Health News

Dealing with side-effects of hormone therapy for prostate cancer

Date: Oct-02-2013
Flushed face, sweating, a sudden rush of heat. The hot flash, the bane of menopausal women, also can affect men who are undergoing hormone therapy for prostate cancer. But unlike in women, neither soy protein nor a common antidepressant provides relief for men, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Hot flashes occur in approximately 80 percent of men who are undergoing hormone manipulation as treatment for prostate cancer...

Anti-cancer drug and radiotherapy may lead to treatment for brain tumor

Date: Oct-02-2013
Results from a clinical trial of a new treatment for glioblastoma suggest that researchers may have found a new approach to treating this most aggressive of brain tumours, as well as a potential new biological marker than can predict the tumour's response to treatment. Presenting the research to the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013), Professor Wolfgang Wick said that combining radiotherapy with an anti-cancer drug called APG101 - a fusion protein similar to an antibody - blocks a cell-signalling pathway called CD95 that plays a crucial role in the development of the cancer...

Mercury levels in fish may not be a concern in pregnancy

Date: Oct-02-2013
New research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol suggests that fish accounts for only seven per cent of mercury levels in the human body. In an analysis of 103 food and drink items consumed by 4,484 women during pregnancy, researchers found that the 103 items together accounted for less than 17 per cent of total mercury levels in the body. Concerns about the negative effects of mercury on fetal development have led to official advice warning against eating too much fish during pregnancy...

Improved survival in women with recurrent ovarian cancer prescribed biological therapy with cediranib

Date: Oct-02-2013
Women with ovarian cancer that has recurred after chemotherapy have survived for longer after treatment with a biological therapy called cediranib, according to new results presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1]. Cediranib, which is taken in pill form, is an inhibitor of a cell signalling process involved in formation of tumour blood vessels, essential for tumour growth, and it is the first oral inhibitor of its kind to show an improvement in the time before patients' disease progresses and in overall survival...

Excessive pregnancy weight gain linked to child obesity

Date: Oct-02-2013
Women who gain excessive weight during pregnancy are at higher risk of having overweight or obese children, according to a study published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts, conducted a population-based cohort study of 42,133 women who had more than one singleton pregnancy and their 91,045 children. The study involved matching records of all live births in Arkansas with state-mandated data on childhood body mass index (BMI) and height from public schools between 2003 and 2011...

Busy ICUs discharge patients more quickly to step-down units, without affecting outcomes

Date: Oct-02-2013
A new study by Penn Medicine researchers published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that busy intensive care units (ICUs) discharge patients more quickly than they otherwise would and do so without adversely affecting patient outcomes - suggesting that low-value extensions of ICU stays are minimized during times of increased ICU capacity strain...

Is exercise as effective as drug intervention?

Date: Oct-02-2013
Scientists claim that exercise may be just as effective as drugs for treating common conditions, such as coronary heart disease and stroke. It has long been established that regular exercise is beneficial for health in general, but researchers now think exercise is "potentially as effective" as drug intervention, and they suggest it "should be considered as a viable alternative to, or alongside, drug therapy." Physical activity has well-documented health benefits, yet in England, roughly one-third of adults meet the recommended levels of physical activity...

Study finds increase in survival following bystander CPR for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Date: Oct-01-2013
In Denmark between 2001 and 2010 there was an increase in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that was associated with an increase in survival following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, according to a study in the October 2 issue of JAMA.  Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest affects approximately 300,000 individuals in North America annually. "Despite efforts to improve prognosis, survival remains low, with aggregated survival-to-discharge rates less than 8 percent...

Following bariatric surgery, use of opioids increases among chronic opioid users

Date: Oct-01-2013
In a group of patients who took chronic opioids for noncancer pain and who underwent bariatric surgery, there was greater chronic use of opioids after surgery compared with before, findings that suggest the need for proactive management of chronic pain in these patients after surgery, according to a study in the October 2 issue of JAMA.  "Bariatric surgery is used to treat obesity, as well as its comorbid conditions such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and chronic pain...

Extended follow-up of hormone therapy trials does not support use for chronic disease prevention

Date: Oct-01-2013
Extended follow-up of the two Women's Health Initiative hormone therapy trials does not support use of hormones for chronic disease prevention, although the treatment may be appropriate for menopausal symptom management in some women, according to a study in the October 2 issue of JAMA.  The hormone therapy trials of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) were stopped after investigators found that the health risks outweighed the benefits...