Tag Archives: king

Secretary Sebelius, stop hiding behind bureaucratic rules and save a child’s life

Many are calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old girl dying of cystic fibrosis, to be allowed on the adult organ transplant list.  According to current federal policy, the minimum age for her to be included on the list is 12. Currently, Sarah cannot receive an adult lung transplant until the available organs are offered to adult patients first. Of course, Secretary Sebelius could always make an exception by allowing this girl to be put on the transplant list.  Exceptions to federal regulations are made every day by the Department of Health and Human Services, whether you’re talking about the use of non-FDA approved drugs to treat cancer or the use of new technical equipment for surgical therapies. In this specific case, however, we’re talking about saving a child whose only hope is to compete among other patients for a transplant.  It is a perfect example of how rules are sometimes meant to be changed – or broken completely – especially when you’re talking about saving a person’s life. Secretary Sebelius has only ordered a revision of the policy, which could take a lengthy amount of time – something Sarah does not have.  To me, this shows lack of leadership and, certainly, lack of compassion.  Doctors and nurses make instant decisions when it comes to helping others in need, and I believe that someone who is in charge of the largest health care agency on the planet should have a more proactive approach when dealing with these kinds of emergency situations. The field of medicine has changed dramatically when it comes to the surgical techniques that transplant surgeons use.  From minimally invasive therapy to partial organ transplants, new technical miracles continue to develop. Therefore, the argument that an adult organ may not be usable in a 10-year-old is no longer valid, and certainly open for discussion in our clinical community.  As reports have told us, Sarah’s surgeons do agree that in her case, an adult transplant just might work. The rule not allowing a child to be eligible for a transplant from an adult organ until the age of 12 is archaic, and it should not have taken a case like this for Secretary Sebelius – whose tenure has lasted for the past four years – to ask for a revision today. I agree with many who have said that this child is a victim of age discrimination.  But I also agree that Sarah has been ignored by our federal health leaders and has been placed in a bureaucratic Neverland.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/secretary-sebelius-stop-hiding-behind-bureaucratic-rules-and-save-childs-life/

Tests reveal 66-year-old who lived as a man actually is a woman

A 66-year-old who lived his whole life as a man was given a surprising diagnosis after visiting the doctor in Hong Kong with a swollen abdomen - he was a woman. Doctors realized the patient was female after they found the swelling came from a large cyst on an ovary, the Hong Kong Medical Journal reported. The condition was the result of two rare genetic disorders. The subject had Turner syndrome, which affects girls and women and results from a problem with the chromosomes, with characteristics including infertility and short stature. But he also had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, increasing male hormones and making the patient, who had a beard and a “micropenis”, appear like a man. “Were it not due to the huge ovarian cyst, his intriguing medical condition might never have been exposed,” seven doctors from two of the city's hospitals wrote in the study published on Monday. The doctors said there have been only six cases where both genetic disorders have been reported in medical literature. Turner Syndrome on its own affects only one in 2500 to 3000 females. Click for more from news.com.au. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/hong-kong-man-66-finds-out-woman/

Sunscreen slows skin aging, study shows

Though you may rely on anti-wrinkle creams packed with antioxidants and cosmeceuticals to keep your skin looking young, a new study suggests that you may be better off smoothing on sunscreen.   This is the first large study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, to demonstrate that sunscreen not only slows skin aging, but may also reverse it.  Researchers compared photoaging in 900 men and women from Australia over a four year period between 1992 and 1996. Photoaging is associated with coarser and slack skin, increased wrinkling and dryness, an increase in visible small blood vessels and white and blackheads on the face. The adults, who were all under age 55, were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was told to apply an SPF 15+ sunscreen every day. They were instructed to apply it to their head, neck, arms and hands every morning, and to reapply after heavy sweating, swimming, or spending more than a few hours outdoors. A second group could use sunscreen at their discretion. The adults were also randomized to take either a B-carotene supplement, which some believe protects against photoaging, or a placebo supplement. Their skin was assessed at the start and finish of the study.   By the end of the study, 77 percent of the participants told to use sunscreen every day were applying sunscreen at least 3 to 4 days per week, compared to 33 percent of discretionary users. Compared with discretionary sunscreen users, those assigned to daily sunscreen use were 24 percent less likely to show increased aging. The skin-saving effect of sunscreen was observed in all daily-use participants, regardless of age. At the beginning of the study, 58 percent of participants had moderate photoaging, but by the end of the study, that number dropped to 49 percent, suggesting a decrease in photoaging in some of the participants. There was no difference in photoaging among those taking carotene supplement and those taking the placebo. However, the authors said that they could not rule out a small increase or decrease in skin aging as a result of carotene supplementation. Though it was widely believed that sunscreen could delay aging, there has been little evidence of this until now. Notably, an increase in photoaging is also significantly associated with an increased risk of actinic keratoses (thick patches of skin) and skin cancer. Regularly applying sunscreen can prevent cosmetic changes and may reduce the risk of skin cancer as well, the authors wrote. To protect your face from aging, apply a daily moisturizer with an SPF 15 or greater.Laurie Tarkan is an award-winning health journalist whose work appears in the New York Times, among other national magazines and websites. She has authored several health books, including “Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility.” Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/sunscreen-slows-skin-aging-study-shows/

Chef Lidia Bastianich on why eating lunch is so important

Most people know that following the Mediterranean diet is one of the best ways to gain health benefits, because of the lean proteins, vegetables and olive oil it contains. But there’s another tradition we should be taking from that region: eating a proper lunch. Lidia Bastianich, executive chef and co-owner of the marketplace Eataly in New York City, spoke with Dr. Manny Alvarez about the importance of the afternoon meal. “I think that lunch is one of the most enjoyable and important things in the day,” Bastianich said. “But you need to create the space and the time to do just that.  And in Italy we do that.” Bastianich said it’s important to treat breakfast like a “king,” lunch like a “prince,” and dinner like a “pauper,” meaning portion sizes for each meal should decrease throughout the day.   For Italians, lunch time servings are often filled with different types of pasta. “I think that's a great time to eat pasta,” Bastianich said. “You know if…at night, you have a big bowl of pasta, then a steak…that doesn't work because that's not in balance.” She also said it’s important to savor the foods you eat during lunch and take the time to focus on the meal. “If we don't focus on when we eat – like let’s say we watch television or something – you eat much more.  If you focus on the food – you smell it, you cook it – you're enjoying it already.” In order to bring the feel of an Italian lunch to Americans, Bastianich has opened a new restaurant called Pranzo, which is located inside Eataly in New York.  It offers a quick, wholesome meal for lunchtime. “Every month the menu reflects one of the regions of Italy, so all of the recipes are of that region,” Bastianich said. “ And they are made with that kind of Italian flavor and the portions are just right for lunch -- and the price is right too.” For more go to EatalyNY.comsource : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/chef-lidia-bastianich-on-why-eating-lunch-is-so-important/

Allergic and autoimmune diseases linked, mouse study suggests

The results of previous research had shown that people with minor variations in the BACH2 gene often develop allergic or autoimmune diseases, and that a common factor in these diseases is a compromised immune system. In this study in mice, the Bach2 gene was found to be a critical regulator of the immune system’s reactivity. The study, headed by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), both part of NIH, and their colleagues appeared online in Nature, June 2, 2013. …

Genetic signature of deadly brain cancer identified

"This study identifies a core set of genes and pathways that are dysregulated during both the early and late stages of tumor progression," said University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) neurologist Steven Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., the senior author of the study and co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine. "By virtue of their marked difference from normal cells, these genes appear to comprise a promising set of targets for therapeutic intervention." As its name implies, gliomas arise from a cell type found in the central nervous system called the glial cell. Gliomas progress in severity over time and ultimately become highly invasive tumors known as glioblastomas, which are difficult to treat and almost invariably fatal. …

Gene flaws surprisingly common in black women with breast cancer

Gene flaws that raise the risk of breast cancer are surprisingly common in black women with the disease, according to the first comprehensive testing in this racial group. The study found that one-fifth of these women have BRCA mutations, a problem usually associated with women of Eastern European Jewish descent but recently highlighted by the plight of Angelina Jolie. The study may help explain why black women have higher rates of breast cancer at young ages - and a worse chance of survival. Doctors say these patients should be offered genetic counseling and may want to consider more frequent screening and prevention options, which can range from hormone-blocking pills to breast removal, as Jolie chose to do. “We were surprised at our results,” said the study leader, Dr. Jane Churpek, a cancer specialist at the University of Chicago. Too few black women have been included in genetic studies in the past and most have not looked for mutations to the degree this one did, “so we just don't have a good sense” of how much risk there is, she said. Churpek gave results of the study Monday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago. The researchers include Mary-Claire King, the University of Washington scientist who discovered the first breast cancer predisposition gene, BRCA1. Jolie revealed a few weeks ago that she carries a defective BRCA1 gene, giving her up to an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and up to a 54 percent risk for ovarian cancer. The actress's mother had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer, and her maternal grandmother also had ovarian cancer. An aunt recently died of breast cancer. Children of someone with a BRCA mutation have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it. In the U.S., about 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are thought to be due to bad BRCA genes. Among breast cancer patients, BRCA mutations are carried by 5 percent of whites and 12 percent of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jews. The rates in other groups are not as well known. The study involved 249 black breast cancer patients from Chicago area hospitals. Many had breast cancer at a young age, and half had a family history of the disease. They were given complete gene sequencing for all 18 known breast cancer risk genes rather than the usual tests that just look for a few specific mutations in BRCA genes. Gene flaws were found in 56, or 22 percent, of study participants; 46 of them involved BRCA1 or BRCA2 and the rest were less commonly mutated genes. Harmful mutations were found in 30 percent of black women with “triple-negative breast cancer” - tumors whose growth is not fueled by estrogen, progesterone or the gene that the drug Herceptin targets. Doctors have long known that these harder-to-treat cases are more common in black women. The National Cancer Institute, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Komen for the Cure paid for the study. It included many younger women and those with a family history of cancer, and they are known to have higher rates of gene mutations that raise risk, said Rebecca Nagy, a genetics counselor at Ohio State University and president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. Still, “it has always stumped us” to see black families with lots of breast cancer but no mutations that can be found in ordinary testing for BRCA genes, she said. That was the situation for Alicia Cook, 44, a Chicago woman whose grandmother died of breast cancer, mother died of ovarian cancer and two sisters have had breast cancer. When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer nearly 10 years ago, a test for BRCA mutations was negative. Doctors said, “I'm sure there's something going on genetically” but they didn't have the tools to find it, Cook said. Last year, she had a recurrence and a sister who was diagnosed with the disease learned she carried a BRCA1 mutation. Cook was retested for the same mutation and found to have it. Now she is telling her relatives in hopes that more of them will seek genetic counseling and be aware of their risk. “You don't want to put people in fear, but knowledge is power,” she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/gene-flaws-common-in-black-women-with-breast-cancer/

Merck melanoma drug shrinks tumors in 38 percent of patients

A Merck & Co drug designed to unmask tumor cells and mobilize the immune system into fighting cancer helped shrink tumors in 38 percent of patients with advanced melanoma in an early-stage study, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. Based on the findings about the drug lambrolizumab, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, Merck says it will move directly into a late-stage clinical trial, which will start in the third quarter. “This is a top priority at Merck,” Dr. Gary Gilliand, senior vice present and head of oncology at Merck Research Laboratories said in a meeting with investors. “We're going flat out to deliver benefit to patients with this novel mechanism.” The moves may heap pressure on market leader Bristol-Myers Squibb, maker of Yervoy - the only approved immune system drug for the treatment of advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Bristol-Myers is conducting three phase-three studies of its own drug called nivolumab in advanced melanoma, and is studying the drug's effect on a range of other cancers, including lung cancer. Both nivolumab and lambrolizumab are part of a promising new class of drugs that disable programmed death 1 or PD-1, a protein that keeps the immune system from spotting and attacking cancer cells. “Even though it's (lambrolizumab) the second player in the field and even though it's all early, it impressed me,” said Dr. Antoni Ribas of the University of California Los Angeles' Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the lead author of the study. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed the treatment a “breakthrough therapy,” a designation FDA cancer drugs chief Dr. Richard Pazdur described as “knock-your-socks-off therapies.” Results of an early-stage study of nivolumab in advanced melanoma released at the cancer meeting showed 31 percent of patients overall responded to different doses of the drug. Among those who took the 3 milligram per kilogram dose, 41 percent of patients responded. The drug response lasted an average of two years, and in many patients the drug kept working even after they stopped taking it. Analysts expect the drugs to generate billions of dollars in sales. Nivolumab alone is forecast to have sales of $1.2 billion in 2017, according to Wall Street analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters Pharma. Merck's study Merck's results are from the first clinical trial of lambrolizumab in advanced melanoma. They are based on analysis of 135 patients with metastatic melanoma who were divided into three groups with different treatment regimens. Overall, lambrolizumab resulted in 38 percent of patients having confirmed improvement of their cancer across all dose levels given after 12 weeks of treatment. But there was a wide range among doses, with only a 25 percent rate among patients who got the lowest dose and 52 percent among those who got the highest dose. In the highest dose group, 10 percent had a complete response, meaning their tumors could not be detected on scans. Side effects were generally mild and included fatigue, fevers, skin rash, loss of skin color and muscle weakness. More severe side effects were seen in 13 percent of patients, including inflammation of the lung or kidney and thyroid problems. “This study is showing the highest rate of durable melanoma responses of any drug we have tested thus far in this cancer, and it is doing it without serious side effects in the great majority of patients,” Ribas said. Merck said it plans to start a late-stage randomized trial of the drug in melanoma and in non-small cell lung cancer in the third quarter of this year. The company recently started a global, randomized mid-stage study of the drug versus standard chemotherapy in patients whose disease had progressed. And it is studying the drug as a treatment for triple negative breast, metastatic bladder and head and neck cancers. Researchers at the meeting marveled at responses to new immune system treatments after decades of failed studies among patients with melanoma. Only about one in five patients respond to Yervoy, approved in 2011 as the first immunotherapy to extend survival in patients with advanced melanoma. Yervoy works by blocking CTLA-4, a different molecule that also keeps the immune system from attacking cancer. Ribas said he has followed one patient on Yervoy for 12 years now. “She's not supposed to be around, and she's alive and well and melanoma free. That is why we've been doing these immunotherapies,” he said. With Yervoy, Ribas said these types of responses were few and far between. With the new PD-1 drugs, they are much more common, with fewer side effects. However, an early-stage Bristol-Myers' study released this month showed that 53 percent of patients who got a combination of Yervoy and nivolumab had at least a 50 percent reduction in tumor size, with fewer side effects. Tim Turnham, executive director of the Melanoma Research Foundation, said combination treatments would make a major difference for patients because they help overcome cancer's “sneaky” ability to evade treatment. But, at this point, he said, “Nobody knows which one is better.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/merck-melanoma-drug-shrinks-tumors-in-38-percent-patients/

Do afternoon naps disturb sleep later on at night?

As kids, we did everything we could to avoid taking a nap. But as adults, some days we would do anything just to get one. We recently received this question from a viewer:                 Dear Dr. Manny, Do afternoon naps help or disturb sleep later on in the night? Thanks, Jamie Your body’s clock creates a feeling of sleepiness between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. – and also a little in the afternoon. The longer you stay awake, the more likely you are to go into deeper stages of sleep when you finally do lay down at night. Scientists think this is caused by a buildup of a neurotransmitter in the brain called adenosine, which increases with each waking hour. Taking a nap causes the brain to get rid of adenosine rapidly, so you may have a harder time falling asleep later on in the night. However, there are some benefits to taking short naps during the day. Studies show that people who took midday naps performed up to 20 percent better in memory exercises than those who didn’t. Researchers believe sleep may help clear out the hippocampus – the part of the brain responsible for short-term memory – to make room for new information. But napping for too long can leave you feeling groggy, so try to keep your cat naps to about 20 minutes or less. Do you have a health question for Dr. Manny? Send it to DrManny@foxnews.com.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/02/do-afternoon-naps-disturb-sleep-later-on-at-night/