Health News

Roche's Avastin Approved For Colon Cancer Treatment By FDA

Date: Jan-25-2013
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved use of Roche's Avastin for patients with colorectal cancer that has gotten worse despite treatment with the medication. This new approval will permit patients who were already treated once with Avastin plus chemotherapy to be treated again with Avastin in combination with a different chemotherapy regimen. Hal Barron, MD, Roche's Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development said: "The majority of people diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer receive Avastin plus chemotherapy as their initial treatment...

Protected Sex Just As Enjoyable As Using No Protection At All

Date: Jan-25-2013
American men and women consider protected sex with condoms to be just as enjoyable and arousing as using no protection at all, according to a recent study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, conducted by researchers from Indiana University School of Public Health.  The researchers conducted an online questionnaire to assess the characteristics of condom and lubricant use among men and women aged 18 to 59...

Researcher Calls For New Understanding Of Antibiotic Resistance And Disease To End Growing Scourge Of 'Superbugs'

Date: Jan-25-2013
With the rising awareness of the so-called "superbugs," bacteria that are resistant to most known antibiotics, three infectious disease experts writing in the New England Journal of Medicine called for novel approaches based on a "reconceptualization of the nature of resistance, disease and prevention." "Antibiotic-resistant microbes infect more than 2 million Americans every year and kill more than 100,000 annually," said Brad Spellberg, M.D...

It Takes More Than Protein-Coding DNA To Make A Heart

Date: Jan-24-2013
Remember when we thought most of the human genome was "junk" DNA? Because when scientists first sequenced it, they found less than 3% of the DNA was for coding proteins, the building blocks of life. Since then, they have been discovering some surprising things about non-coding DNA. In a new study published this week, a team describes how some of it codes for a genetic snippet of "long non-coding RNA" (or  lncRNA) that controls the destiny of stem cells that differentiate into various types of heart cell...

Abraxane Improves Survival Among Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Date: Jan-24-2013
Celegene Corp's drug Abraxane (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) was found to be effective at improving overall survival among pancreatic cancer patients when combined with chemotherapy, according to results from the drug's phase III clinical trial.  Even though Pancreatic cancer is a relatively uncommon form of cancer - making up only 2.1% cancer cases - it is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths killing around 38,000 people in the U.S. every year...

Reproductive Coercion Common In Abusive Relationships

Date: Jan-24-2013
Adolescent girls and women should now be screened for reproductive coercion, a form of abuse that occurs when male partners sabotage their contraception intentionally. This form of abuse, known as reproductive coercion, can manifest in several ways, such as deliberately giving a partner a sexually transmitted disease (STIs), forcing a partner to have an undesired abortion or pregnancy, or seizing control of a woman's contraceptive pills...

Migraine Triggers Not As Powerful As We Think

Date: Jan-24-2013
Migraine with aura triggers may not be as powerful as most people think. The finding came from new research published in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology...

Quitting Smoking By 40 Restores Life Expectancy To Near Normal

Date: Jan-24-2013
The lifespan of a smoker tends to be ten years shorter than that of a never-smoker. But smokers who quit by their 40th birthday can expect to live nearly as long as those who never took up the habit, according to a new analysis of health survey and death record data  from the US. Prabhat Jha, a a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at Canada's University of Toronto, and colleagues, write about their findings in the 24 January online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM...

Black Patients With Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure Are Not Being Prescribed Beneficial, Inexpensive Diuretic Drug

Date: Jan-24-2013
Weill Cornell Researchers Report Important Treatment Guidelines are Being Ignored in More Than Half of Patients Studied A research study of more than 600 black patients with uncontrolled hypertension found that less than half were prescribed a diuretic drug with proven benefit that costs just pennies a day, report researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York's (VNSNY) Center for Home Care Policy and Research. The researchers say these new findings should be taken as a serious wake-up call for physicians who treat black patients with hypertension...

Advanced Training Programme In Bowel Surgery Launched By University Of East Anglia

Date: Jan-24-2013
The University of East Anglia is launching a pioneering new course designed to meet the complex training needs of colorectal surgeons. The Masters degree in Coloproctology (MS) will deliver a broad-based training in coloproctology with an emphasis on patient safety and evidence-based care. The e-learning format is based on a similar course in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery, which was launched by the university in 2011...