Hormone users face new cancer risks years later

 

CHICAGO - The first follow-up of a landmark study of hormone use after menopause shows heart problems linked with the pills seem to fade after women stop taking them, while surprising new cancer risks appear.

That heart trouble associated with hormones may not be permanent is good news for millions of women who quit taking them after the government study was halted six years ago because of heart risks and breast cancer.

But the new risks for other cancers, particularly lung tumors, in women who’d taken estrogen-progestin pills for about five years puzzled the researchers and outside experts. Those risks “were completely unanticipated,” said Dr. Gerardo Heiss of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, lead author of the follow-up analysis.

The analysis focused on participants’ health in the first two to three years after the study’s end. During that time, those who’d taken hormones but stopped were 24 percent more likely to develop any kind of cancer than women who’d taken dummy pills during the study.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the cause of the increased cancer risk,” said analysis co-author Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The cancers included breast tumors, which also occurred more frequently in hormone users during the study.

The researchers noted that the increased risks for all cancers amounted to only three extra cases per year for every 1,000 women on hormone pills, compared with nonusers.

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Blood Thinner Might Be Tied to More Deaths

 

By WALT BOGDANICH

Published: February 29, 2008

Amid indications that more people may have died or been harmed after being given a brand of the blood thinner heparin, federal drug regulators said Thursday that they had found “potential deficiencies” at a Chinese plant that supplied much of the active ingredient for the drug.

Baxter International, which makes the brand of heparin associated with the problems, and buys supplies from the Chinese plant, announced that it was expanding a recall to include virtually all its heparin products. Though Baxter produces much of the heparin used in the United States, regulators said the other major supplier would be able to meet the demand.

The Food and Drug Administration said the number of deaths possibly associated with the drug, made from pig intestines, had risen to 21 from 4. But it cautioned that many of those patients were already seriously ill and that the drug might not have caused their deaths.

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Fruit, Vegetable-Rich Diet Halves Lung Disease Risk

 

Date updated: May 15, 2007
Content provided by Health Day

TUESDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- People who follow a "Mediterranean" diet rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains and fish cut their risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by half, researchers report.

COPD, a lethal combination of emphysema and bronchitis, is expected to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.

Smoking remains the primary cause of COPD, according to the report in the May 14 online edition of the journal Thorax.

Therefore, "The first message is that people have to stop smoking," said lead researcher Dr. Raphaelle Varraso, from INSERM, Villejuif, France. "And then, that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and fish may help to reduce risk of COPD."

And, if healthy food can cut the odds for COPD, unhealthy eating could do the opposite, he said. "In smokers and ex-smokers, a diet rich in refined grains, cured and red meats, desserts and French fries may increase the risk of COPD," Varraso said.

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Curry Ingredient May Cut Cardiovascular Risks

 

Date updated: February 27, 2008
Content provided by Health Day

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Curcumin, an ingredient in the curry spice tumeric, can reduce heart enlargement and may lower the risk of heart failure, Canadian researchers say.

The scientists at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital tested the effects of curcumin in mice with enlarged hearts (hypertrophy) and found it could prevent and reverse the condition, restore heart function, and reduce scar formation. The study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

If human clinical trials support these findings, curcumin-based treatments may provide a safe and inexpensive new option for patients with heart enlargement, according to the researchers.

They said curcumin works directly in the cell nucleus by preventing abnormal unraveling of the chromosome under stress and preventing excessive abnormal protein production.

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U.S. study shows why winter is ‘flu season’ Coating protects viruses against cold — so they can infe

 

 

updated 1:38 p.m. ET, Sun., March. 2, 2008

WASHINGTON - Influenza viruses coat themselves in fatty material that hardens and protects them in colder temperatures — a finding that could explain why winter is the flu season, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

This butter-like coating melts in the respiratory tract, allowing the virus to infect cells, the team at the National Institutes of Health found.

"Like an M&M in your mouth, the protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract," said Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), who led the study.Read More.......

Regular aspirin may lower colon cancer risk in men

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who routinely take aspirin seem to be less likely to develop colorectal cancer, according to new research findings. However, the benefit requires the dose of aspirin to be higher than usually recommended for heart health, and to be taken over at least 6 years.

"Long-term data on the risk of colorectal cancer according to dose, duration, and consistency of aspirin therapy are limited," Dr. Andrew T. Chan, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues write in the medical journal Gastroenterology.

The research team collected data on aspirin use and cancer risk factors every 2 years among more than 47,000 men between 40 and 87 years old at enrollment in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study in 1986. .

During 18 years of follow-up, 975 cases of colorectal cancer were documented.

After adjustment for risk factors, men who reported taking aspirin regularly (at least twice a week) had a 21 percent lower risk of developing colorectal cancer compared with men who were not regular aspirin users.

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Obese patients wait longer for kidney transplants

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Extremely obese adults in need of a kidney transplant appear to wait longer for a donor organ than their thinner counterparts do, a study has found.

The findings, according to researchers, suggest there may be a bias in the way donor kidneys are allocated.

Analyzing a decade's worth of national transplant data, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that morbidly obese patients - those who are 100 or more pounds overweight -- on the kidney transplant waiting list were 44 percent less likely to receive a donor organ as normal-weight patients.

There was no similar disparity seen among overweight or mildly obese patients, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

"The results identify a potential bias in organ allocation that is not consistent with the goals of our allocation system," Dr. Dorry L. Segev, the lead researcher on the study, said in a statement.

In the U.S., the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) oversees the allocation of donor organs. Segev and his colleagues based their findings on UNOS data for 132,353 patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant between 1995 and 2006.

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Carb Intake, Obesity Tied to Rise in Esophageal Cancers

 

FRIDAY, Feb. 29 (HealthDay News) -- There may be a link between rising rates of carbohydrate intake and obesity and the increasing number of esophageal cancer cases in the United States, a new study says.

Researchers noted that cases of esophageal cancer increased from 300,000 in 1973 to 2.1 million in 2001, which closely mirrors increases in carbohydrate intake and obesity over the same time.

Obesity is a major risk factor for many types of cancer, and a diet high in calories from refined carbohydrates is a common contributor to obesity, the researchers noted. They also said no other studied nutrients were found to correlate with esophageal cancer rates.

"If we can reverse the trends in refined carbohydrate intake and obesity in the U.S., we may be able to reduce the incidence of esophageal cancer," study senior author Dr. Li Li, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Health System, said in a prepared statement.

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Clinic accused of reusing syringes sued

 

LAS VEGAS - A former patient sued a surgical center believed to have spread hepatitis C by reusing syringes and vials of medication, saying Thursday he fears for his health.

The suit comes a day after the Southern Nevada Health District announced that unsafe practices at the clinic may have led to six reported cases of hepatitis C, a potentially fatal blood-borne virus.

Another 40,000 people who received anesthesia at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada between March 2004 and January 2008 are being urged to be tested for hepatitis, strains C and B, and HIV.

"I feel like a ticking time bomb. I'll get tested ASAP, but since HIV can lay dormant for many years, my wife and I face a future of uncertainty and fear," according to a statement from the plaintiff, Charles Anthony Rader, Jr., who says he received treatment during that period and may have been exposed.

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