Cancer Biomarker Conference IV - Saturday, October 5, 2019 - Sunday, October 6, 2019 #CBCIV

Cancer Biomarker Conference IV

#CBCIV
Saturday, October 5, 2019 - Sunday, October 6, 2019

The field of biomarker testing for targets of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy and immune therapy is constantly advancing with introduction of new tests and new therapies. The Cancer Biomarker Conference (CBC) series provides real-world practical updates for general community pathologists, molecular pathologists, oncologists and related specialties and professions for this ever-changing field. The conference includes state-of-the-art lectures and panel discussions on specific biomarker testing in solid and hematologic malignancies for TKIs and immune therapies, liquid biopsy, next generation sequencing, preanalytic management, billing, regulations and malpractice for everyday practice as well as the needs and expectations of the oncologist. The CBC is now sponsored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the next two-day CME conference plus one day Boot Camp will take place at the Saddle Brook New Jersey Marriott in collaboration with local sponsor Princeton Medical Center. 

Reflections on the Highway - Briza

Reflections on the Highway - Briza

"But given the government’s harsh record on e-cigarettes, this is just the beginning."

Is America Alone in its Vaping Hysteria?

"If the FDA is unwilling to reclassify e-cigarettes, then it should at least realize that flavors aren’t the culprit of this “epidemic.” According to their own estimates fruit and menthol-based flavors are now equally favored by high school students at 66 and 64 percent, respectively. Based on the consumption trajectory of their trend, menthol-based flavors would take over fruit flavors by next year. By 2020, the FDA could no longer claim that companies are attracting kids with fruity flavors if menthol becomes the most popular flavor.

But given the government’s harsh record on e-cigarettes, this is just the beginning. San Francisco has already banned e-cigarettes this year, while Michigan and New York just recently announced to outlaw all flavored e-cigarettes.

Perhaps if the U.S. were to consider more efficient approaches, as England has, and treat e-cigarettes like NRTs then more people would transition off smoking. This action by the administration sets a dangerous precedent that misleads people and can become disastrous for cigarette smokers looking to quit. Unfortunately for these people, things just got a whole lot harder."

The thoroughly modern genius of George Gershwin

"When he was bestriding the nation, Gershwin was the most modern guy around; 82 years later — guess what? — he still is. The “serious” music that confounded the fogeys nearly a century ago is played in every symphony hall around the world. There’s hardly a popular recording artist — from Garland to Gaga, from Ella to Elvis (Costello) — who hasn’t performed his songs in every manner of interpretation. Since 1983, there have been nine major revivals/reimaginings of his stage works on Broadway. And the magisterial “Porgy and Bess” — itself a signal lodestar for the insistent argument of cultural appropriation — opens at the Metropolitan Opera in a new production this month."

"Every state in the U.S. has more than 20% of adults with obesity, according to the CDC – a significant uptick since 1985, when no state had an obesity rate higher than 15%."

Obesity in America: A Public Health Crisis

Obesity is a public health issue that impacts more than 100 million adults and children in the U.S.

"While researchers say the obesity epidemic began in the U.S. in the 1980s, there has been a sharp increase in obesity rates in the U.S. over the last decade. Nearly 40% of all adults over the age of 20 in the U.S. – about 93.3 million people – are currently obese, according to data published in JAMA in 2018. Every state in the U.S. has more than 20% of adults with obesity, according to the CDC – a significant uptick since 1985, when no state had an obesity rate higher than 15%. Certain states have higher rates than others: there are more obese people living in the South (32.4%) and Midwest (32.3%) than in other parts of the country." 

When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases

“The great book scare” created a panic that you could catch an infection just by lending from the library

The “great book scare” rose from a combination of new theories about infection and a distaste for the concept of public libraries themselves. Many Americans and Britons feared the library because it provided easy access to what they saw as obscene or subversive books, argues Mann. And while fears of disease were distinct from fears of seditious content, “opponents of the public library system” helped stoke the fires of the book scare, Greenberg writes.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-great-book-scare-people-worried-contaminated-books-could-spread-disease-180972967/#39lOfVwGKo6Hd4wX.99
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Bioethics. 2019 Jun;33(5):577-590. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12560. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

The injustice of fat stigma.

Nath R1.

Author information

1

Philosophy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States.

Abstract

Fatness stigma is pervasive. Being fat is widely regarded a bad thing, and fat persons suffer numerous social and material disadvantages in virtue of their weight being regarded that way. Despite the seriousness of this problem, it has received relatively little attention from analytic philosophers. In this paper, I set out to explore whether there is a reasoned basis for stigmatizing fatness, and, if so, what forms of stigmatization could be justified. I consider two lines of reasoning that might be advanced to defend fat stigma. The first is broadly consequentialist. It seeks to justify stigmatizing fatness based on the public health benefits that might be produced by doing so. The second argument takes stigmatizing fatness to be a warranted response to the morally blameworthy failure to slim down exhibited by fat persons. Clarifying and assessing each of these two lines of reasoning is the main task of this paper. I argue that, upon careful examination, both these attempts to justify the stigmatization of fatness fail.

Bill Maher Weighs In On U.S. Obesity: Fat Shaming “Needs To Make A Comeback”

Bill Maher served up a super-sized portion of steamed snark on Friday night as he weighed in on the American obesity crisis by equating overeating to racism and littering as a behavior that should be admonished in public ways.

“In August, 53 Americans died from mass shootings,” the host of Real Time with Bill Maher told his live studio audience in Los Angeles. “Terrible right? Do you know how many died from obesity? Forty thousand. Fat shaming doesn’t need to end it needs to make a comeback. Some amount of shame is good. We shamed people out of smoking and into wearing seat belts. We shamed them out of littering and most of them out of racism. Shame is the first step in reform.”