Sources: U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institutes of Health Childhood Disease Rates have been kept low with the advent of vaccination programs. Childhood disease is common in the early months and years of life. Some upper respiratory viral or bacterial infections—colds, bronchitis, or croup—are quite common. Also common are ear infections, sinusitis, impetigo [...]
Sources: American Cancer Society; and 30+ years of medical malpractice experience EARLY detection of breast cancer, before it causes symptoms, is the key to cure and long-term survival of this disease. The goal of screening exams for early breast cancer detection is to find cancers before they start to cause symptoms. Breast cancers that are [...]
Sources: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, online edition, May 1, 2013; American Association for Cancer Research RESEARCHERS at the University of Tromsø in Norway have concluded that women who smoke have a higher risk of cancer than men, Norwegian investigators found. Looking at the medical records of more than 600,000 patients between ages 16 and [...]
Sources: National Cancer Institute; Journal of Clinical Oncology; Lancet NEOADJUVANT therapy is treatment given before primary therapy. For example, a woman may receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer to shrink a tumor that is inoperable or a woman whose breast tumor can be removed by mastectomy may receive neoadjuvant therapy to shrink the tumor enough to allow breast-conserving [...]
Sources: AARP, The Magazine, Story by Beth Howard; the Leapfrog Group By Gayle R. Lewis, Esquire: Hospital malpractice continues to be a major health concern. The Leapfrog Group is an independent, national not-for-profit organization "founded more than a decade ago by the nation’s leading employers and private healthcare experts." According to their website, "The Leapfrog [...]
By: Gayle R. Lewis, Esquire Sources: British Medical Journal 2013;346:f2023; BBC Health News A STUDY initiated by Sweedish researchers was recently published in the British Medical Joural. The goal of the study was to determine the association (if any) between concentration of prostate specific antigen (PSA) at age 40-55 and subsequent risk of prostate cancer metastasis (spread) and [...]
Sources: Nature Medicine (2013) Published online April 14, 2013; BBC Health News RESEARCHERS at Massachusetts General Hospital have taken the first steps towards creating usable bio-engineered kidneys. The kidney from a rat was removed and cleaned until all that remained was the proteins and vessles, a "scaffolding" on which to build another usable kidney. While windpipes [...]
Sources: Colorado Cancer Blogs; American Association for Cancer Research; BBC Health News MALE sex hormones, androgens, may provide another tool to fight breast cancer in women. Researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center have discovered that many breast cancers possess androgen receptors on their surface, and that male hormones like testosterone fuel the tumour's growth. [...]
Sources: BBC Health News; Jorunal Oncology THE BRCA2 gene has been linked to hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Now scientists say that as well as being more likely to get prostate cancer, men with BRCA2 are also more likely to develop aggressive tumours and have the poorest survival rates. Men with the gene should [...]
Sources: World Health Organization; BBC Health News; British Medical Journal THE World Health Organisation has issued its first guidelines on potassium intake, recommending that adults should consume more than 4g of potassium (or 90 to 100mmol) per day. This follows recent publication in the British Medical Journal which adds to the body of evidence suggesting that [...]