A study just published in Clinical Cancer Research has confirmed that treating HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer with the drug trastuzumab (Herceptin) is as effective as chemotherapy or surgery. Of particular interest is that the drug can treat metastases involving the brain, often a problem with chemotherapy, since many drugs cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier.
Search
Tuberculosis (TB) test-kit manufacturers were castigated by the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday, while their sales in developing countries were placed under immediate ban due to unacceptable levels of wrong results and perverse financial incentives to boost sales, according to a WHO statement.
Speaking of how the media is prone to broadcasting flawed observational studies, an article in yesterday s The New York Times reports on research claiming that eating even a little daily meat may increase a person s risk of Type 2 diabetes.
In yesterday s Huffington Post, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) writes how she was shocked to learn that regulators have been prevented from testing all of the 70,000 chemicals found in everyday home products.
Generic drugs should be manufactured to look exactly like their name brand counterparts, write Dr. Jeremy Greene and Dr. Aaron Kesselheim in an editorial for the New England Journal of Medicine. But under a current federal regulation known as trade dress, generics cannot be produced to resemble branded medications already on the market.
The findings of the newest study on the link between childhood brain cancer and cell phone use will be a dropped call to those convinced that heavy cell phone users are a few minutes away from developing cancer.
It would seem that the chest pain many patients fear to be a heart attack in the making does not accurately predict one s risk of having acute coronary syndrome or a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction, AMI), says a new study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
The medical community has gradually become aware of a difference between the care that black and white women with invasive breast cancer receive. It had been typically assumed that the discrepancy was due largely to reduced access to care. Now, however, a new study shows that, even when both groups have equal access to health care, the disparity remains.
A study from the Georgetown School of Medicine confirms what most of us already know: so-called colon cleansing is not only worthless, but can be dangerous as well. Also called colonic hydrotherapy, the procedure consists of inserting a tube into the rectum and flushing the large intestine with volumes of water that may or may not be mixed with various chemicals, including laxatives.
Where does a chemical go to get its reputation back? an editorial in Wednesday s The Wall Street Journal asks. The question is posed amid the recent release of credible scientific reports that have all determined that bisphenol A (BPA) the chemical that lines cans to prevent food-borne illness and is found in certain plastics is safe, despite inflammatory anti-BPA campaigns initiated by chemophobic activist groups and eagerly spread by complicit media and demagogic politicians.
We ve said it before, and we ll say it again: consumers, not the government, will ultimately dictate the recipes used by food manufacturers, and in this case, the public has spoken: Campbell Soup Co. will now be adding some salt back into its 31 Select Harvest soups in order to improve their taste and increase sales. After reducing the soup s salt levels to approximately 480 mg from 700 to 800 mg per serving, the levels will now increase back up to 650 mg.
Resistance to acknowledging one s age may be what s keeping many elderly folk from heeding heat warnings meant for older populations. According to a Kent State University study of those over the age of 65, 90 percent were aware of heat warnings issued for the elderly, yet only 15 percent took them personally.
When it comes to following food safety guidelines, master chef Michael Ruhlman is a bit of a culinary maverick. In an article for The New York Times, journalist Harold McGee chronicles the steps Ruhlman takes as he prepares his chicken stock which seems ordinary enough, except when he gets to the part where Ruhlman lets his stock sit on the stovetop all week, ladling out portions to make soups and sauces daily.
There is an odor wafting from the University of Washington very like the one we discussed last October and once again, the source is Dr. Anne Steinemann s claims that commercial fragrances are hazardous to our health. Dr. Steinemann s most recent research, published in this month s Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, alleges that scented laundry and dryer sheets can cause cancer.
As Hurricane Irene approaches the Eastern Seaboard, a little commonsense advice:
First, if you ve been told to evacuate, you need to get to higher ground as soon as possible. If you don t plan to evacuate, there s still the chance that you ll face flooding and wind damage, so make sure to prepare yourself with flashlights and batteries, as well as stores of food and water that will last a minimum of five days.
Biomarkers detectable in spinal fluid and blood, magnetic resonance imaging, and tests of cognition (memory) are all means of assessing whether a person will develop Alzheimer s disease. But for now, says a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the latter test requiring nothing more technical than a paper-based test and a pen is the most accurate means of predicting the disease.
Two new studies have discredited the common belief that mastectomy should be the standard treatment for breast cancer in women under 40. In fact, say both teams of researchers, the practice of lumpectomy in which just the cancerous tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue is removed carries no higher risk of recurrence or mortality than a mastectomy.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross and Jody Manley have just returned from an FDA workshop on modified risk tobacco products (MRTP), which was convened as directed in the 2009 law granting regulatory authority over tobacco products to the FDA. The goal is to assess the form that such regulation will take over MRTPs such as smokeless and dissolvable tobacco, as well as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).
In the current issue of The American, science writer Jon Entine takes a look at the comprehensive list of scientific institutions world-wide that have found no cause for concern about bisphenol A (BPA), and asks why politicians are nevertheless imposing bans on the substance. Anti-BPA campaigners have created a straw man in the way they portray the research landscape, Entine observes.
Findings of a study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute last year showed that screening current and former smokers with spiral CT scans can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20 percent, compared to standard chest X-rays. The results were so striking that the study was actually halted early and hailed by the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and other prominent health organizations.
Most people are aware that smoking is associated with various cancers, including cancer of the lung and mouth, yet many may be surprised to learn that the risk of bladder cancer in current smokers is more than three times greater than it is for non-smokers.
A prescription-grade formula of an otherwise common over-the-counter remedy holds the possibility of some relief for those who suffer from osteoarthritis of the hand, reports a new study in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.
A Cleveland hospital has reduced its incidence of bloodstream infections to one-third of what it used to be and the radical improvement has nothing to do with antibiotics. Instead, the Metrohealth Medical Center strictly enforces handwashing among its staff.
Federally funded clinical trials may soon become less bureaucratically bound and more efficient if changes announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) come to pass. These federal rules regulating clinical trials were instated in 1981, but they have not kept pace with evolving practices and needs. While the majority of U.S. clinical trials once took place in academia, as a result of burdensome regulatory costs, now 70 percent of them are commercial and nearly half take place outside the U.S.
In the past year, the FDA has rejected three weight-loss drugs over safety concerns. In October, Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. s lorcaserin was one of the drugs on the chopping block after the agency cited certain rat studies that showed it was tied to a possible cancer risk.
Pagination
ACSH relies on donors like you. If you enjoy our work, please contribute.
Make your tax-deductible gift today!