Category Archives: Cancer

After a decade, global AIDS program looks ahead

The decade-old law that transformed the battle against HIV and AIDS in developing countries is at a crossroads. The dream of future generations freed from epidemic is running up against an era of economic recovery and harsh budget cuts. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief grew out of an unlikely partnership between President George W. Bush and lawmakers led by the Congressional Black Caucus. It has come to represent what Washington can do when it puts politics aside - and what America can do to make the world a better place. President Barack Obama, speaking at the recent dedication of Bush's presidential library, praised the compassion Bush showed in “helping to save millions of lives and reminding people in some of the poorest corners of the globe that America cares.” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said of Bush in a statement that “while many events may distinguish his presidency, his devotion to combatting the scourge of HIV/AIDS will certainly define his legacy.” The AIDS program's future, however, is uncertain. Obama has upped the stakes, speaking in his State of the Union address this year of “realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation.” But funding for the relief plan's bilateral efforts has dipped in recent years and it's doubtful that Congress, in its current budget-cutting mood, will reverse that trend when the current five-year program expires later this year. The AIDS program is also trying to find a balance between its goals of reaching more people with its prevention and treatment programs and turning over more responsibility to the host nations where it operates. “This has been an incredible achievement,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., a senior Congressional Black Caucus member who played major roles both in passing the original 2003 act and its 2008 renewal that significantly increased funding for AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis treatment in Africa and other areas of the developing world. She spoke of the more than 5 million people now receiving life-saving antiretroviral treatment and 11 million pregnant women who received HIV testing and counseling last year. “But I'm worried that with any type of level-funding or cuts we'll go backward,” she said. The 2008 act more than tripled funding from the 2003 measure, approving $48 billion over five years for bilateral and global AIDS programs, malaria and tuberculosis. It also ended U.S. policy making it almost impossible for HIV-positive people to get visas to enter the country. The AIDS program was the largest commitment ever by a nation to combat a single disease internationally. According to the U.N.'s UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2011 the United States provided nearly 60 percent of all international AIDS assistance. A decade ago, almost no one in sub-Saharan Africa was receiving antiretroviral treatment. By 2008, the AIDS program had boosted that number to 1.7 million. As of last year it was 5.1 million. The State Department says the program last year also helped provide treatment to some 750,000 HIV-positive pregnant women, allowing about 230,000 infants to be born HIV-free, supported 2 million male circumcisions and directly supported HIV testing and counseling for 46.5 million. “This is a remarkable story that the American people should know about,” Kimberly Scott of the Institute of Medicine, which recently completed an evaluation of the AIDS program, said at a forum sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the CSIS Global Health Policy Center. According to UNAIDS, the number of people living with HIV has leveled off, standing at about 34 million at the end of 2011. New infections that year reached 2.5 million, down 20 percent from 2001. AIDS-related deaths were 1.7 million, down from 2.3 million in 2005. Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at Kaiser, said most countries where the program operates have yet to reach the “tipping point,” where new infections occurring in a year are less than the increase in people receiving treatment. Among the success stories were Ethiopia, where the 40,000 going on treatment in 2011 was almost four times the new infections. Still with a long way to go was Nigeria, which that year had 270,000 new HIV infections and a 57,000 increase in those getting treatment. Chris Collins, director of public policy at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, also warned of potential repercussions as the AIDS program shifts from being an emergency response to the AIDS epidemic to a more supportive role for country-based health programs. “The countries themselves largely are avoiding the important role that key populations play in epidemics,” he said, referring to gay men, those injecting drugs and sex workers. These groups face discrimination and criminal charges in many cases, and 90 percent of the money to help them now comes from external sources. Collins also spoke of the “huge mismatch” between the positive science and rhetoric on fighting AIDS and the money available. Since 2009 the funding for bilateral and global HIV and AIDS programs has largely stalled. Kaiser's Kates said that while there's still bipartisan support for the AIDS program in Congress, “the big question is will the financing be there to reach the goals” of treating more people and advancing toward that AIDS-free generation. “The challenge right now is that the global economic climate is different, the U.S. climate is different, but the need is still great.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/21/after-decade-global-aids-program-looks-ahead/

Tunisia announces 3 cases of coronavirus, 1 death

Tunisia's Health Ministry says a 66-year-old man has died after being infected by the new coronavirus following a visit to Saudi Arabia. The ministry's statement reported that his son and daughter were also diagnosed with the virus but have been treated and since recovered. The cases are the first for Tunisia and indicate that the virus is slowly trickling out of the Middle East, where more than 30 cases have been reported. There have been at least 20 deaths from the virus worldwide. The Tunisian, a diabetic, had been complaining since his return from a trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar and died from acute respiratory distress at a hospital in Monastir. The new coronavirus is related to SARS, which killed about 800 people in 2003, mostly in Asia.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/21/tunisia-announces-3-cases-coronavirus-1-death/

‘Who’ Cares: Roger Daltrey helps teens with cancer

As the legendary front man of The Who, Roger Daltrey has been entertaining fans across the globe for decades – but his latest project goes beyond the music, and into the lives of some very special fans here in America: Cancer patients. “I've been supporting a charity called Teenage Cancer Trust, which was started by my doctor, who recognized, within our system of medical care, that the age group from 13-25 are very, very specific,” Daltrey told FoxNews.com. “They are not children, and they are not adults – and if they are unfortunate enough to get cancer, they tend to suffer some of the most aggressive cancers.” I had the incredible opportunity to sit down and talk with Daltrey about his efforts with Teenage Cancer Trust the UK for more than 15 years, and how he’s bringing that same passion ‘across the pond’ with Teen Cancer America. Here in the U.S., many patients under the age of 18 end up in children’s hospitals when they are diagnosed with cancer. And while we do have some of the best children’s hospitals in the world, for teens and young adults – their treatment regimen may need some tweaking for the best outcome. “When you look at children's hospitals, to be honest, you have fabulous medicine here (in the U.S.), you have fabulous hospitals, and I've looked around quite a few now, and I've found it very difficult to find anything that is actually teenage-friendly,” said Daltrey. “And so it's our ambition and our mission, to, to make Teen Cancer America a gold standard – a stamp of approval.” Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK and Teen Cancer America work with hospitals to provide physical and psychological support to patients going through treatment for various forms of cancer. And since the program started 23 years ago in the UK, doctors have seen the benefits of making treatment programs age-appropriate. As a practicing physician, I believe there are two basic components to successful health and healing. One of them is physical medicine – whether you're talking about surgery, drugs, etc. – and the other part of it is the patient’s mindset. If a patient is not in an environment that puts him or her in a positive mindset, the outcome often suffers drastically. “It's the quality of life that we should be worrying about – not just the cure,” said Daltrey. “And while you're going through it, especially for this age group, um, because they've got educational problems, they're right in the middle of their exams, you know, they're whole future's kind of been taken away from them – it's enormous pressures.” Teen Cancer Trust has already opened up 25 centers throughout the UK and is currently working on nine others. Here in the U.S., with the help his bandmate, Pete Townshend, Daltrey opened the first U.S. facility at UCLA Medical Center.   “It's a very different system than you've got here where um, the ones that we have got, they've given us space in hospitals and we've then provided the services,” Daltrey told FoxNews.com. “So when you look at the kind of finances of this, it's a cheap end, it's a cheap outlay for a very big result.” Daltrey noted that some medical centers like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Children’s Hospital of Cleveland are in talks with Teen Cancer America to bring teen facilities to their cancer centers, and Yale Cancer Center has already started an outpatient service for teens. For more information visit TeenCancerAmerica.org.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/20/who-cares-roger-daltrey-helps-teens-with-cancer/

Compound in Mediterranean diet makes cancer cells ‘mortal’

By altering a very specific step in gene regulation, this compound essentially re-educates cancer cells into normal cells that die as scheduled. One way that cancer cells thrive is by inhibiting a process that would cause them to die on a regular cycle that is subject to strict programming. This study in cells, led by Ohio State University researchers, found that a compound in certain plant-based foods, called apigenin, could stop breast cancer cells from inhibiting their own death. Much of what is known about the health benefits of nutrients is based on epidemiological studies that show strong positive relationships between eating specific foods and better health outcomes, especially reduced heart disease…

Timing of cancer radiation therapy may minimize hair loss

The study, which appears in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that mice lost 85 percent of their hair if they received radiation therapy in the morning, compared to a 17 percent loss when treatment occurred in the evening. The researchers, from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), worked out the precise timing of the hair circadian clock, and also uncovered the biology behind the clockwork — the molecules that tells hair when to grow and when to repair damage. They then tested the clock using radiotherapy. …

Bunions should be blamed on genes, not shoes, study shows

Bunions are likely inherited and not caused by faulty footwear, Counsel and Heal reported. Bunions are a painful foot condition characterized by bony bumps that form on the joint at the base of the big toe.  Earlier research indicates that 23 percent of people 18 to 65 years of age and 36 percent of people over the age of 65 have bunions. The new study, published in the journal Arthritis Care and Research, analyzed information from 1,370 people, with an average age of 66 years old, who were enrolled in the Framingham Foot Study. Each participant received a foot exam between 2002 and 2008 to screen for bunions, toe deformities or plantar soft tissue atrophy, a breakdown of the fatty “cushion” under the ball of the foot, Counsel and Heal reported. The study found that 31 percent of participants had bunions and 30 percent had toe deformities like “hammer toes,” both of which were highly inheritable, depending on age and sex, especially among people of European descent. Twenty-eight percent had plantar soft tissue atrophy, but this condition was not found to inheritable.                 “Our study is the largest investigation of the heritability of common foot disorders in older adults, confirming that bunions and lesser toe deformities are highly inheritable in Caucasian men and women of European descent,” Dr. Marian Hannan from Hebrew SeniorLife and Harvard Medical School in Boston said in a news release. “These new findings highlight the importance of furthering our understanding of what causes greater susceptibility to these foot conditions, as knowing more about the pathway may ultimately lead to early prevention or early treatment,” she concluded. Click for more from Counsel and Heal.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/20/bunions-should-be-blamed-on-genes-not-shoes-study-shows/

Commonly used catheters double risk of blood clots in ICU and cancer patients

But compared to other central venous catheters (CVCs), these commonly-used catheters (known as PICCs) more than double the risk of dangerous blood clots — especially among patients who are critically ill or who have cancer, according to a new University of Michigan Health System study published in The Lancet. …

Molecular marker from pancreatic ‘juices’ helps identify pancreatic cancer

"Many researchers have been working on such a diagnostic test for a long time — for me, it has been 20 years," says lead investigator Massimo Raimondo, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida. "But for the first time, we have found a very strong candidate molecular marker. "We all want a foolproof method to detect pancreatic cancer in our patients so that we can deliver appropriate therapy, as soon as possible," Dr. …

Not my kid: Most parents unaware teen is using study drugs

Many parents are not aware that their teenage children abuse “study drugs,” a new poll suggests. In the poll, just 1 percent of parents said their teenage children had taken drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin without a prescription. That is much lower than the percentage of teens that surveys suggest are using the drugs. For example, a 2012 study of high schoolers found that about 10 percent of sophomores and 12 percent of seniors said they had used the drugs without a prescription. The new finding highlights the growing issue of stimulant drug abuse, or when teens take stimulant medication (or “study drugs”) to help them study for a test or stay awake to do homework. Such medications are prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Teens without the condition may fake symptoms in order to get a prescription, or obtain the drugs from friends. The new findings, from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, examined parents' awareness of the issue, surveying parents of U.S. children ages 13 to 17. About 11 percent of parents said their teens had been prescribed stimulant medication for ADHD. Among parents of children who were not prescribed ADHD medications, 1 percent said their teens had used these drugs for study purposes. About 4 percent said they didn't know if their teen had abused these drugs, and 95 percent said their teens had never abused the drugs. This disconnect between teen drug abuse and parents' awareness of drug abuse may be in part due to the fact that study drugs have more subtle effects than drugs such as heroin and cocaine, allowing teens to more easily hide their drug use, the researchers said. About half of parents polled said they were very concerned about teens in their communities abusing study drugs. And more than three-quarters supported school policies aimed at stopping this type of drug abuse, such as rules that would require children with prescription ADHD medications to keep the pills in a secure place like the school nurse's office. The findings “underscore the need for greater communication among public health officials, schools, parents, and teens regarding this issue,” the researchers said. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on LiveScience.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/2013/05/20/not-my-kid-most-parents-unaware-teen-is-using-study-drugs/