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A few months ago, my hospital expanded its patient web access so that patients can read their diagnostic radiology reports a week after the report has been finalized. While in principle I think this is a good thing, the results for cancer patients were predictable....

The “What is an IO Practice?” blog (Sept. 24) stimulated a lively discussion among European practitioners on WCIO’ s Linked In site about the challenges carving out an identity for IO. From Germany, to Greece, to Serbia, common themes included...

In 2011 the WCIO steering committee came together for a critical strategic planning session which led to our transformation from an annual meeting to a global community promoting IO as the fourth pillar of cancer care. All of our strategic goals from 2011 have been completed......

At RSNA, I met with Dr. Adrián Gonzalez from the National Institute of Cancer in Mexico City. Together with Drs. Carlos Rojas and Alejandra Lara, he put together the first “IO” meeting in Mexico concurrent with the Best of ASCO, Best of SSO, and Mexican radiotherapy congresses in 2012....

If there were level one evidence to support a particular practice, there wouldn’t be much of a debate! The popularity of this theme is a sign of the lack of clear cut best practice in what is a large and developing part of many interventional radiology practices.

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APDIR president Kevin Kim invited several academic interventional oncologists to discuss subspecialty training in interventional oncology. Fortunately, most of the rotten tomatoes had been launched during the first session, but nonetheless a lively discussion ensued....

I met a new patient in clinic this week who has a solitary pulmonary nodule that has been followed with serial CT scans for a year, contains calcification, is FDG-PET-negative, and was biopsied with no evidence of malignant cells. It grew from 14mm to 17mm on the latest CT, and he came self-referred...

One of my favorite patients is in terminal liver failure in the ICU. The sad thing is that she is dying slowly on a ventilator instead of peacefully at home. And that is partly my fault....

90% of cancer patients suffer from uncontrolled pain at some point in their disease – it’s what they fear most. Relief from pain will earn you more gratitude than treating the cancer....

What is an Interventional Oncology practice? In my highly specialized university center, it’s embolizations and ablations (about 500 a year), palliative procedures for luminal access (GI, GU, biliary - over 400), fluid drainage (over 1000), and venous access (over 2000) -- but very few percutaneous...