The human body contains many microbes, some of which are necessary for healthy bodily functions including digestion. Others, such as some microbes living on our skin, may be pathogenic. Previous studies investigated how these microbes educate and shape the human immune system. …
Professor Geir Hoff and colleagues in Norway, argue that we need more evidence about the malignant potential of benign lesions to be sure that the risks of removing them do not outweigh the benefits of screening. Bowel cancer screening has increased the detection of benign polyps (fleshy growths on the lining of the colon or rectum). The most common polyps found during screening are adenomas and guidelines recommend that they are removed. However, data show that less than 5% of adenomas develop into colorectal cancer, suggesting that 95% of procedures may be exposing patients to unnecessary risks…
"Pancreatic cancer is a disease with a poor prognosis, mainly because of the inability to detect the tumor at an early stage, its high potential for early dissemination, and its relatively poor sensitivity to chemotherapy or radiation therapy," according to background information in the article. Even after complete removal of the tumor, the vast majority of patients relapse within 2 years, leading to a 5-year survival rate of less than 25 percent. No consensus has been reached on a standard treatment approach for additional therapy…
In this study, researchers assessed the outcomes of 280 prostate cancer (Cap) patients, and reviewed the DNA "fingerprints" of each patient’s tumor (using the patient’s initial diagnostic core biopsy) to determine if gene copy number alterations (CNAs), or breaks in CFSs, were related to a less positive response to treatment. Two groups were analyzed: 126 localized intermediate risk CaP patients who had received image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) treatments, with a mean dose of 74.6 Gy; and 154 localized intermediate and high risk CaP patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy (RP), which is the surgical removal of the entire prostate gland. Utilizing an array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), DNA from frozen needle biopsies of the RT patients was analyzed for 13 previously characterized CFSs: FRA2G, FRA3B, FRA4F, FRA6E, FRA6F, FRA7E, FRA7G, FRA7H, FRA7I, FRA7K, FRA8C, FRA9E, FRA16D. …
The specific patient populations who appeared to benefit from eribulin, in comparison to capecitabine, are as follows: Patients with more than two organs involved with metastatic breast cancer Patients who had not received chemotherapy for six months or longer Patients who had received anthracycline and/or a taxane therapies in the metastatic setting Previous pre-specified exploratory analysis of overall survival and progression-free survival showed women with triple-negative, ER-negative, HER2-negative also had a greater relative benefit in overall survival with eribulin over capecitabine. …
A type of brain surgery appears to be a relatively effective treatment for people with severe obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who have not responded to other treatments, a new study suggests. In the study, nearly half of patients showed at least some improvement in their OCD symptoms, and 15 percent fully recovered seven years after the surgery. The findings suggest surgery may be an effective treatment for patients with very severe OCD who have not been helped by other therapies, the researchers said. Patients in the study had not responded to several medications, including serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) and antipsychotic medications, as well as psychotherapy. On average, patients had experienced symptoms for 16 years, and one-third had attempted suicide. However, the surgery has significant risks. Two of the 19 patients experienced permanent complications from the surgery, including paralysis on one side of the body and cognitive impairment. Because of this, the procedure should be considered with caution, the researchers said. [See 5 Controversial Mental Health Treatments]. Future studies should examine which patients are most likely to be helped by the surgery, so that only those who stand to gain greatest benefit undergo the procedure, the researchers said. Surgery for OCD OCD is characterized by recurrent, intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors that patients feel compelled to carry out. Patients might perform these behaviors (such as hand washing) for hours, and some are unable to leave their homes. About 20 to 30 percent of patients are not helped by medication or behavioral therapies. Brain surgery for mental disorders, called psychosurgery, has been practiced since the 1930s, although it is very controversial. Early surgeries, such as lobotomies practiced in the 1940s and 1950s, had serious side effects, including personality changes. The practice of psychosurgery declined after psychiatric medications became available, although a small number of centers today continue perform psychosurgerical procedures. Today, psychosurgery is much more carefully regulated than it was in the past, and performed only after patients determined to be appropriate candidates for the treatment by a team of psychiatrists and neurologists, said Dr. Michael Schulder, vice chair of neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY. Brain imaging technology available today helps doctors more carefully select the surgery target, said Schulder, who was not invovled in the new study. The study, conducted by researcher at Universit Laval in Quebec, Canada, involved 19 patients who underwent a type of psychosurgery called bilateral capsulotomy between 1997 and 2009. The surgery damages tissue (by creating lesions) in a part of the brain called the internal capsule. Before the surgery, patients scored an average of 34 out of 40 points (extreme OCD) on a test designed to measure the severity of the condition. After surgery, the average score decreased to 23, which is considered moderate OCD. About 37 percent of patients responded fully to the surgery, meaning their score improved by at least 35 percent, and about 10 percent partially responded to the surgery, meaning their score improved by 25 percent. After seven years, three patients fully recovered from OCD, and three had minimal symptoms, the researchers said. Those who did not respond to the surgery were more likely to have had OCD for a longer time period (an average of 20 years) than those who did respond to surgery (an average of 12 years). Psychosurgery vs. deep brain stimulation The study did not have a control group, or a group of patients who did not undergo the procedure, so it's possible the improvement seen in the study was the result of a placebo effect. However, there is little evidence for spontaneous remission or placebo effect in patients with severe OCD, the researchers said. A more recent surgical procedure for OCD, called deep brain stimulation, involves implanting a device that sends electrical impulses into the brain. Unlike psychosurgery, deep brain stimulation is reversible, and does not permanently damage tissue. In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of deep brain stimulation for OCD. However, patients with a deep brain stimulation implant may experience problems with the implant that need to be fixed right away, so they should live close to a health care center. Psychosurgery is less expensive than deep brain stimulation, and does not require that patients live close to a health care center, so there is still a place for the procedure in the field, the researchers said. Schulder said that while psychosurgery tends to have a higher complication rate than DBS, the latter procedure poses risks such as infection and erosion of the device through the skin. “There's still a good rational for doing lesioning in some patients. It's not like DBS is complication free,” Schulder said. The study is published June 3 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry. 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/2013/06/04/brain-surgery-is-option-for-patients-with-severe-ocd-study-suggests/
Mark Hurwitz, MD, Director of Thermal Oncology for the Department of Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital reported that the treatment, magnetic resonance image-guided focused ultrasound (MRIgFU) ablation therapy, significantly reduced pain in 67 percent of patients who received the treatment. …
The findings are potentially practice-changing for a historically "untreatable disease." Though uveal melanoma is rare — there are only 2,500 cases diagnosed in the United States each year — about half of patients will develop metastatic disease, and survival for patients with advanced disease has held steady at nine months to a year for decades. Researchers found that progression-free survival (PFS) in patients receiving selumetinib was nearly 16 weeks and 50 percent of these patients experienced tumor shrinkage, with 15 percent achieving major shrinkage. Patients receiving temozolomide, the current standard chemotherapy, had seven weeks of PFS and no tumor shrinkage. …
For some patients with heart disease, taking antidepressants may reduce the risk of heart problems brought on by mental stress, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at patients with myocardial ischemia a condition in which the heart doesn't get enough blood as they preformed mentally stressful activities. All of the patients also had coronary heart disease, or a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Patients in the study who took the antidepressant escitalopram (sold as Lexapro) were about 2.5 times less likely than those who took a placebo to experience myocardial ischemia triggered by mental stress. The findings suggest that an antidepressant, or other treatments that help patients cope with stress, could improve symptoms for some people with coronary heart disease, said study researcher Dr. Wei Jiang, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. However, future studies are needed to confirm the results, and to identify the people most likely to benefit from such treatment, Jiang said. Stress and the heart About 30 years ago, doctors observed that mental stress could bring on myocardial ischemia.tudies also have found that people with mental-stress-induced myocardial ischemia are at increased risk of dying from heart disease. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and about 50 percent of patients with the condition experience mental-stress-induced myocardial ischemia yet few studies have attempted to find treatments. In the new study, 127 patients were randomly assigned to receive escitalopram or placebo for six weeks. Participants completed a number of tests at the beginning and end of the study, including a treadmill stress test, a math test and a test in which participants told a sad story in order to evoke emotion. During the tests, the researchers examined certain heart symptoms to diagnose myocardial ischemia, such as a reduction in blood pumped out of one of the heart's cambers. After six weeks, about 34 percent of participants taking the antidepressant did not experience myocardial ischemia during the mental-stress tests, compared with 17 percent in the placebo group. The antidepressant did not affect whether patients experienced myocardial ischemia during exercise. Dr. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist at the National Jewish Health hospital in Denver, said it was not very surprising that drugs that blunt the brain's response to stress would also blunt the heart's response to stress. But what the findings mean for patients in the long term is not known, said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. Future studies are needed to see whether antidepressants might reduce the risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks, Freeman said. How does it work?
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. …