cancer

Fear of talking about dying ‘leading to thousands of traumatic hospital deaths’

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Thousands of cancer patients would prefer to die at home but are forced to suffer “traumatic” deaths in hospital, according to Macmillan.

Taboos around talking about death are fuelling a “crisis of communication” in the UK that prevents people from planning their final days, warned the organisation in a new report.

Research by the charity found that while 38 per cent of people who die from cancer die in hospital, just one per cent would choose to do so, with 64 per cent saying they wanted to die at home.

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Adopting high fibre diet could dramatically cut risk of bowel cancer

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Corn biscuits for breakfast; veggie dogs for lunch; okra, tomato and black-eyed peas for tea. It’s probably not a diet to tempt most Americans into shedding a few pounds. But swapping westernised eating habits for the high-fibre diet of millions of people living in rural southern Africa could dramatically cut the risk of bowel cancer … Read more

DNA map offers hope on cancer treatments

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All patients will soon have their tumour’s DNA, its genetic code, sequenced, enabling doctors to ensure they give exactly the right drugs to keep the disease at bay. Doctors hope it will be an important step towards transforming some types of cancer into a chronic rather than fatal disease. The technique could enable terminally ill … Read more

Daily Aspirin blocks bowel cancer

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A daily dose of aspirin should be given to people at high risk of bowel cancer, say scientists. Two pills a day for two years reduced the incidence of bowel cancer by 63% in a group of 861 at-risk patients, a study reported in The Lancet said. Newcastle University’s Prof Sir John Burn, who led the study, … Read more