A growing -- and aging -- population, combined with advances in early detection and treatment, pushed the number of cancer survivors to new heights this year.

Smokers who kick the habit before age 45 can nearly eliminate their excess risk of dying from lung or other cancers, a new study estimates.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Matteo Lambertini, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that breast cancer survivors were less likely to have subsequent pregnancy vs the general population and more likely to have preterm birth. However, no reduction in competed pregnancies and no increased risk of maternal complications or congenital abnormalities were observed. Survivors with vs without subsequent pregnancy also had better survival outcomes.

These are the three books I mentioned at our blood cancer group. The first one is mostly related to breast cancer. The other two are more general.

by Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today May 20, 2021 A month after his second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert Montgomery, MD, found his antibody response lacking.

In early March 2020, Rick Phillips, 63, and his wife, Sheryl Phillips, quietly cloistered themselves in their Indianapolis home. They swore off markets, movie theaters, the gym, and, hardest of all, visits with their three young grandchildren. This April, three weeks after receiving her second shot of Pfizer’s vaccine, Sheryl broke her social fast and walked into a grocery store for the first time since last spring. Rick has yet to join her. He received his shots on the same days his wife received hers. By official standards, he, too, can count himself as fully vaccinated. But he feels that he cannot act as though he is. “I personally remain scared to death,” he told me.

When Marty Hogan found out at age 34 that he had acute lymphocytic leukemia, a rapidly progressing blood cancer, the news devastated him and his pregnant wife, Whitney. It was 2016, and the doctor gave him a low five-year survival prognosis.

Larissa Nekhlyudov is a professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is a practicing internist at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also the clinical director of internal medicine for cancer survivors at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she offers clinical care for long-term survivors of childhood and adult cancers. Dr. Nekhlyudov is particularly interested in improving the care of cancer survivors and the interplay between primary and oncology care. You can follow Dr. Nekhlyudov on Twitter.

Studies show that wearing a mask properly and consistently practicing good social distancing can significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) through droplet transmission.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer is a book written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician and oncologist. Published on 16 November 2010 by Scribner, it won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction: the jury called it "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal".

What do you think is the most commonly asked question of a person who has, or has had, cancer? If you guessed, “How are you?” you got it right.