Dr Ravi Mehrotra, MD (Prevent Cancer)

Out-of-pocket medical costs for cancer therapy and other serious diseases can often be devastating. Although Ayushman Bharat and private insurance have helped to some extent, many hurdles still exist and most people do not have access to the necessary funds. Out-of-the-box strategies are urgently needed.

PCOS RENAMED

On one day in late April, something very unusual happened. Every single one of the planet's top 50 hottest cities was in just one country: India. cnn.it/3PfkyXS

“Empowering Young Minds Through Health Education, Awareness, and Preventive Care” Today, we successfully conducted a Free Preventive Health Education and Awareness Camp at Government High School, Faridpur, Faridabad,

9x. That's how far stomach cancer death rates fell in the US between 1950 and 2021. Not because of some wonder drug. Because of refrigerators. When families stopped preserving food with salt and smoke, H. pylori infections dropped. Stomach cancer followed. A kitchen appliance rewrote the trajectory of one of the deadliest cancers of the 20th century. Now look at pancreatic cancer on the same chart. Flat line. Seven decades of research, and the death rate barely moved. 86% of cases are caught after the tumor has already spread. By the time you have symptoms, you're late. Lung cancer tells a third story: it rose for 50 years as cigarettes spread, peaked, and is now falling thanks to smoking bans, LDCT screening, and immunotherapy. "Cancer" isn't one disease. This chart shows at least a dozen, each with its own biology, its own timeline, and its own reckoning. The age-standardized death rate across all cancers has dropped by a third since 1990. But that number hides everything interesting. Some cancers are nearly solved. Others haven't moved in a lifetime. Your risk depends on which one you get, not just whether you get it.

DYK - very valid points raised: 'If teenage years are key to when people start smoking, why are current laws with a cutoff age restricting access not working? The belief is that such a restriction creates a rite-of-passage effect and sends a mixed and confusing message.'..... 'But for a generation who will never be legally sold cigarettes, there is little reason for permitting them to vape, and the omission of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches from the generational sales ban may come to be viewed as a missed opportunity. Nevertheless, if the UK’s tobacco endgame strategy—even in its current form—is successful, it will be a trailblazer for other countries to follow suit.' @nr_pedhemonc @DrGauravNarula @chipfoundation @NiharikaDash14 @IMPACT_NIHR @mairal Creating a smoke-free generation - @TheLancet thelancet.com/journals/lance…

@Maya4Rights Unfortunate but true. We often don't practice what we preach, in this case! All the best in your efforts @Maya4Rights

@StopCancerDoc And honestly, medical culture glorifies sleep deprivation as dedication. Seven hours is metabolic medicine, not luxury. Still working on my own consistency though…

‘Getting a good night's sleep will improve how you feel but also how long you live." sciencealert.com/one-critical-f…

The HPV vaccine is most effective when given before exposure to the virus, ideally between 9-14 yrs of age - but it still offers significant protection to adults up to age 45, as they may not have been exposed to all the high-risk HPV types covered by the vaccine. @NiharikaDash14 @chipfoundation @R2SurviveCancer @Cancer_Buzz @IndiaToday indiatoday.in/health/story/i…

Vaccines you may have missed after 18 and why they still matter - @IndiaToday Why do adults require vaccines, too? Waning Immunity: Protection from childhood vaccines for diseases like tetanus and diphtheria (Tdap/Td) fades over time. A booster is required every 10 years to maintain immunity. Aging Immune Systems: As you age, your immune system naturally becomes less effective at fighting infections, increasing the risk of serious complications from diseases such as shingles, pneumonia, and influenza. In addition to the HPV vaccine (ideally before age 14, but possible up to age 26-45). indiatoday.in/health/story/v…

🖥️ #ASCOAI: A new AI framework may help detect #pancreaticcancer years earlier than current clinical practice. REDMOD identified stage 0 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with nearly double the sensitivity of radiologists and up to 3 years before diagnosis. ascoai.org/articles/2026/…

New recommendation: Semaglutide (Wegovy) can now be prescribed to help protect the heart, not just to manage weight: nice.org.uk/guidance/ta115… It's for adults who've already had a heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular event and have a BMI of 27 or above.

32 bowel cancer patients swapped months of chemo for 9 weeks of immunotherapy. 59% had zero detectable cancer before surgery. 33 months later: zero relapses. None. Standard chemo produces ~25% relapse at 3 years in this population. This was only possible for patients with a specific mutation: mismatch-repair-deficient (dMMR/MSI-high) tumors, about 15% of bowel cancers. That subset has a hypermutated genome that pembrolizumab recognizes and destroys before surgery. The trial is called NEOPRISM-CRC. Led by UCL and UCLH. Presented at AACR 2026, San Diego. Immunotherapy isn’t just for late-stage disease anymore.

SSBs are fueling a silent public health crisis in Southeast Asia. Rising consumption is driving obesity, diabetes & cardiovascular diseases, while also burdening healthcare systems and economies. @arkfoundation1 @IDRC_CRDI @ECHOIndiaTrust @StopCancerDoc

Need one say anymore? Academic honesty vs. AI hallucination. @TheLancet

28% of centenarians don't die of any disease. Their death certificates say "old age." 35,867 centenarian deaths in England, tracked over a decade. The leading cause wasn't cancer (4.4%). Wasn't heart disease (8.6%). It was the body gradually losing the ability to maintain itself, coded as senility or frailty. Pneumonia was the top specific killer at 18%, not because their lungs were uniquely weak, but because a single infection overwhelms a system with no reserve left. In Japan, 205,000 centenarian deaths told the same story. In Denmark, same pattern across 8,500 deaths over four decades. After 110, it gets starker. French researchers tracked 115 age-validated supercentenarians. Only 17% had a single clear cause of death. For a third, the certificate just said "natural death" or "old age." Their bodies didn't fail at one point. Everything wound down together. Cancer kills 25-40% of people before 80. After 100, it barely registers. The disease everyone fears most becomes almost irrelevant. What replaces it is something medicine doesn't have a drug for: running out of biological capacity across every organ simultaneously. 672,000 centenarians are alive today. The way they die tells us more about aging than the way they lived.

The NordICC study indicates that while colonoscopy is effective at preventing cancer when performed, it is less effective as a public health tool when used as a single, one-time invitation to a population with low participation rates. The results, published in @TheLancet, confirm that a single screening colonoscopy significantly reduces colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence but does not show a statistically significant reduction in CRC-specific mortality compared with no screening. thelancet.com/journals/lance…