"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

Just under 150 Perth women have contributed to major international research at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research that has proved that the new Cervarix vaccine provides broader protection against cervical cancer.

The results, published today in the prestigious international journal Lancet, show that while the vaccine provides effective protection against high grade cervical pre-cancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18, it also demonstrated additional protection against infections from other strains of HPV that account for another 10 percent of cervical cancers.

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AstraZeneca is to withdraw the anticoagulant Exanta (melagatran/ximelagatran) from the market and end its development. The venous thromboembolism (VTE) treatment has been withdrawn due to new data about the possibility of liver damage.

AstraZeneca chief executive David Brennan said: “We have decided to take this precautionary action in the interests of patient safety. “There are a number of alternative options for short-term post-operative anticoagulation following orthopaedic surgery. We would like to recognise the involvement of doctors, patients and scientists and their commitment to the development of Exanta over the past years.” He added: “Thrombosis is one of the greatest threats to human health and represents a significant public health burden. AstraZeneca remains committed to the discovery and development of new medicines in this area to help improve patients’ lives.”
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Inspired by the device used to find lost coins in the sand, Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a small handheld metal detector to help doctors locate hidden orthopedic screws that need to be removed from patients’ bodies. The device emits a tone that rises in pitch as the surgeon moves closer to the metal screw. It also serves as a surgical tool to guide the removal of the hardware.

Orthopedic screws, usually made of a stainless steel or titanium alloy, are produced in varying lengths and can have screwheads that range from roughly 3 to 7 millimeters in diameter. Orthopedic surgeons often use these screws and related hardware to hold broken bone fragments together for proper healing. These doctors often need to remove orthopedic screws that shift position, trigger an infection or cause pain, but skin and scar tissue can make it difficult to find the troublesome hardware, even with the aid of real-time X-ray technology. The small handheld detector is designed to zero in on the hardware and steer the doctor’s screwdriver into position for prompt removal.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston report finding a new way to increase stem cells in blood, suggesting a possible treatment to help patients who undergo chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers recover their immune function more quickly. In the June 21 issue of Nature, they demonstrate that a stable analog of prostaglandin can enhance the blood-forming system, both during embryonic development and after it’s been damaged.

The discovery, made possible through high-volume drug screening in zebrafish, marks the first time stem-cell production has been induced by a small-molecule drug, says the study’s senior author, Leonard Zon, MD, of the Children’s Hospital Boston Stem Cell Program and Division of Hematology/Oncology. Other studies, including one from Zon’s own lab*, have identified ways of increasing formation of blood stem cells, which give rise to each of the body’s various blood cell types. However, the methods are technically complex and haven’t lent themselves to broad medical use.

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Belgian firm Solvay has released its results for 2005 with pharmaceutical sales up 30 per cent to 2.27 billion euros. The company as a whole had profits of 816 million euros for the year.

In the pharmaceutical sector sales were helped in Europe by the purchase of the French firm Fournier Pharma. A company statement said: “The performance of fenofibrate, Fournier Pharma’s ‘blockbuster’, was remarkable and above our expectations.” Sales in cardiometabolics doubled with the integration of fenofibrates from Fournier Pharma.

Teveten (eprosartan mesylate) sales increased by 26 per cent and neuroscience improved by 19 per cent down to the growth of the Meniere’s disease treatment Serc (betahistine dihydrochloride) and Marinol. Strong growth in Influvac sales, beating the 100 million euro barrier, fuelled influenza vaccines growth.

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Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have shown that hormone therapy can extend life in ovarian cancer patients, giving women a new alternative to chemotherapy.

The study, published today in Clinical Cancer Research, has proved for the first time that the targeted use of an anti-oestrogen drug could prolong the life of some patients by up to three years, and delay the use of chemotherapy in others.

Letrozole hormone therapy – already used with great success in the treatment of breast tumours - attacks cancer by turning off its oestrogen supply. But scientists now believe that in those ovarian cancers which are highly sensitive to oestrogen, this blocking mechanism could slow the growth and spread of disease.

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The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has found that Napp Pharmaceuticals broke its advertising rules. A complaint was lodged about the firm’s advert for the painkiller BuTrans (buprenorphine matrix patch) in the British Medical Journal in November 2005.

The MHRA upheld a complaint from a healthcare professional that prescribing information was too small to read. Napp admitted the error and agreed to change future adverts.

MHRA Senior Policy Manager Jeremy Mean said: “Pharmaceutical companies are responsible for all aspects of their advertising and its presentation and must ensure that they adhere to strict procedures to ensure the law is upheld. “The work of the MHRA enforces high standards of advertising for medicines to ensure their safe use.”
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H er doctor entered the hospice room early in the morning to check on Beth, a patient dying of breast cancer.

He checked her morphine pump and looked at her chart. When his beeper sounded, he said he had to go and would be back in a day or two.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — It wouldn’t surprise anyone to know young kids starting school for the first time have some jitters the night before the big day. But months before?

That’s what British researchers report in a new study. They measured levels of the stress hormone cortisol in children several months before school started, at the beginning of the school term, and then again six months later.

The investigators expected to see a spike in cortisol levels during the first weeks of school and they did. They also expected to see levels taper off as the term went on and, again, they did. They didn’t expect, however, to see higher levels of the stress hormone up to six months prior to the first day of classes. That finding, they report, suggests parents may start stressing out over their child’s entry into the educational system months in advance of the actual start of school, and their anxiety spills over onto the kids.

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A major obstacle in the treatment of infections and other diseases of the brain is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents systemically delivered therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain.

Grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, have now shown that a short protein (peptide) from the rabies virus can carry a strip of therapeutic material into the brain via intravenous administration. Once delivered to the nerve cells of the brain, the strip, called a small interfering RNA (siRNA), was shown to protect mice from infection caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV).

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