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Audio: Conquest summer 2012

Conquest - Summer 2012

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The audio version of the summer 2012 issue of Conquest is generously donated by Sight Into Sound (formerly Taping for the Blind). The narrator is Darrell K. Simmons.
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Complete issue

Summer 2012

This issue highlights quality improvement efforts, dealing with drug shortages, green medicine, the COLLAGE art program, integrative medicine, regional care centers and much more.

 

Features

Where change begins

Nurses, educators and others skilled at mapping out work processes team up to help front-line employees and their managers find solutions to problems.

Green medicine

Upholding standards of care while minimizing environmental impact is something that MD Anderson has embraced.

Going the distance

A regional concept launched in 1999 has expanded to make radiation therapy, and medical and surgical oncology services more available to patients closer to where they live.

When life is good

While it's not a cure, a drug has alleviated side effects and significantly improved outcomes for patients coping with myelofibrosis, a disease for which there has been no therapy.

Practice makes perfect

Today's doctors, nurses and other health care providers can learn and build their skills through a variety of high-tech simulators.

A 'whole' in one center

MD Anderson treats the whole patient, offering integrative modalities, such as massage therapy, music therapy, acupuncture, meditation and clinical nutrition support.

When the pipeline dries up

MD Anderson works proactively to ensure that the institution has the right drugs at the right time, despite national shortages.

Picture This: Beauty/Barber Shop

Recognizing the psychological benefits of looking and feeling good, MD Anderson offers salon services without charge in its Beauty/Barber Shop.

Signs of Hope: COLLAGE

COLLAGE: The Art for Cancer Network not only takes cancer patients' minds off their illnesses, but allows them to explore their conditions and how their diseases relate to their identities.

Moving Forward: Jameisha Brown

Having survived her early battle with Burkitt's lymphoma, Jameisha Brown is passionate about volunteering and a career in health promotion.

 

Frontline

Hope for patients with chronic pain

The cellular process that causes morphine tolerance can be blocked by a reformulated form of imatinib, a drug commonly used to treat certain kinds of leukemia and gastrointestinal tumors.

Historical marker

As early as 1867, doctors noticed that cancer patients are at high risk for developing blood clots. Recently, MD Anderson professor Anil Sood, M.D., and colleagues discovered an explanation and a vicious cycle.

Combination may unlock treatment resistance

By combining two drugs, researchers shrank tumors in some patients with treatment-resistant Ewing's sarcoma, a cancer that primarily affects the bones.

Seeking more accurate predictors, treatment

Four proteins have been linked to poor prognosis for certain types of breast cancer and could lead to targeted therapies.

Telomores, telomerase play key roles

Understanding the "what" and "how" of telomerase may be critical in treating and eliminating cancer.

Drug shrinks melanoma brain metastases

An experimental drug targeting a common mutation in melanoma successfully shrank tumors that spread to the brain in nine out of 10 patients who participated in an international Phase I clinical trial.

Hybrid vaccine shows promise

A breast cancer vaccine already shown to elicit a powerful immune response in women with varying levels of HER2 expression has the ability to improve recurrence rates and is well tolerated in an adjuvant setting.

 

Cancer Briefings

Planting seeds to shape the future

AT&T presented a $1 million contribution to MD Anderson's telesurgery initiative, which will help extend specialized surgical expertise to rural and underserved communities.

When it's hard to swallow

A study shows that acupuncture, when given alongside radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, reduces xerostomia (dry mouth).

Conquest: Summer 2012

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