Department of Surgery
“So far, studies suggest that people eating more calories earlier in the day are less likely to develop metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, than those eating more calories later in the day.” – Dr. Yikyung Park It’s that time of year where the calendar still says “spring,” but the weather and the […]
A new brief from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) adds further momentum to movements recommending a single dose of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine. Originally recommended as a three-dose series when first approved and made widely available, the CDC currently recommends two doses of the HPV vaccine for 9 – 14 year […]
“Really, every minute of activity can be beneficial,” says Salerno. It’s likely not the first heart-themed celebration that comes to mind in February – that of course goes to Valentine’s Day – but American Heart Month certainly deserves just as much attention as its more popular counterpart. While we’ve made a lot of progress in […]
Weight can be a tricky topic. While our weight has no bearing on who we are or how we should be viewed or treated, it can be quite important when it comes to health and well-being. And that can be very meaningful – not only to us personally but also to our family, friends and […]
As wonderful as summertime can be, there’s also something really nice about the calendar – and the weather – turning toward fall. The light starts to soften a bit, and the crisp mornings and warm afternoons invite us to spend more time outside. Maybe that’s walking the kids home from school, cycling to the grocery store […]
If you’ve finally reached that age when you’re officially an adult and starting to branch out on your own for work, school or another adventure, you’ve likely received a lot of advice from the older adults in your life. Some of it you may have sought out. Most of it, probably not. And, yes, as […]
“Taking action now to prevent cancer and other serious illnesses will help keep you much safer and healthier in the long run.” Dr. Jean Wang Last March was a blur. The COVID-19 outbreak was officially classified as a pandemic, much of the nation went into some level of safety lockdown, and the healthcare system had […]
This post first appeared as a For Your Health column in October 2019. For a disease as scary as breast cancer, one positive and very important message that deserves to be heard more often during Breast Cancer Awareness Month is that it’s a disease that can be prevented. Research shows that about half of all […]
The results are not really a surprise, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. In what is the first large study to directly look at HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination and risk of cervical cancer – rather than risk of cervical pre-cancers – researchers found that vaccination substantially lowered cancer risk. And vaccination at younger ages, […]
With the surprise and tragic news that the actor Chadwick Boseman had passed away of colon cancer at age 43, there’s been a spotlight on the disease as people look for information and answers. While colon cancer is a disease that many people have heard of, they may not know a great deal about it. […]
Even though smoking is an important cause of multiple cancers, women who smoke are less likely to get recommended cancer screening tests than those who don’t smoke. That’s the finding from a new study of the large Women’s Health Initiative. Published yesterday in the journal, BMJ Open, the study followed 89,000 U.S. women for just […]
By Nora Leahy, MPH, CHES, Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities Every June we celebrate Pride Month and the great diversity, strength, and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community. We reflect on the past and honor those who risked everything to pave the way toward equality. We also imagine and strive for a future rooted […]
As hard as it can feel at times, winter workouts can be pretty easy to fit in with a bit of planning. by Hank Dart Winter is a special time of year. It’s a season of festive holidays and long, cozy evenings spent with friends and family. Unfortunately, many of the same things that make […]
Originally appeared in: TOGETHER – Every Woman’s Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer. Health is a strange thing. It is something that is both very personal and very communal. As individuals, of course, we ultimately have control over the choices we make when it comes to what we eat, how much TV we watch, and how much […]
Dr. Graham Colditz’s latest For Your Health column talks about ways we can all help make our communities healthier. And, it turns out, we don’t need to be public health superheroes to make a real and lasting difference. As he writes: Big efforts can have an impact. Smaller efforts can, too. Together, they can all […]
Originally appeared in: TOGETHER – Every Woman’s Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer. Although the modern version of the Internet has been around for close to twenty years, it still functions a lot like the Wild West. This is especially so when it comes to health information. Although there has always been unreliable and outright dangerous […]
By Dr. Graham A. Colditz You’ve likely heard of the HPV vaccine, but what you may be surprised to hear is that it is one of the most important advances in the field of cancer in the last 20 years. And while it may not be on the list of required vaccines at your child’s […]
by Dr. Graham A. Colditz Part of being a teenager is feeling a sense of youthful invincibility. The health concerns of middle age are just that – concerns of middle age – and are so far away that it’s hard for teens to even think about them, let alone want to take steps to avoid […]
By this time in March, you may have heard that it’s Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. And with spring in the air and other health awareness promotions competing for your attention, it’s easy to lose the significance of that. But colon cancer is really important. It’s the third most common cancer in the United States and the third […]
by Dr. Graham A. Colditz It can feel like a real victory when we discover those little tricks that make daily life a bit easier. Whether it’s a quicker way to finish chores or a simple dish that tastes like it took hours to make, it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of getting more done […]
A large new study has found that regularly eating whole grains may significantly lower the risk of liver cancer. The study, published online in JAMA Oncology, followed 125,000 men and women for an average of 24 years, gathering information on participants’ diet at regular intervals over that time. The researchers found that those who ate […]
Take a quick video tour of the latest from our 8IGHT WAYS series: 8IGHT WAYS to a Healthier Weight – and Lower Risk of Cancer. Whether you’re looking to maintain your weight or lose a few pounds, this new guide is filled with simple, useful, and brief tips to help you on your way. Find it, […]
A new study has found that a large majority of the public may be unaware that lack of physical activity can increase the risk of cancer. The study, out of Washington University in St. Louis and published Wednesday in the Journal of Health Communication, included a diverse sample of participants who were asked to list […]
By Hank Dart An important new report further confirms that the HPV vaccine is both safe and extremely effective at preventing cervical pre-cancers that could develop into cervical cancer. The report, published Wednesday in the Cochrane Library, reviewed the results of 26 HPV vaccine clinical trials that included over 73,000 girls and women ages 15 […]
by Hank Dart A new study out of France highlights another possible reason to avoid eating too many highly processed foods: They may increase the risk of cancer. The paper, published yesterday in the British Medical Journal, followed close to 105,000 adults for an average of 5 years. Along the way, participants were asked to regularly […]
This past fall, PECaD dedicated resources to creating and updating the 8 Ways to Reduce Cancer brochure series for the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Studies. PECaD’s partnership with the Buder Center has grown tremendously within the past few years. In feedback PECaD received from community members was a lack of educational information for […]
In spring 2017, the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) expanded the 8ight Ways brochure series to include large print versions and Vietnamese editions of each brochure. With these two projects, PECaD hopes to provide cancer prevention education and information to new subgroups in the St. Louis region. PECaD recognizes the need to be […]
For a topic that always gets a lot of news coverage, health and healthcare has been in the media even more than usual since the 2016 election. While it’s unclear exactly where the current debates on Obamacare and the American Health Care Act will lead, a Sounding Board article in today’s New England Journal of […]
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By Yikyung Park, ScDA recent report on red and processed meat and cancer risk, written by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO), sent shockwaves worldwide. After reviewing existing evidence, the report concluded that processed meat consumption is a cause of cancer and red meat consumption is probably […]
It’s day four in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ Day 4 – Don’t Smoke, and Avoid Other People’s Smoke, Too This really goes without saying: Don’t smoke, and avoid other people’s smoke, too. Smokers and […]
by Katy Henke In early September 2015, Vivek Murthy, MD, the Surgeon General of the United States, began a national campaign to increase the amount of physical activity Americans engage in each day (see video below). The campaign, called Step It Up!, works not only to get Americans walking more but also to help facilitate […]
by Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH Article originally appeared in the Washington University – Institute for Public Health Blog When it comes to cancer, there are few topics as supercharged as diet. A quick search of “diet and cancer” in Google News alone returns over 3 million stories. And yet, however large these numbers are, they […]
By Yikyung Park, ScD Editor’s note: Not surprisingly, the recently released report from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee was met with both praise and scorn. Many in the medical and health fields lauded the report for its innovative approach to considering both the food environment and sustainability, as well as for its healthy […]
More information and other 8IGHT WAYS pages. Facebook Post by Siteman Cancer Center.
While the paper by Tomasetti and Vogelstein is certainly intriguing and will help guide future research on targeting prevention and early detection efforts, it is still a preliminary finding and does not reverse the long-term conclusion that is supported by decades of well-designed research in people: that cancer is largely preventable. – – […]
Yesterday, we posted about a new analysis suggesting that long term aspirin use is likely to have an overall health benefit in the general population even when its side effects are taken into account. At risk of being wonky, we wanted to follow up on that with a figure that shows the general evolution of […]
Photo: Flickr/JenR The writing was on the wall a few years ago, but it seems that we may have finally reached a point where the scientific evidence points pretty convincingly to the potential health benefits of long-term regular aspirin use outweighing the potential risks for most people. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis appearing last […]
Flickr/NatalieMaynor At the annual meeting of the American Society for Preventive Oncology, I had the privilege of presenting the evidence that supports the potential for health behaviors and vaccines to have a huge payoff for prevention of cancer throughout the world. My slides from that talk are now available. Questions that I addressed include the […]
Read Dr. Colditz’s article on The Huffington Post: “Half of all cancers are preventable: Lower your risk with these eight steps.”
Earlier this month, we posted about recent findings linking nut consumption with a lower risk of benign breast disease in young women. Further confirming the power of nuts, new results from a large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that men and women who are frequent nut eaters (7 or more […]
A new report by our CNiC team summarizes the rapid changes in colorectal cancer screening in Massachusetts and more broadly through New England over 15 years from 1997 onwards. The move from scientific evidence to public health strategy hinged on a sustained strategy described by the collective impact approach where common goals, a shared measurement […]
The media release from the Washington University School of Medicine, yesterday, on our review of the potential to prevent cancer and barriers slowing our progress in acting on what we already know. (For article link here) Colditz, Wolin, and Gehlert collaborate on a number of cancer prevention projects through Siteman Cancer Center Prevention and Control […]
Recent updated evidence from the United States National Health And Nutrition Survey (NHANES) show that the majority of US adults have more than one modifiable risk factor for colon cancer that needs attention (see article). While screening is advocated for prevention of colon cancer and supported by evidence from randomized controlled trials (1), we have […]
A new rigorous analysis funded by the National Cancer Institute is published this month in the JNCI. Moolgavkar and colleagues (see report) now estimate that over 790,000 lung cancer deaths have been avoided by cessation from cigarette smoking since the 1964 Surgeon General’s first Report on Smoking and Health was released. This represents only a fraction of […]
Much has been written over the past few months on progress against cancer. For example, in the New York Times, Kolata summarizes funding for cancer research and shows the percentage of health research funding spent on cancer treatment research, cancer biology, and cancer causation, with only a small fraction on early detection and prevention (1). […]
Labor Day weekend 2011 marks thirty years since I ventured from Brisbane, Australia and arrived in Boston to begin my studies towards a Master of Public Health, and hopefully gain admission to the doctoral program at the Harvard School of Public Health. Mentors in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of […]