By Lisa Biondo Backs

A Party for Your Polyps
People don’t usually associate a colonoscopy with fun, but a nurse in Texas changed that. Colonoscopy parties remove the stigma and fear of checking for polyps by morphing the medical environment into a more festive environment of positive thoughts, encouragement and education.

The parties, launched by Medical Center of Plano (MCP) nurse Audrey Thompson, have grown in popularity since their launch in February 2003 when she gathered a group of co-workers from the oncology unit and put together a party-like setting in a comfortable atmosphere where participants could be content, relax and have a built-in support group all in one.

Thompson signs each participant up for the event and schedules the appropriate number of doctors to come and handle the actual procedure. The parties take place at the hospital’s endoscopic lab. The night before, Thompson calls each participant to answer any questions and to make sure they understand how to prepare for the colonoscopy. The morning of the party, the group offers car rides to the hospital as well as rides home if needed, since patients are unable to drive after the procedure. The “party” goes from about 7 a.m. until mid-afternoon with the doctors rotating to accommodate participants. Once the patient has completed their exam, light snacks are available and patients chat with other partygoers about the experience.

“We are all impacted daily with cancer, and we’ve been seeing more and more cases of colon cancer in the past few years, especially in the younger population,” says Thompson. “I felt this was a chance to ease some of the anxiety people feel and lend support to one another before, during and after our tests.”

MCP recently hosted its third colonoscopy party. Thanks to parties hosted to date, dozens of polyps have been removed—several precancerous.

“The key to prevention is early detection, increased awareness and open communication of this potentially deadly disease,” says gastroenterologist Sindu Abraham, MD. “The party concept encourages this philosophy. As a physician and member of this community, I feel a responsibility to facilitate getting this message out.”

Cancer Groups Reach Out and Touch Someone
In a world of hypertasking, information arrives daily. Digging through the daily news, websites and books on cancer can be overwhelming. But several organizations have made it easy for cancer patients to find out what’s new with telconferences, where patients sign up and call in at specific times to hear valuable information from the comfort of their own home.

• Cancer Care is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide free professional help to people with all cancers through counseling, education, information and referral. They host telephone education workshops several times a month on various topics, and in the past have featured prostate, ovarian, breast, colon and lung cancers along with topics like understanding chemobrain, communicating with healthcare professionals and living beyond cancer. The free workshops are available to anyone living in the United States. Visit www.cancercare.org for more information on their upcoming offerings and to listen to past teleconferences.
  
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer, founded in 1992 to address the physical, social, emotional, legal and financial issues women face after they have completed primary treatment for breast cancer, offers more specialized teleconferencing, focusing solely on breast cancer awareness and news. Their recent teleconference series, “Knowledge is Power,” discussed the role of aromatase inhibitors. A follow-up series features updates from the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting and new approaches to breast cancer treatments. More of their programs and information can be found at www.lbbc.org.
  
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) Links program provides teleconferencing as well as current information about CML therapies, clinical trial updates and support services. Visit www.lls.org for upcoming and archived teleconferences or call 800-899-2923 for more information.

Hit the Net for Drug Info
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has launched Drugs@FDA, a comprehensive website at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/, creating online access to official information about FDA-approved drugs.

Among its many features, the site can find labels for approved drug products, generic substitutions for a brand name drug, therapeutic equivalent products in substitution for another drug, consumer information, active ingredients and approval history details. Search by drug name (brand or generic) or by active ingredients, and results include the drug name, active ingredients, dosage form or route of administration, strength, marketing status, FDA action date, type of regulatory action and the company that sponsored the application for approval. The site is updated daily, so the most current information is available.

The site does not, however, list drugs with withdrawn approval, dietary supplements, drugs sold illegally in the United States or elsewhere or biological products such as vaccines and gene therapy. Visit their website to learn more or call 888-463-6332.