trading) develop an acne-like rash which is a good indicator that the drug will work
vitamin C can cause a false negative fecal occult reading
I approached the woman from the patient advocacy group and asked her if she was acquainted with any patients who would be willing to talk to me and share their story. She immediately introduced me to the woman sitting across from her. After a handshake and 15 sec explanation, she agreed to let me call her tomorrow. I'm completely humbled. How incredibly invasive! And she didn't hesitate to make herself available. Her comment was "anything to help out other people." I felt bad to tell her the only other person who is going to read this is my prof. Maybe I'll post the full article here, at least, to honor her generosity.
Posting here = publishing, I say. If it's Googleable then your audience could be decent sized. Pay attention to keywords : )
ReplyDeleteQuestions from the ignorant which might help you write your paper more colloquially (assuming patients or potential patients as your audience):
* Who could genetic tests help BESIDES the family members? Do you mean the scientific community learns nothing from the tests? I don't get it.
* To rephrase: Blood in the stool can be a sign of colon cancer, but sometimes colon cancer develops with no symptoms at all until the tumor is quite large. It depends where in the colon the tumor develops. (What implication does this have for patients? Is it why regular check-ups are recommended?)
* What's a fecal occult reading? Sounds similar to a psychic reading of entrails : )
Side issue that would be good to address as a journalist, at least with regards to particular medical stories (not necessarily this one): the issue of "false positives."
ReplyDeleteI just listened to a great lecture by Leonard Mlodinow who wrote The Drunkard's Walk, which is mostly about randomness and the misinterpretation of statistics. In the lecture he talks about how even many doctors completely misunderstand the statistics about false positives. It's worth a listen (or a read, although I haven't looked at the book).
If you go to the Big Ideas video podcast in iTunes, you can download it for free (10/17/09).