Older women with breast cancer still left out of medical trials

Older women are still underrepresented in medical trials evaluating treatments for breast cancer, according to a new study. Of three different types of trials evaluated by researchers, only one had an increase in enrollment of older women with breast cancer between 1985 and 2012. The other two had decreases. Seeing how older people react to cancer therapies “is crucial to inform decision-making and to optimally serve patients’ medical, emotional, and functional needs,” the authors of the study write in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, online December 19. “As physicians and…

Older women with breast cancer still left out of medical trials

Older women are still underrepresented in medical trials evaluating treatments for breast cancer, according to a new study. Of three different types of trials evaluated by researchers, only one had an increase in enrollment of older women with breast cancer between 1985 and 2012. The other two had decreases. Seeing how older people react to cancer therapies “is crucial to inform decision-making and to optimally serve patients’ medical, emotional, and functional needs,” the authors of the study write in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, online December 19. “As physicians and…

Antibiotics sales for use in US farm animals rose in 2015, FDA reports

LOS ANGELES –  U.S. sales and distribution of antibiotics approved for use in food-producing animals increased 1 percent from 2014 to 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a report on Thursday. The report comes as scientists warn that regular use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent illness in healthy farm animals contributes to the rise of dangerous, antibiotic-resistant “superbug” infections, which kill at least 23,000 Americans each year and pose a significant threat to global health. An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics used to fight human…

Laser therapy with deep-sea drug kills prostate cancer cells

A non-surgical treatment for lowrisk prostate cancer, in which doctors inject a light-sensitive drug derived from deep-sea bacteria into a patient’s bloodstream, was shown in a trial to kill cancer cells without destroying healthy tissue. Results of a trial in 413 patients showed that the drug, which is activated with a laser to destroy tumour tissue in the prostate, was so effective that half the patients went into remission, compared with 13.5% in a control group.”These results are excellent news for men with early localised prostate cancer, offering a treatment…

Low thyroid linked to negative reproductive health of women

Low thyroid functioning may be directly linked to negative impact on women’s reproductive health, medical experts here said on Monday. According to them, Hypothyroidism — when the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone — is more common a cause for infertility and miscarriage in women than most of them realize. “Thyroid disorders are very common during pregnancy. Over 25 per cent women develop hypothyroidism during the 6th week. Secretion of thyroid hormone is important for both placental and foetal development and the level needs to increase by 50 per…

Capsule sized pacemaker: A boon for patients

It was the size of a capsule, but for Kumar*, it provided a new lease of life. The 87-year old, with a heart rate of less than 60 a minute, received a pacemaker, one-tenth the size of a traditional device, directly in the heart. After a 20-minute minimally invasive procedure at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre’s cath lab, the device began sending electrical impulses to stabilise the heart rate and he was discharged in three days. Dr T R Muralidharan, cardiology department head, said the new generation pacemaker made of a…