NEW YORK: Many colon cancer patients aren't getting the screenings recommended after surgery to make sure the disease hasn't returned, new research shows. Only about 40 percent of the 4,426 older patients in the study got all the doctor visits, blood tests and the colonoscopy advised in the three years after cancer surgery, according to the results released today in the journal Cancer. While nearly all made the doctor visits and almost three-quarters got a colonoscopy, many didn't get the blood tests that can signal a return of colon cancer, according to the researchers at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. Whether doctors didn't offer the tests or patients failed to get them isn't known, said Dr. Gregory Cooper, who led the study.
U.N. may cut food aid in Darfur over attacks
ROME: A U.N. agency is threatening to suspend food distribution in Sudan's troubled Darfur region because of relentless attacks on its aid convoys. The World Food Program says bandits are hijacking the convoys and making it increasingly difficult to reach 3 million people in the area. The Rome-based agency said in a statement yesterday that more than 100 vehicles carrying WFP aid have been hijacked this year. It says many have been shot at and robbed, while 69 trucks and 43 drivers remain unaccounted for. The agency's deputy representative in Sudan, Monika Midel, says operations in some areas will be suspended if attacks continue.
