Clinical Conversations

June 29th, 2022

Podcast 294: PD-1 blockade in locally advanced rectal cancer

Locally advanced rectal cancer usually receives a three-part treatment: chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and then surgery. In a small-cohort study presented at this year’s ASCO conference researchers used a PD-1 inhibitor — dostarlimab — every three weeks for 6 months against the disease. All patients had mismatch repair deficient tumors. No other treatments were needed however, […]

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October 25th, 2015

Podcast 187: Colorectal adenomas not prevented by calcium and/or vitamin D

We interview John Baron about his recent New England Journal of Medicine study testing the ability of calcium or vitamin D (or both) to prevent recurrences of colorectal adenomas in a population who had lesions found during colonoscopy. On follow-up after three to five years, the effects of daily calcium and/or vitamin D supplements were the […]

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February 24th, 2012

Podcast 147: Proof that colonoscopy with polypectomy saves lives

Everyone “knows” that colonoscopy reduces risks of death from colorectal cancer, but it’s good to have your knowledge actually verified, and a new bit of research seems to do that in this case. Long-term follow-up of a group of patients who underwent colonoscopy and polypectomy in the 1980s shows that removal of adenomatous polyps brought with […]

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November 4th, 2011

Podcast 136: Aspirin lowers colorectal risks in Lynch syndrome — what are the implications for everyone else?

Last week’s Lancet article on the effect of aspirin on risks for colorectal cancer in patients with Lynch syndrome — a group at particularly high risk — may hold implications for preventing sporadic colon cancers. Our interview with Prof. Sir John Burn, the study’s first author, explores those implications as well speculations on why  we human […]

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