New Treatments Create Buzz Among Patients with Prostate Cancer and their Caregivers By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD MSPH Prostate cancer is highly treatable in its early stages, much less so once it has metastasized, where the five-year survival rate is below 30%. In search of more treatment options, a patient with advanced prostate cancer [...]
Engaging with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients and Caregivers By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH The word “Earth” doesn’t reflect the complexity and diversity of the planet. Similarly, the term “lung cancer” only identifies the location of the cancer. There are two general categories, non-small cell lung cancer [...]
Patient Perspectives on an Invisible Disease: Lupus and Lupus Nephritis By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Imagine going to see a doctor when you are exhausted and enduring multiple kinds of pain, and they recommend a “psych” evaluation. When they “can’t find anything,” the medical professional you looked to for help decides you [...]
More Good News about Treating Multiple Myeloma By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH This spring, the FDA approved a drug called idecabtagene vicleucel ('ide-cel'), a form of CAR-T cell therapy available to treat some forms of recurrent multiple myeloma (MM). Ide-cel is used to modify a patient’s own T-cells to attack the B-cell [...]
Searching for Answers to Migraines By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Migraine headaches can be devastatingly debilitating: When my migraines get so bad, I stare at the wall in complete silence not letting my head touch anything. If my head touches something, it will send more pounding pain throughout my skull. Migraines are [...]
Genetic and Cellular Studies Carve New Pathways to Treating Ovarian Cancer By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Ovarian, fallopian tube cancer and primary peritoneal cancer are often grouped under the name epithelial ovarian cancer. When classified as subcategories of ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancers and fallopian tube cancers are considered rare. The incidence [...]
Cancer, COVID, and Vaccinations: The Patient Perspective at ASCO 2021 By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Inspire is presenting the results of two separate surveys during the American Society of Clinical Oncology® (ASCO) virtual conference being held June 4-8. Chosen from the more than 5,400 abstracts submitted for the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, [...]
Promising New Therapies for Treating Atopic Dermatitis By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH People who do not have atopic dermatitis (AD), also called eczema, can have the simple experience of having an itch relieved by scratching. For people with atopic dermatitis, this is a heavenly fantasy. For AD sufferers, the symptom most of [...]
In Search of Answers: Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH The basic dry facts about Head and Neck Squamous Cell Cancer (HNSCC) are that it is a cancer of the mucosal lining of the oral cavity and larynx; typical treatments include surgical intervention, chemotherapy, radiation, and, [...]
I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis at 15 By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Imagine a patient with inflammatory joint pain. You’re probably not visualizing a young person in his 20’s or teens with severe lower back pain, but that’s a likely scenario for sufferers of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). One Inspire member said: [...]
