Dr. Ravi Rao of cCARE is among the many doctors who have noticed a decline in cancer screenings during the pandemic, resulting in a rise of advanced cancers. Lockdowns led to canceled appointments due to shuttered clinics, and the delay ultimately caused a steep decline in screenings.

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Jose Flores is the owner of Joe’s Mobile Tint and started the tint shop last year. On the same day of his grand opening, Flores suffered a medical emergency, where it was discovered he had Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Dr. Steven Eisenberg of cCARE shares his expertise on the use of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) testing when conducting prostate cancer screening. While early detection of this cancer by PSA testing can lead to to unnecessary treatment in certain circumstances, it is still a powerful tool in detecting early cases of the disease.

Dr. Ravi Rao spoke with Drs. Travis Stork, Sonia Bartra and Andrew Ordon of “The Doctors” TV show about the difficulties a cCARE patient, Norma, had to endure just to get her prescribed medications. Dr. Rao discussed pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), who act as a “middle man” between the patient and his/her insurance company. PBMs are not physicians.

Dr. Ravi Rao commented on a single-center study of elderly patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, which found that a reduction in chemotherapy dosage did not reduce the survival rate. This study, published in Clinical Oncology News, indicated that lowering the treatment dosage resulted in better tolerability than a standard dosing.

Sometimes health issues trigger enough fear to cause patients to avoid necessary exams. Prostate cancer is one of those, although like many cancers, early detection can make a huge difference. The San Diego Union-Tribune article reminds men of the importance of detection exams, reporting that the digital rectal exam (DRE) causes the most hesitation.

Norma Smith was diagnosed with stage-three cancer in December. However, she and her husband did not only battle the disease, but also pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Despite having her cancer medication prescribed by Dr. Ravi Rao, CVS Caremark’s PBMs denied and delayed Norma’s chemotherapy treatments several times over the past seven months.

cCARE’s Dr. Laurie Frakes was highly rated for her extraordinary level of care for her patients. The Best Oncologists in San Diego list is based on this rating points list, which contains 60 considerations including experience, impact on medical field, quality of care, awards earned and more.