Tagged: Cancer

A Creighton University finance expert expects Warren Buffett’s cancer diagnosis to be the dominant topic at the upcoming Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting.

Buffett, the longtime Berkshire CEO, announced Tuesday he has stage one prostate cancer. Berkshire Hathaway Class A and B stock finished down about one and a half percent Tuesday and Wednesday.

The American Cancer Society says the survival rate for men who have prostate cancer is nearly one hundred percent over five years if the cancer is caught early.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett announced Tuesday that he has stage one prostate cancer. Buffett will begin a two-month course of treatment in July.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has stage 1 prostate cancer.

Buffett told shareholders in a letter released Tuesday afternoon of his diagnosis. In the letter, the 81-year-old Buffett says "the good news is I've been told by my doctors that my condition is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way."

Buffett says he was diagnosed last Wednesday. Last Thursday, he had a CT scan and a bone scan. That was followed Tuesday by a MRI.

An estimated three of every 100 cases of colon cancer are the result of a hereditary genetic condition called Lynch Syndrome.

Thursday is Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day. It’s named for Dr. Henry Lynch, the Director of Creighton University’s Hereditary Cancer Center. He discovered the genetic condition, which is passed down through generations. People with Lynch Syndrome are at increased risk of colon and other types of cancer.

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Sheri Bowen is the Agency Administrator for the Mills County Public Health Department.  She says Iowa is fifth in the nation when it comes to percentage of late stage colon cancer diagnoses.  

Bowen says when colon cancer is caught in an early stage, it’s 90% treatable.  Currently 64% of Iowans over the age of 50 have been screened. Bowen says the Iowa Get Screened Colorectal Cancer Program wants to increase that to 80% by 2014.