Dear AuntMinnie Member,
The number of Americans dying from cancer continues to decline, according to a new report today from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
In the group's annual report on cancer incidence and mortality, ACS states that cancer mortality fell 1.8% per year in men and 1.4% per year in women from 2003 to 2012. There's been an overall drop in mortality of 23% over the past two decades, which translates into more than 1.7 million deaths averted.
What's contributed to the declining rate? ACS said it's a combination of lifestyle choices, such as lower smoking rates, coupled with better treatments and earlier detection -- including from screening.
But screening can be a double-edged sword: The growing use of screening based on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing led to a huge increase in reported incidence of prostate cancer in the 1980s that's been waning ever since in the face of questions about the effectiveness of the testing in improving patient outcomes.
Do the new numbers indicate we're winning the war on cancer? That's an impossible question to answer, of course, but they are encouraging news that the efforts of researchers, providers, and others are having a meaningful impact. Read more about the report by clicking here.
Staying healthy on the job
Is it possible to improve your productivity on the job while maintaining your health? The two concepts aren't mutually exclusive, according to our latest Healthy Radiologist column by Dr. Stacey Funt.
Dr. Funt notes that the typical radiologist's work environment -- sitting at a workstation all day with few breaks -- isn't exactly conducive to good health. Fortunately, there are things you can do to stay healthy without ruining your relative value unit (RVU) output.
The most important of these is taking short breaks throughout the day, and Dr. Funt provides several models for how this can be accomplished, even if it's just surfing the Web for a few minutes. Find the one that works for you by clicking here.
New Wuebben/Rozy article
Finally, visit our Ultrasound Community for the latest article from Doug Wuebben and coach Mark Roozen (Coach Rozy) on exercises that sonographers can do to improve mobility in their middle back -- and avoid scanning in pain. Check it out by clicking here, or visit our Ultrasound Community at ultrasound.auntminnie.com.
CORRECTION
In our Letter from the Editor for January 5, we incorrectly stated that a recent report on radiation dose for myocardial perfusion imaging was based on data from 8,000 nuclear imaging sites. The study in fact was based on data from 8,000 patients.
