Book explains cancer so that patients can understand

By Marshall Allen

Monday, Sept. 7, 2009 | 2 a.m.

When patients hear the words “You have cancer” from their doctors, they’re often in such shock that they can’t process all the information that follows.

They get overloaded with details about the cancer and possible treatment, and then they’re launched into battle.

The result, said oncologist Dr. Matthew Galsky, is that cancer patients often don’t know much about the disease.

Galsky, who has practiced in Las Vegas for three years, has written a book, “Everything You Need to Know About Cancer,” to help patients and their loved ones learn the basics about the disease and its treatment. Of the more than 311,000 books listed by the online bookseller Amazon.com about cancer, Galsky said, his is distinguished by its subtitle: “In Language You Can Actually Understand.”

Galsky said the book discusses the two hallmarks of cancer to help patients understand the disease and how it is treated.

First, cancer starts when normal cells, which are supposed to have a fixed life span, live indefinitely and begin dividing, allowing tumors to grow out of control.

As the cells grow and divide they can metastasize — spread to other parts of the body. Galsky explains the difference between a tumor and metastasized cancer using a forest fire analogy. A tumor is the single burning tree that can be removed with surgery. A forest fire requires something like chemotherapy, which is akin to spraying the entire forest with water.

Cancer kills when it spreads throughout the body, weakens it and makes it susceptible to infections, Galsky said.

Chapters in the book cover topics including the most important questions patients can ask their doctors, common myths about cancer and what to do about the side effects of treatment.

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Inspectors from the State Health Division temporarily shut down the kitchen at Mission Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation home in North Las Vegas Tuesday for 16 violations including a dishwasher that could not dispense sanitizer and a kitchen sink contaminated by drippings from a ceiling leak.

Mission Pines is managed by Washington-based Evergreen Healthcare Cos. Officials of the facility, which is licensed for 240 beds, did not return calls.

Health inspectors allowed the kitchen to reopen the same day after the problems were resolved.

The violations included:

• Two large pans of cooked pork prepared the day before were stored at 65 degrees in the walk-in refrigerators, 25 degrees warmer than required.

• The walk-in refrigerator had three thermometers that registered three temperatures, ranging from 40 to 55 degrees.

• Storage racks were soiled and contaminated with drippings from the ceiling leak.

The Nevada State Health Division’s Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance has not yet determined a fine for the violations.

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Working in a smoky casino may be more lethal than working in a Pennsylvania coal mine, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The estimated rate of worker deaths per year from secondhand smoke is about five times the average rate of deaths per year for Pennsylvania miners in coal mine disasters, the study concluded.

As is true in Nevada, a law that bans smoking in public places in Pennsylvania makes an exception to allow it in certain parts of casinos. A researcher from Tufts University studied the air in Pennsylvania casinos and found that secondhand smoke infiltrated the smoke-free areas of the casinos even though the casinos had modern ventilation systems intended to reduce secondhand smoke levels.

Nonsmoking casino employees exposed to secondhand smoke levels at the observed levels for a period of eight hours were breathing unhealthy air, based on standards of the U.S. Air Quality Index, the study said.