Category Archives: Cancer

Dispute flares within FDA over safety of popular blood pressure drugs

The top-selling class of blood-pressure drugs is under attack from an unusual source: a senior regulator at the Food and Drug Administration. Bucking his bosses, Thomas A. Marciniak is seeking stronger warnings about the drugs known as angiotensin receptor blockers, or ARBs, according to internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The drugs, which are taken by millions of people and generated $7.6 billion in U.S. sales in 2012, may be linked to higher cancer rates, Dr. Marciniak argues, a view shared by some outside doctors. Top FDA officials say evidence doesn't support a link. The debate over ARBs highlights the question of whether the U.S. drug-safety agency devotes enough effort to examining the safety of long-marketed blockbusters as it focuses on new drugs. In a rare rebellion by an FDA reviewer, Dr. Marciniak has clashed with his bosses over his desire to spend time on ARB safety, instead of just on new-drug applications. Ellis Unger, chief of the drug-evaluation division that includes Dr. Marciniak, called the complaints a “diversion,” and said in an interview, “We have no reason to tell the public anything new.” ARBs on the market in the U.S. include Novartis AG's Diovan, Daiichi Sankyo Co.'s Benicar, Merck & Co.'s Cozaar, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH's Micardis; Avapro, from Sanofi SA and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.; and AstraZeneca PLC's Atacand. Patients take these medicines daily to avoid heart attack, stroke and heart failure. In a 2010 study published in Lancet Oncology, Ilke Sipahi and colleagues at University Hospitals in Cleveland looked at five studies involving 68,402 patients and found that people taking ARBs had an 11 percent greater risk of new cancer overall and a 25 percent greater risk of new lung cancer, compared with patients who didn't get the drugs. But within a year, the FDA gave the all-clear signal, saying its own analysis found “no increase in risk” from taking ARBs. Europe's drug regulator also dismissed the cancer concerns. Dr. Marciniak wasn't persuaded. In its analysis, the FDA combined different studies to look at more patients, multiplying its statistical power to find possible side effects from the drugs, a technique called meta-analysis. If the original studies have flaws, however, meta-analyses can simply compound the problem, researchers say. That is what happened to the FDA, says Dr. Marciniak, who warned others in the agency that taking results tabulated by companies was likely to produce unreliable results: “Garbage in, garbage out,” he wrote. Among other things, Dr. Marciniak said in an internal analysis viewed by the Journal that the FDA meta-analysis didn't count cases of “lung carcinomas” as lung cancers, which they are. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/dispute-flares-within-fda-over-safety-popular-blood-pressure-drugs/

Dr. Manny: ObamaCare criticism is not about race, it’s about facts

State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the head of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said on the floor of the state Senate this week that opponents of the federal health care overhaul are motivated by President Obama's race. Peterson, who is also chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, then went on to repeatedly bring up race as she railed against ObamaCare critics. “I have talked to so many members both in the House and the Senate, and you know what? You ready…

Woman claims she contracted herpes from lipstick at a Rihanna concert

A Harlem woman is claiming she contracted herpes from a sample of RiRi Woo lipstick she tested at a Rihanna concert in Brooklyn on May 7, Medical Daily reported. Starkeema Greenidge, 28, has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against MAC Cosmetics, which manufactures the product.  According to Greenidge, she visited a pop-up shop at the singer’s Barclay’s Center show, where a Mac Cosmetics representative applied the RiRi Woo lipstick to Greenidge’s lips. Caused by the herpes simplex virus, herpes is a common sexually transmitted disease (STD) that affects 16.2 percent of Americans, or one out of every six people, between the ages of 14 and 49, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The disease is often contracted through sex, but it can also be transmitted through touching and kissing while an infected individual has a herpes “flare up.” Greenidge said in the suit that the MAC Cosmetics representative failed to warn her that the lipstick had been used by other concert attendees.  When Greenidge developed a cold sore two days later, she went to the doctor, where she was diagnosed with herpes. According to the lawsuit, Greenidge has suffered mental anguish and distress after contracting the STD, Medical Daily reported. A spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics issued a statement to the Daily Beast on Thursday about the incident: “Consumer safety is a top priority at MAC Cosmetics, and we take these matters very seriously. We are closely reviewing these claims.” Click for more from Medical Daily.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/woman-claims-contracted-herpes-from-lipstick-at-rihanna-concert/

For veterans, mental health care often fragmented

For veterans with mental health conditions, prompt and continuous access to mental health care can be lifesaving. However, research shows that after deployment, veterans often go years without obtaining mental health care, and when they do, their care is often fragmented. A recent study found that, among veterans with mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, the average time between return from deployment and initiation of mental health care was two years. The study, which looked at veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who visited Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers between 2001 and 2011, also found that an average of seven and a half years lapsed between the first mental health visit, and the start of treatment that would be considered “minimally adequate” for these conditions which would be eight treatment sessions within a year. By the end of the study, 75 percent of veterans had not received minimally adequate care. The findings were published in the December 2012 issue of the journal Psychiatric Services. Prompt care is important because mental illness can impair people's lives and interfere with their relationships and jobs, said study researcher Shira Maguen, a psychologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center who treats patients with PTSD. “If we can get them into care sooner, thats less time that they have to live with some of those challenges after they return from deployment,” Maguen said. Many factors can interfere with veterans getting mental health care, including the stigma associated with mental illnesses (such as the belief that seeking care is a sign of weakness), concern that seeking care may jeopardize their careers, trouble finding transport to VA centers, and trouble getting appointments. (Last year, a report from the VA inspector general found that about half of veterans seeking a mental health evaluation waited an average of 50 days for an evaluation.) To broaden access to mental health care, the VA says it has taken steps to increase staffing and to partner with community health care centers. In a report released last week, the VA said it has made agreements with 15 local clinics in seven states to allow veterans to be treated at those clinics. Maguen said it is also important to identify the factors that keep veterans coming back for care. Her study found that most veterans who receive minimally adequate care do so within one year of their first visit. Follow-up appointments are critical for patients at risk for suicide studies show that one of the highest risk periods for suicide is the month following discharge from a hospital or emergency room for a suicidal episode. But a report from the VA inspector general released last month found that about one-third of veterans at high risk for suicide did not receive the required four mental health follow-up visits within a month after their discharge. What's more, for about a third of these at-risk veterans, there was no documented attempt to contact them to remind them of their appointments. “That kind of a clinical response is not acceptable,” said M. David Rudd, provost of the University of Memphis who has studied suicide risk among veterans. “You dont have control over whether or not somebody will keep and appointment. You do have control of whether you attempt to track them.” The inspector general report said the VA needs to improve its effort to reach out to patients who do not show up for mental health appointments. Rudd said the VA may want to consider conducting home visits for psychiatric patients who have trouble getting to VA centers. The inspector general report said the VA should consider expanding the use of telemental health services, such as videoconferencing. The VA also said this week it has increased capacity of its Veterans Crisis Line to connect veterans in crisis with trained mental health providers. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/for-veterans-mental-health-care-often-fragmented/

France to ban electronic cigarettes in public

France will ban electronic cigarette smoking in public places by imposing the same curbs enforced since 2007 to combat tobacco smoking, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. Amid mounting global concern over the public health implications of so-called e-cigarettes, Touraine said they faced the same fate as traditional ones: a ban on smoking in public spaces and sales to minors and a blackout on media advertising. In a country where the pungent waft of Gaulloises and Gitanes once seemed an unassailable part of cafe culture, smokers have long been banished to outdoor terrace seats. The near-odorless electronic alternative - battery-driven devices that allow users inhale odorless nicotine-laced vapor rather than smoke - are gaining ground in no-go zones such as bars, cafes, trains, waiting rooms and offices. A government-commissioned report said this week that around 500,000 people in France had turned to e-cigarettes, which are designed to look like cigarettes although some come in different colors, and recommended a crackdown on public use. Health officials in many countries say the impact of electronic cigarettes on health needs further study. Another worry they cite is that the electronic alternative will increase the general temptation to smoke, including enticing those who have quit to start again, or that smokers may use them alongside rather than instead of regular cigarettes. “This is no ordinary product because it encourages mimicking and could promote taking up smoking,” said Touraine, who announced her plans at a news conference. In the United States, the number of smokers who have tried out e-cigarettes doubled to one in five in 2011 and the number of all adults trying it doubled too, to 6 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In France, a country of 66 million, the government says tobacco smoking kills some 66,000 people a year and another 5,000 are killed through passive exposure to smoke. The expert in charge of the French report advised against an outright ban on e-cigarettes, however, saying they still seemed safer than tar-laden tobacco. Electronic cigarettes, whose invention is widely credited to a Chinese pharmacist a decade ago, usually comprise disposable cartridges of liquid such as propylene glycol that is easily turned to vapor and can contain artificial flavors alongside concentrated liquid nicotine.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/france-to-ban-electronic-cigarettes-in-public/

New technique alleviates painful bone metastases, study suggests

During the procedure, known as MR-guided focused ultrasound, doctors direct a concentrated beam of energy to specific nerve endings that are causing pain in bone metastases. These patients typically have a significant amount of discomfort — half of study participants rated their pain at least a 7 out of 10 — but within a handful of days, most said they felt significant relief. Although Fox Chase patients received local anesthesia during the procedure, the most commonly reported side effect was pain — which can often be alleviated with additional anesthesia, says study author Joshua Meyer, MD, attending physician in the Radiation Oncology Department at Fox Chase. "That’s temporary pain, which is gone as soon as the procedure is over," he says…

Scotland researchers look to develop synthetic blood

Researchers in Scotland have been given a license by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to manufacture blood out of stem cells – essentially creating synthetic blood, BBC News reported. If their endeavor proves successful, they hope to move on to clinical trials, testing the blood in people.  According to BBC News, the regular use of synthetic blood could put an end to blood supply shortages and help people avoid infections contracted through donated blood. “Attaining these licenses has been a key goal for the Scottish Center for Regenerative Medicine, and we are delighted to have reached this important milestone,” said Janet Downie, chief operating officer at Roslin Cells, where the research is being conducted. Conducting clinical trials in humans would require another license from MHRA, along with other regulatory agencies. Click for more from BBC News.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/scotland-researchers-look-to-develop-synthetic-blood/

Medical marijuana for your pet?

More people are using medical marijuana to treat pets for a variety of conditions, ranging from separation anxiety and noise phobia to cancer, according to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) News. Now, as more states begin to legalize the drug for humans, veterinarians and pet owners are calling for more research into the use and safety of the drug in pets. After using medical marijuana to treat his own chronic back pain, Enest Misko, a 77-year-old from Chatsworth, Calif., decided to use a form of the drug to treat his pet cat, Borzo, who was having difficulty walking. Misko gave the cat a glycerin tincture of marijuana made for pets, and within a few days of taking the drug, Misko said the cat appeared to be pain-free. The drug can be found in licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. “I don’t get high from (marijuana), but the pain goes away. So I tried it on my cat, my 24-year-old cat, who’s feeling better,” Misko told the JAVMA News. Within the past few years, veterinarians have noticed an uptick in people claiming to use medical marijuana treatments for their pets and some have even begun to experiment with it on their own pets.  Dr. Douglas Kramer, a veterinarian in Los Angeles, Calif., who runs a mobile office focused on pain management and palliative care for pets, noted that approximately 300 people have told him they’ve treated their pets with medical marijuana since 2011. Kramer became intrigued by the drug’s potential when his Siberian husky, Nikita, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “Nikita was wasting away, and she’d stopped eating,” he told JAVMA News. “I’d exhausted every available pharmaceutical pain option, even steroids. At that point, it was a quality of life issue, and I felt like I’d try anything to ease her suffering.” After Kramer began feeding Nikita small amounts of marijuana, the dog’s appetite returned, and she rested more comfortably during her final months. Based on his own reviews of medical marijuana research, Kramer believes the drug may be suitable for use in veterinary patients and that it deserves more attention from the veterinary research community. “I don’t want to come across as being overly in favor of giving marijuana to pets,” Kramer told JAVMA News. “My position is the same as the (American Medical Association’s position). We need to investigate marijuana further to determine whether the case reports I’m hearing are true or whether there’s a placebo effect at work. We also need to know what the risks are.” Other veterinarians note that medical marijuana has the potential to be used in pet treatments but agree that more research needs to be done. Dr. Dawn Boothe, director of the Clinical Pharmacology Laboratory at Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said it wouldn’t surprise her to see FDA-approved drugs made from cannabinoid derivatives being used in pets one day. “My gut reaction is they do probably provide some therapeutic effect benefit,” said Boothe. “But, I’m never going to say there’s enough benefit that marijuana should be given to pets. I’m saying there’s enough justification that we need to study it.” Click for more from the JAVMA News.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/medical-marijuana-for-your-pet/

To stop MERS, longer quarantines may be necessary

A detailed look at two cases of a deadly new respiratory virus called MERS suggests people who have the disease should be isolated for at least 12 days to avoid spreading it, doctors reported. The new germ, a respiratory infection, was first seen in the Middle East and so far has sickened more than 40 people worldwide, killing about half of them. In the report published online in the journal Lancet, French scientists said the first patient visited Dubai. He is thought to have caught MERS there before passing it onto the second patient, who had no travel history and with whom he shared a room for three days. Health officials have previously noted MERS can be spread among people if they are in close contact and clusters of the illness have been spotted in countries including Britain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. Experts aren't sure how humans are catching the virus but think it may originate in animals like bats or camels. In a speech on Monday in Geneva, the World Health Organization's Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said her greatest health concern is MERS. She called the ongoing outbreaks “alarm bells” and said the virus “is a threat to the entire world.” French doctors estimated the disease's incubation period to be from 9 to 12 days for the second case, longer than the 7 to 10 days previously reported by others. They said longer quarantines might be necessary to stop the virus' spread and noted people with underlying medical conditions could be at higher risk. The scientists wrote that if the virus evolves further, it could become more dangerous. With further mutations, they said MERS “might become increasingly transmissible” and must be continuously assessed. Earlier this week, French officials said the first patient died. The second remains in critical condition.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/to-stop-mers-longer-quarantines-may-be-necessary/

No science behind blood-type diets, researchers say

They are a fad that refuses to fade, but no solid evidence exists to show whether or not eating plans tailored to ABO blood types promote health, say Belgian researchers who tried their best to find some. After sifting through the scientific literature, researchers identified just one indirectly related study - it looked at the effects of low-fat diets on cholesterol levels in people with different blood types - and even that one was weak, they concluded. Some studies have found links between blood type and risk for developing blood clots or certain cancers, of having a heart attack and of hemorrhaging when infected with Dengue fever. But no peer-reviewed research has indicated that eating foods supposedly compatible with one's blood type will improve health or induce weight loss more than a general diet plan. Medical professionals already knew this, according to the study's senior author, Dr. Philippe Vandekerckhove at the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders in Mechelen. “However, the general populace have access to blood type diets, regardless of medical guidance, and cannot be expected to be able to determine whether or not the health claims are, in fact, ‘evidence-based',” Vandekerckhove said. Blood type is determined by proteins on the surface of red blood cells and antibodies in the blood. The most familiar grouping, known as ABO blood types, refers to whether a person's cells carry the proteins known as A or B, or both of them, or neither of the two - which is designated blood type O. The idea that blood type influences an individual's life - and even personality - is popular in parts of Asia. In 2011, for example, a Japanese politician apologized for a rude remark he had made about tsunami victims by blaming his blood type. But blood type eating regimens are often premised on the theory that blood group signals a population's evolutionary background - primarily agrarian or hunter-gatherer, for instance - and that ancient history inclines people of certain blood types to thrive or suffer when eating one kind of diet or another. Vandekerckhove's team, who published their results in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, searched the largest online databases of published research for clinical trials, reviews and all other types of studies for reports about people grouped by blood type following specifically prescribed diets. Of 1,415 articles that initially turned up in the search, 16 looked promising at the start but 15 of those were discarded on closer analysis when the authors saw that they were poorly designed. Only one was relevant to the topic and strong enough to be included in an analysis because it was a randomized controlled trial. But it had several other weaknesses, including the fact that participants knew which group they had been assigned to, the group sizes were small, and the main endpoint assessed was “bad cholesterol” levels, which doesn't directly address the question of health or weight. Vandekerckhove and his coauthors were surprised and disappointed to find that no studies had been done that actually addressed the question, he said. “Until a study has been performed which recruits people with a certain blood type who have adhered to the diet, compared with those of the same blood type who have not adhered to the diet, and the incidence of disease/measurement of health can be assessed, then the health effects of a blood type diet are not proven,” he wrote in an email. “Currently, there is no evidence to support that ‘Blood Type Diets' have any effect on positively benefiting your health,” said Beth Warren, a registered dietician in New York City who was not involved in the study. “The fad diet was only made popular by a book during 1996…with no evidence to support it,” Warren said. “Eat Right 4 Your Type” by Peter D'Adamo has more than 7 million copies in print, and outlines a theory about which foods are best for people with the various ABO blood types to eat and which to avoid. D'Adamo says he believes in the diet based on circumstantial evidence. “All the authors did was conclude, as have I, that there is a lack of direct research on the subject,” D'Adamo said by email. He too would like to see direct research on the diets, but such studies are unlikely because they would be too costly. One-size-fits-all diets don't make sense either, D'Adamo said, and it may be that blood type is one way to predict which general weight loss diets work better for which people. “We hope the results of this systematic review will reinforce the need for individuals and companies to take responsibility of their claims and clearly differentiate between something that is “evidence-based” rather than something that is “theoretical”,” Vandekerckhove said. “We have to be very careful when we hear of fad diets and look into if and how this way of eating benefits our health and goals for weight-loss and maintenance,” Warren said. “In this case, we cannot say that it does at this time,” she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/no-science-behind-blood-type-diets-researchers-say/