UN Health Chief Praises Israeli Cancer Treatment and Care

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director General made an impromptu visit to Israel over the weekend offering high praise for Hadassah Medical Center’s work in the fight against cancer.

Over the weekend, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who serves as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director General, landed in Israel for a surprise visit. The WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that monitors and addresses public health issues throughout the world.

Ghebreyesus toured Hadassah Medical Center’s Ein Kerem facility with Israeli Health Ministry Chief Moshe Bar Siman Tov. Among the Director General’s stops in the hospital was the pediatric hemato-oncology ward, where he spoke with patients, their parents, and various members of the staff.

In addition to speaking with nurses and social workers, Ghebreyesus also met with Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department Head Dr. Gal Goldstein, who provided an overview of the advanced treatments doctors administer there.

Impressed by what he saw at Hadassah, Ghebreyesus commetented, “I am amazed by the level of dedication and the staff’s impressive devotion to the patients, as well as by the continuous thought which goes into treatment. [The thought is] not just about the sick children, but also about their families. I am impressed by the level of involvement of every staff member in the patients’ treatment,”

“Hadassah is proof that medical treatment creates a bridge between people, and a center of hope,” Ghebreyesus concluded.

A Meaningful Haircut aids Cancer Sufferers

The Israeli NGO 'Zichron Menachem​' spares no effort to collect hair

offered by donors or salons and turns it into wigs, supporting

children who have lost their hair during cancer treatment.

In fact a number of our grandchildren have taken part in this

project over the last few years.

Mobile SniffPhone detect cancer on user’s breath

With cancer being a major cause of death in the world today, more and more research is producing potential solutions to this deadly disease.

An innovative early disease detection system that uses the sense of smell is going mobile.

The NaNose breathalyzer technology developed by Professor Hossam Haick of the Technion will soon be installed in a mobile phone – to be called, appropriately, the SniffPhone. A tiny smell-sensitive sensor will be installed onto a phone add-on, and using specially designed software, the phone will be able to “smell” users’ breath to determine if they have cancer, among other serious diseases.

By identifying the special “odor” emitted by cancer cells, the NaNose system can detect the presence of tumors, both benign and malignant, more quickly, efficiently and cheaply than previously possible, said Haick.

“Current cancer diagnosis techniques are ineffective and impractical,” he said. NaNose technology, he said, “could facilitate faster therapeutic intervention, replacing expensive and time-consuming clinical follow-up that would eventually lead to the same intervention.”

According to research done by Haick’s team, the NaNose system has a 90 percent accuracy rate.

The smartphone device is just a vehicle to implement the NaNose technology that can be taken anywhere and used in any circumstances, including in rural areas of the developing world where bringing in sophisticated testing equipment is impossible.

 “The SniffPhone is a winning solution. It will be made tinier and cheaper than disease detection solutions currently, consume little power, and most importantly, it will enable immediate and early diagnosis that is both accurate and non-invasive,” said Haick. “Early diagnosis can save lives, particularly in life-threatening diseases such as cancer.”

For the full story see http://www.timesofisrael.com/mobile-sniffphone-will-detect-cancer-on-a-users-breath/#ixzz3QrKnNPQK