IAEA urges scheme to track radiation in patients
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A scheme to track the amount of radiation patients are exposed to from scans is urgently needed to help guard them against the risk of cancer, the United Nations nuclear body said on Wednesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that although technical advances in medical scans had improved diagnoses, overuse could expose patients to excessive radiation.
The IAEA is working on a smart card which would record radiation levels in patients in developed countries and which it hopes could be launched in the next three to five years as more medical records are digitized. This would help doctors weigh up whether scanning procedures were medically advisable.
Drug helps pregnant drug users to stop smoking
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Treatment with an antidepressant drug significantly improves the mood in pregnant substance-dependent women who also smoke cigarettes, according to preliminary results reported at the 2009 Joint Conference of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) and SNRT-Europe.
The data also suggest that the antidepressant - bupropion—helps these women curb their smoking.
“We are encouraged by the findings given that both depression and smoking are highly prevalent in pregnant, substance-dependent patients and are associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes,” said Dr. Margaret S. Chisolm, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Major Statin Study Reveals Several Important Findings for Reducing Prostate Cancer and Disease
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Statins, drugs widely prescribed to lower cholesterol, may have protective effects on prostate health. This large Mayo Clinic cohort study looked at three different aspects of urological health – prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction and prostate enlargement. Initial research results are being presented April 25–30, 2009, at the American Urological Association (AUA) meeting in Chicago.
VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Drs. St. Sauver, Karnes and Breau describing the research, are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog. These materials are also subject to embargo, but may be accessed in advance by journalists for incorporation into stories. The password for this post is password Statin049.
These Mayo Clinic study findings came from data in the Olmsted County Study of Urinary Health Status among Men, a large cohort study of men living in Olmsted County, Minn. This study has followed 2,447 men ages 40 to 79 from 1990 to the present to assess various urologic outcomes among aging men.
Scientists Discover How to Improve Immune Response to Cancer
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A team of scientists at The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research (CFIBCR) at Princess Margaret Hospital and international collaborators have discovered how to trigger an improved immune response to cancer that could be included in new clinical trials that use a patient’s own cells to destroy tumours.
The findings, published online today in Nature Medicine (DOI: 10.1038/nm.1953), demonstrate the tantalizing potential of immunotherapy in cancer treatment, says principal investigator Dr. Pamela Ohashi, co-director, CFIBCR.
In the lab study, the scientists combined interleukin-7 (IL-7) – a key component of the immune system – with a viral vaccine to improve the ability of the cells of the immune system to attack tumours. The result was clear: The combination boosted immunity to tumours.
Expert Available to Discuss Pandemic Flu
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RTI International’s Dr. Christine Layton is a public health expert who specializes in influenza (annual and pandemic), pandemic influenza preparations, vaccines and immunization infrastructure.
She has more than 15 years of professional experience. She is especially interested in the evaluation and implementation of public health programs at the community level. Most recently, Dr. Layton’s work has focused on issues related to immunization and vaccine policy.
About RTI International:
U.S. lawmakers eye Medicare in health reform drive
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The Medicare program for the elderly may offer ways to encourage better care at a lower cost as a big part of reforming the U.S. healthcare system, a leading Senate Democrat said on Tuesday.
“Medicare is the big driver here,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told reporters following a committee discussion with industry groups on ways to change the payment system.
Politicians and experts agree it is important to reward doctors and hospitals for better quality of care and move away from a system that pays them based on the number of procedures and treatments.
Hormone therapy lowers colon cancer risk
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Hormone replacement therapy may raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer and heart disease but it lowers her risk of colon cancer, according to two studies released on Wednesday.
The studies presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research further complicate the debate about HRT, used to relieve the effects of menopause including hot flashes and insomnia.
Millions of women stopped taking HRT when a Women’s Health Initiative study showed in 2002 that the hormones raised the risk of stroke, heart disease and breast cancer. Hardest hit was Wyeth’s Premarin, which is soon to be acquired by Pfizer Inc.
Young Volunteers Help Close Social Gap in Cancer Care
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The diagnosis of cancer is a jarring experience. Patients face a battery of diagnostic tests, clinic visits, specialist consultations and intense treatments that drastically affect their quality of life. Oncology healthcare professionals work tirelessly to meet the growing demands of cancer, but often gaps exist in the social aspects of cancer care.
Addressing this gap is a passionate, specially trained group of volunteers involved in the Healing Beyond the Body Program (HBB) at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH). Their role is to connect with the patients in the various clinics and provide support and information by sharing practical treatment tips, helping to prepare for clinic visits and just by being there in the waiting room before a chemotherapy session.
Duke Chen is an undergraduate life science student at the University of Toronto who enjoys spending time with patients and is pursuing a career in health care as a result of his time spent in the HBB program
Sports drinks start working when they hit the mouth
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High-carbohydrate sports drinks can boost athletic performance, and their effects may begin as soon as they hit the mouth, a new study suggests.
The researchers had endurance athletes rinse their mouths with either of two carb-containing drinks, the athletes’ exercise performance improved. The same was not true when the athletes were given water flavored with an artificial sweetener.
What’s more, brain scans showed that simply swishing the carbohydrate drinks around the mouth activated particular areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward. Again, the artificially sweetened water did not have the same effects.
Expert Available to Discuss Malaria Control Efforts in Africa
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World Malaria Day is Saturday, April 25. If you’re looking for experts to speak about malaria control efforst in Africa, Dr. John Chimumbwa is available.
Dr. John Chimumbwa is a leading authority in malaria control efforts throughout Africa. A Zambian national with a Ph.D. in Malaria Epidemiology from the University of Natal, he has more than 15 years experience working to combat malaria in many parts of Africa. Dr. Chimumbwa worked with UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa Office on the Roll Back Malaria project and as national malaria program coordinator in the Zambia Ministry of Health.
Natural protein may halt colorectal cancer’s spread
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Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center researchers in Milwaukee have learned that a protein, CXCL12, that normally controls intestinal cell movement, has the potential to halt colorectal cancer spreading. These studies represent a potential mechanism by which CXL12 may slow cancer spreading. Controlling this process could lead to new biological therapies for colorectal cancers.
“Colorectal cancer ranks third in cancer-related deaths in the United States in 2008,” says principal investigator Michael Dwinell, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. “Finding therapies to prevent its spread to secondary organs would increase patient prognosis considerably.” Luke Drury, a graduate student in the interdisciplinary program for biomedical research at the Medical College, was his research associate. Their abstract will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Denver, April 21.
Cancer “culprits” in tobacco smoke revealed
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Scientists have detected two substances in tobacco smoke that directly cause lung cancer, and they said on Sunday the finding may help one day predict which smokers will develop the disease.
They said people with high concentrations in their urine of a nicotine byproduct called NNAL had double the risk of developing lung cancer compared to smokers with lower NNAL concentrations in their urine.
And smokers who had high urine levels of both NNAL and another nicotine by-product called cotinine had more than eight times the risk of lung cancer compared to smokers with the lowest concentrations of these two compounds.
Blueberries are good for the heart, study hints
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Eating blueberries, as part of a healthy diet, may help ward off several key risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, such as an accumulation of belly fat, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar, according to research reported Sunday at the Experimental Biology conference in New Orleans.
The health benefits of blueberries are thought to be due to their high levels of phytochemicals - naturally occurring antioxidants called anthocyanins found in darkly pigmented fruits and vegetables.
“In the long-term Women’s Health Study, it was shown that women who had diets high in anthocyanins had a significantly reduced risk for heart disease,” University of Michigan research scientist E. Mitchell Seymour told Reuters Health.
Chewing gum reduces snack cravings and decreases consumption of sweet snacks
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Men and women who chewed Extra® sugar-free gum three times hourly in the afternoon chose and consumed less snacks and specifically, less sweet snacks than they did when they did not chew gum. They still reached for a variety of snacks provided but the decrease in overall snack intake was significant at 40 calories and sweet snack intake specifically was significantly lowered by 60 calories.
Researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., presented study findings on April 19, 2009 at the Experimental Biology 2009 meeting in New Orleans.
The presentation by Dr. Paula J Geiselman, chief of women¹s health and eating behavior and smoking cessation at Pennington, was part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition. Earlier studies had found that gum chewing was associated with lower snack intake, but the study conducted by Dr. Geiselman is the first to examine the macronutrient composition of afternoon snack food choices made by men and women after chewing Extra® sugar-free gum.
Acupuncture reduces post-op nausea and vomiting
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Acupuncture or acupressure stimulation of Pericardium 6 (P6), a point on the wrist, is safe and effective for reducing postoperative nausea and vomiting, according to a review of studies appearing in The Cochrane Library for April 14.
The results show that compared with a sham treatment, P6 stimulation reduced nausea by 29 percent, vomiting by 30 percent, and the need for rescue antiemetics - drugs that suppress nausea—by 31 percent, study co-authors Dr. Anna Lee and Dr. Lawrence T. Y. Fan, from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, report.
In a search of two large databases, MEDLINE and EMBASE, and other sources through September 2008, the authors identified 40 trials with 4858 subjects that compared various forms of P6 stimulation with sham treatment in preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting.
