About This Blog Site

“A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!” -Thomas Jefferson

I opened up this site because people had often asked me where I get my information. The answer is simple. I read a lot. This site is for both archiving important articles and for me to express what I see as facts. With the mainstream media being dominated by liberals, it is hard to get any information that is even true anymore. For instance, the story that Obama told at the Democratic National Convention (the one with the styrofoam Greek columns and the fireworks) about coming from a poor background with his mother on food stamps is the biggest bunch of crock that Obama and the American media had ever fabricated. If and when I find the truly important articles, I will archive them here. If you come across something and leave them in the comments section, I would certainly appreciate it and update this page. Given that this is my personal site, I am going to pick and choose.

Please also visit Conservative Talk since I am also one of the administrators there.

Feature article for archives:

ObamaCare Hidden Truth

Part 1 ObamaCare Hidden Truth

Part 2 ObamaCare Hidden Truth

References:

Flecksoflife

North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics

Frequently Asked Questions about Cancer and the Cancer Registry

What is cancer?
Although we use the word cancer, we are really talking about many diseases, or cancers, which are different from each other. Cancer is a group of about 100 diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death.
What causes cancer?
Cancer is caused by both external (chemicals, radiation, and viruses) and internal (hormones, immune conditions, and inherited mutations) factors. The factors may work together or in sequence to start or promote a cancer. Ten years to a lifetime may pass between exposures or mutations and detectable cancer.
Who gets cancer?
Anyone. Since the occurrence of cancer increases as people age, most cases appear in middle-aged or older adults. In the US, one out of every two men and one out of every three women will get some form of cancer in their lifetime. Four out of every 10 North Carolinians will have some type of cancer in their lifetime. It is a very common disease.
What is a cancer registry?
A cancer registry is a cancer information center. Registries collect data about new cancer cases, cancer treatment and cancer deaths. There are three general types of cancer registries: hospital-based registries collect information about cancer patients at their hospital; special registries collect information on one type of cancer, like brain cancer; and Central Cancer Registries collect information about cancer patients in a particular area, like the state of North Carolina.
What is the Central Cancer Registry?
The North Carolina Central Cancer Registry (CCR) is the cancer data center for the population of North Carolina.
Who gets reported to the Central Cancer Registry?
All cancer cases diagnosed in North Carolina are reported to the CCR. Reporting newly diagnosed cancer patients is required by state law.
How does a person get reported?
Usually the hospital where a patient was treated reports the information to the CCR, but laboratories, clinics, and doctors’ offices also report new cancer cases.
Is the information kept confidential?
Absolutely. The confidentiality of the information is required by state law. Names or identifiers are not released in our reports. Occasionally, with special permission, names are given to cancer researchers who promise to keep them confidential and use the information to try to save lives. You could be asked to participate, with your doctor’s permission.
Why do we need a Central Cancer Registry?
The CCR has many uses for health care providers, researchers, health planners and policy makers, and the average citizen. We respond to questions and concerns, publish facts about cancer in North Carolina, monitor cancer trends by looking for problems in specific groups or communities, and promote and conduct cancer research to find causes and cures that may save lives in the future.
How can you contact the Central Cancer Registry?
North Carolina Central Cancer Registry
State Center for Health Statistics
1908 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1908

Phone: (919)715-4555

FAX: (919)733-8485

Wall Street Journal New Cancer Drugs: Not worth the Cost?

By Shirley S. Wang

Amid much discussion around comparative effectiveness of medical treatments and whether cost should be a factor in treatment decisions, a new article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute estimates it would cost $440 billion to extend life by one year for the 550,000 Americans who die annually of cancer, reports the WSJ.

The authors, from the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health, say that 90% of cancer drugs approved in the past four years cost more than $20,000 for 12 weeks worth of treatment.

Some drugs have limited upsides, and these shouldn’t be developed unless they will cost patients less than $20,000 for a standard course, they say. Two more recommendations from the authors: doctors shouldn’t prescribe cancer medicines for non-approved purposes, and new medicines with marginal benefits shouldn’t be used for those with advanced cancer.

Treating lung-cancer with Erbitux, a Bristol-Myers and Eli Lilly drug, costs $80,000 for an 18-week regimen but extends life by only 1.2 months, the authors estimate. Bristol-Myers says the real-world cost number of Erbitux is closer to $10,000 a month. Drug makers say the cost estimates are often exaggerated because most patients are only on them for limited amounts of time and many received financial assistance, according to the WSJ.

So the challenge is this: How to develop new medicines — especially those that might help certain individuals a lot even if the benefit to patients as a group isn’t impressive — while trying to keep costs in check.

“We can’t add on Mercedes-like drugs one after another and have every single patient cost the system phenomenal amounts of money,” Eric Winer, chief scientific adviser to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast-cancer advocacy group, told the WSJ. “But we have to be careful not to slow down the process of drug development. Ultimately it is medical therapy that will make a huge difference in people’s lives.”