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CANCER: HALF A MILLION DEATHS AVERTED
The American Cancer Society’s annual cancer statistics report finds that death rates from cancer in the United States have decreased by 18.4 percent among men and by 10.5 percent among women since mortality rates began to decline in the early 1990s. That translates to the avoidance of more than half a million actual cancer deaths (534,500) in the United States, the society said. Society epidemiologists predict that in the United States in 2008, there will be 1,437,180 new cancer cases (745,180 in men and 692,000 in women) and 565,650 cancer deaths (294,120 among men and 271,530 among women). The findings come from Cancer Statistics 2008, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, as well as in the 57th edition of its companion publication, Cancer Facts & Figures 2008. Despite a continuing decline in the cancer death rate from 2004 to 2005, there was an increase of 5,424 actual deaths (559,312 cancer deaths in 2005 compared to 553,888 cancer deaths in 2004). This increase follows a decrease in the number of cancer deaths in the two previous years. The American Cancer Society said while comprehensive tobacco control and screening from breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers have helped, the lack of health insurance and inadequate health insurance is one of the most important barriers to continued progress in the fight against cancer.

DIABETES: STANDARD TEST FOR BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL NOT ACCURATE IN DIALYSIS PATIENTS
The standard test for measuring blood sugar control in people with diabetes is not accurate in those on kidney hemodialysis, according to new research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The researchers reported in Kidney International that the hemoglobin A1c test (HbA1c) underestimates true glucose control in hemodialysis patients and could give false comfort to patients and physicians. Hemodialysis, in which blood is passed through an artificial kidney machine for cleansing, is used in cases of kidney failure. These results suggest that the nearly 200,000 diabetic hemodialysis patients in the United States who use this test may not be receiving optimal care for their blood sugar, the researchers said. Researchers believe the major reason for the discrepancy is that HbA1c depends on red blood cell survival and these cells don’t live as long in hemodialysis patients. Most dialysis patients have anemia requiring treatment with medications that stimulate red blood cell production.

REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: U.K. SCIENTISTS PREPARING FOR STEM CELL TRIAL TO FIX BROKEN BONES
Scientists in the United Kingdom will receive nearly $2.73 million to conduct more research on using a patient’s own stem cells to mend broken bones and cartilage. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are hoping to set up clinical trials for the potential treatment within two years. Researchers say the initiative could affect treatment of conditions such as osteoarthritis and treatment of trauma victims whose bones have been shattered beyond repair. The scientists will use cells derived from bone marrow and will work with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to also culture bone-forming cells derived from blood. The treatment involves using a “bioactive scaffold” made to protect the stem cells and simulate their growth into bone or cartilage once they are placed in the affected area. According to the scientists, the scaffold consists of a fairly rigid mesh structure, coated or impregnated with a drug that affects the patient’s cells. Funding for the project comes from the U.K. Stem Cell Foundation, the Medical Research Council, and Scottish Enterprise in partnership with Scotland’s Chief Scientist’s Office.

OBESITY: SPANISH LANGUAGE TV ADS MAY BE FUELING UNHEALTHY EATING AMONG CHILDREN
Researchers who extensively reviewed programming of the two largest Spanish language TV outlets in the United States said the channels are “bombarding” children with fast-food ads—a factor which may be fueling the growing obesity epidemic among Latino youth. Latino children, who represent one-fifth of the U.S. child population, have the highest obesity and overweight rates of all ethnic groups. Pediatricians at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Researchers reviewed 60 hours of programming between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Univision and Telemundo, which reach 99 percent and 93 percent of U.S. Latino households, respectively. The physicians found two or three food commercials each hour, and one-third of them specifically targeted children. The investigators said that nearly half of all food commercials featured fast food and more than half of all drink commercials promoted soda and drinks with high sugar content. Past research among English-speaking children has shown that TV ads influence food preferences, particularly among the more impressionable young viewers, the investigators said. A report on the study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was released online ahead of print in the Journal of Pediatrics.

DIAGNOSTICS: LASER LIGHT USED ON BREATH SAMPLES CAN DETECT POTENTIAL DISEASES
Researchers have shown that they can detect molecules that may be markers for diseases like asthma or cancer by blasting a person’s breath with laser light. The new technique may some day allow doctors to screen people for certain diseases simply by sampling their breath, according to the research team from JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The process involves using optical frequency comb spectroscopy, a technique powerful enough to sort through all the molecules in human breath and sensitive enough to distinguish rare molecules that may be biomarkers for specific diseases, said Jun Ye, a fellow of JILA and NIST who led the research on the technique, which has yet to be tested in clinical trials. Just as bad breath can indicate dental problems, excess methylamine may signal liver and kidney disease, ammonia may be a sign of renal failure, elevated acetone levels can indicate diabetes, and nitric oxide levels can be used to diagnose asthma, Ye said. The findings appeared in the online edition of Optics Express, the free, open-access journal published by the Optical Society of America.

FIBROMYALGIA: REGULAR EXERCISE IN A HEATED POOL COULD PROVIDE BENEFIT
Patients suffering from fibromyalgia could benefit significantly from regular exercise in a heated swimming pool, a study published today in the open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy shows. The findings from researchers at the University of Extremadura in Cáceres, Spain and the Department of Sport and Health at the University of Évora, Portugal suggest a cost effective way of improving quality of life for patients with this often-debilitating disorder. Fibromyalgia is a common, painful syndrome, with no known cause and no accepted cure. Symptoms usually involve chronic and severe pain and tenderness in muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Pain in the neck and shoulders is common but sufferers also report problems with sleep, anxiety, and depression. More than 90 percent of sufferers are female. Physicians usually prescribe painkillers together with exercise and relaxation techniques, but they may also prescribe a low-dose antidepressant. 

HEALTHCARE: FULL COVERAGE FOR DRUGS POST-HEART ATTACK COULD SAVE LIVES, CUT COSTS
Researchers say full coverage of prescription heart drugs could help heart attack survivors live longer and better lives and lower the nation’s healthcare costs. In the analysis, reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, patients who received prescription drug coverage without deductibles or co-payments lived an average eight years and five months in “quality–adjusted life years,” with related medical costs of $111,600. A quality-adjusted life year refers to the length of life after a heart attack adjusted by the quality of life. Meantime, Medicare beneficiaries who received prescription drug coverage under Part D, which includes co-pays and deductibles, lived an average eight years and two months of quality-adjusted life years after their initial heart attack. Related medical costs were $114,000. In short, full coverage for preventive therapies would result in greater functional life expectancy of more than three months and save about $2,500. The researchers, from Harvard Medical School, used a mathematical model to assess these various factors associated with post-heart attack patients among Medicare beneficiaries over age 65 who received usual prescription drug coverage with substantial cost-sharing, co-payments, and out-of-pocket costs compared to full prescription drug coverage. They found saving $2,500 per Medicare beneficiary would save society $1 billion for the 400,000 or so Medicare beneficiaries who have a heart attack each year. The average cost of the needed drugs is more than $400 per year.

INFANT SKULL DISORDER: NEW, SIMPLER SURGERY HOLDS MORE PROMISE THAN MORE INVASIVE ONE
The first long-term study of two procedures to correct Craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of the skull, suggests a new minimally invasive technique is just as effective and results in a quicker recovery time than the old technique. Craniosynostosis is estimated to affect one out of every 2,000 babies and occurs when two or more of the five skull plates fuse prematurely, restricting growth in the head for the brain. In the study, a University of Missouri School of Medicine researcher found that the simpler procedure, which essentially requires a small incision near the point of the fused skull plates, enabled children to develop correctly and maintain good facial features. The other procedure involves making an incision from ear to ear, stripping back the scalp of the infant, and reshaping the skull by breaking the bones that had fused. The researcher, Usiakimi Igbaseimokumo, an assistant professor of neurosurgery, followed 78 patients who had the procedure in the last 10 years. Surgeons could not operate until the infants were between nine months and one year old because of the massive amount of blood loss associated with the old technique. The new technique involves only a very small amount of blood loss, allowing surgeons to perform the surgery on babies as young as one month old. This is key, Igbaseimokumo said, because the brain grows the fastest from birth to six months, making it important that surgeons correct the problem as early as possible. Igbaseimokumo presented his preliminary findings at a recent meeting of the International Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons.

STROKE: LISTENING TO MUSIC IMPROVES PATIENTS’ RECOVERY
Finnish researchers found that if stroke patients listened to music for a couple of hours a day, their verbal memory and focused attention recovered better than patients who did not listen to anything or who listened to audio books. The research, published online in the medical journal Brain, also found that stroke patients who listened to music in the early stages after a stroke also had a more positive mood. The researchers said this is the first time such an effect has been shown in humans, and they believe it has important implications for clinical practice. Some 54 patients completed the single-blind, randomized, controlled trial between March 2004 and May 2006, conducted by researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki Brain Research Centre. The researchers randomly assigned them to a music listening group, a language group, or a control group. Three months after the stroke, researchers found verbal memory improved from the first week post-stroke by 60 percent in music listeners, by 18 percent in audio book listeners, and by 29 percent in non-listeners. Also, focused attention or the ability to control and perform mental operations and resolve conflicts among responses-improved by 17 percent in music listeners, but no improvement was observed in audio book listeners and non-listeners. Researchers said these differences were still essentially the same six months after the stroke. They added that three neural mechanisms may be at work, including enhanced arousal (alertness), stimulation of recovery of the damaged areas of the brain, and stimulation of the ability of the brain to repair and renew its neural networks after damage.

X-RAY DAMAGE: CHEAP DRUG MAY PROTECT KIDNEYS BEFORE CT SCAN OR ANGIOGRAM
A new study suggests that many patients could prevent damage to their kidneys by taking the inexpensive drug N-acetylcysteine before undergoing CT scans and other medical imaging scans involving intense X-rays, according to researchers from the University of Michigan Health System. Some of the iodine-containing “dyes” or contrast agents that are usually given intravenously before these tests to enhance the quality of the scans can cause kidney damage. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that taking an N-acetylcysteine tablet before receiving the contrast agent can protect patients—and that it works better than other medicines that have been proposed for the same purpose. Researchers said tablets of prescription-strength N-acetylcysteine are about 25 cents for a 500-milligram tablet and are stocked by most pharmacies. The study, a meta-analysis of data from 41 randomized controlled studies that evaluated various drugs for their kidney-protecting effects, found that only N-acetylcysteine clearly prevented contrast-induced nephropathy, the medical name for kidney damage caused by contrast agents. Theophylline, another drug that has been seen as a possible kidney-protecting agent, did not reduce risk significantly. Other drugs had no effect, and one, furosemide, raised kidney risk, the researchers said. Mild to moderate kidney damage occurs in one in four high-risk people who have CT scans, and in as many as one in 10 people with normal kidney function. In some cases, it causes acute kidney failure. Only studies that involved intravenous iodine-containing contrast agents, and compared a drug with a water or saline control, were included in the analysis.

TUMOR CANCER: VIRAL THERAPY SLOWS GROWTH
Researchers said they slowed the growth of two particularly stubborn solid tumor cancers—neuroblastoma and peripheral nerve sheath tumors—without harming healthy tissues by inserting instructions to inhibit tissue growth into an engineered virus. The researchers said this tumor-targeting viral therapy enhanced anti-tumor activity by stimulating multiple biological processes, including directly killing the cancer cells and reducing the formation of blood vessels that fed the tumors in laboratory studies involving human cancer cells and mice. Neuroblastoma, the most common solid cancer tumor in childhood, begins in the sympathetic nervous system and most often strikes children younger than 5 years old. Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors are cancers affecting the connective tissue surrounding nerves. The study, led by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, was published in Cancer Research. In their study, researchers genetically armed oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV)—which, along with similar viruses, has been shown to infect and kill human cancer cells without harming normal, healthy cells or causing disease—with a gene that carries instructions for a cancer-fighting protein, human tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3 (TIMP3). TIMP3 blocks enzymes that aid the development and progression of cancer, called matrix of metalloproteinases (MMP).

CARDIAC ARREST: A ‘CODE BLUE’ ON A NIGHT OR WEEKEND MAY MEAN LOWER PATIENT SURVIVAL RATE
Patients who experience cardiac arrest at a hospital during the night or weekend have a substantially lower rate of survival to discharge than hospitalized patients who have cardiac arrest during the day or on a weekday evening, researchers said. In the study, published in JAMA, researchers said there are likely a variety of factors that could explain the decreased survival during the night, including “biological differences” in patients as well as changes in healthcare staffing and operations that occur after hours and on weekends. The researchers found that the rate of survival to discharge was 14.7 percent during night hours vs. 19.8 percent for day/evening hours and that return of spontaneous circulation for longer than 20 minutes was 44.7 percent in the day vs. 51.1 percent at night. The Virginia Commonwealth University researchers included data on 86,748 adult, in-hospital cardiac arrest events occurring at 507 medical/surgical hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation from January 2000 through February 2007. The researchers examined survival from cardiac arrest in hourly time segments, defining day/evening as 7:00 a.m. to 10:59 p.m., night as 11:00 p.m. to 6:59 a.m., and weekend as 11:00 p.m. on Friday to 6:59 a.m. on Monday.

CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH: HEPA FILTERS MAY HELP THE ELDERY
Researchers in Denmark found that using HEPA filters for just two days significantly improved a key measure of cardiovascular health in healthy, non-smoking elderly individuals. The researchers at the Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen said that HEPA filtration removed about 60 percent of the ultrafine, fine, and coarse air particles in homes, and was associated with an 8.1 percent improvement in individual microvascular function (MVF). Abnormal function of the inner lining of small vessels is known to be a predictor of dangerous or possibly fatal cardiovascular events. The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the American Thoracic Society. The researchers measured MVF and ambient airborne particles in the homes of 21 non-smoking couples aged 60 to 75 who lived close to heavily trafficked roads. Each couple used air purifiers for two 48-hour periods. During one period, the purifier was equipped with a HEPA filter, and during the other, it ran without it, so that each individual served as his or her own control. The size distribution and number concentration of indoor air particles in each home were continuously monitored. The researchers then assessed each individual’s MVF using a noninvasive finger sensor and found “significant improvement” in the function of small finger blood vessels after reduction of indoor air particles.

HEALTHCARE COSTS: WOMEN WHO SUFFERED CHILD ABUSE SPEND MORE
Middle-aged women who were physically or sexually abused as children spend up to one third more than average on healthcare, according to a long-term study of more than 3,000 women. The study, published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine Women, found women who had no history of abuse spent an average of $2,413 a year (in 2004 dollars) on healthcare costs, while those who were sexually abused paid an average of $382 a year more. Meanwhile, those who were physically abused spent $502 more and women who suffered both types of abuse spent $790 a year in additional healthcare costs. The research examined data from 3,333 women who belonged to Group Health, a healthcare system in the Pacific Northwest. After accounting for women’s age and education, women who were sexually abused as children faced healthcare costs 16 percent higher than non-abused women, while physically abused women’s costs were 22 percent higher. For women who suffered both types of abuse, costs rose 36 percent above average. Women who had suffered both physical and sexual abuse had higher health service use in six areas: mental health, hospital outpatient, emergency department visits, primary care, specialty care, and pharmacy fills.

CANCER: UNINSURED MORE LIKELY TO GET DIAGNOSIS AT AN ADVANCED STAGE
Uninsured patients diagnosed with cancer were significantly more likely to get the news at an advanced stage compared to patients with private insurance, according to a new American Cancer Society study of twelve types of cancer among more than 3.5 million cancer patients. The study also found that African-American patients were significantly more likely to be diagnosed at a more advanced stage for many cancers. Researchers said this indicates that beyond the effects of health insurance, other barriers likely exist for black patients related to early diagnosis and prompt medical care. The study, which appears in The Lancet Oncology, found the strongest association between insurance status and advanced cancer was for cancers that can be detected early by screening or evaluation of symptoms. The study looked at patients in the National Cancer Database between ages 18 and 99 diagnosed with any of 12 cancers between 1998 and 2004. The greatest risk for diagnosis with moderately advanced cancer (stage II) instead of the earliest stage (stage I) was in colorectal cancer, while the highest risk for diagnosis at the most advanced stage of cancer (stage III/IV) was in breast cancer. Researchers said the greatest increase in risk of more advanced stage diagnosis among both uninsured and Medicaid-insured occurred for cancer sites that are part of routine screening (including breast and colorectal) or sites with symptoms present at early stages (melanoma and urinary bladder).