"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

BARCELONA, Sept. 26 — Monitoring circulating tumor cells in women with breast cancer may be help guide treatment and refine prognoses, according to preliminary data from German investigators.

They detected more than one circulating tumor cell per 20 mL of blood before initiation of chemotherapy in 10% of breast cancer patients they studied and at least two cells per 20 mL in 5% of the women, Julia Jückstock, M.D., of the University of Munich, and colleagues, said at the European Cancer Conference. Action Points
Explain to patients that the tests discussed in this study are preliminary and definitive results on their usefulness may not be known for five years or longer.
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Developed by Pfizer, Sildenafil Citrate or commonly known as Viagra is a drug used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction or also known as impotence and pulmonary arterial hypertension or PAH. Its primary competitors on the market are tadalafil (Cialis), and vardenafil (Levitra). It is now primarily taken for medication to allow adequate sexual stimulation, relaxes the blood vessels of the penis and helps erection.

IOANNINA, Greece, Sept. 24 — Today’s newer chemotherapy drugs add months to the lives of patients with advanced colorectal cancer, but at a high cost in toxicity and complications, a meta-analysis showed. Action Points
Explain to patients who ask that this meta-analysis was based on group data, rather than individual patient information, so that conclusions about the value of certain regimens should be avoided for now.

Explain that despite limited longer survival for patients treated with the newer drugs, toxicity and complication rates were high.

For patients expected to live for a year when treated with fluorouracil and leucovorin (Welcovorin), the estimated absolute survival benefit of additional treatment with irinotecan (Camptosar) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) was an added eight months, John P.A. Ioannidis, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Ioannina here, and colleagues, reported online in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet Oncology.

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ORANGE, Calif., Sept. 24 — The goal of noninvasive glucose monitoring for children with type 1 diabetes has gained momentum from early results with an experimental breath test, researchers here found.

Exhaled methyl nitrate levels measured with air-pollution testing techniques in the laboratory paralleled plasma glucose in a small study of type 1children, reported investigators online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Action Points
Inform interested patients that the findings are promising but further study is needed before a breath analysis test could be developed for monitoring glucose levels.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 22 — It cost $20,000 more in 1997 to extend an average non-small-cell lung cancer patient’s life by less than a month than it did in 1983, economists here reported.Action Points
Explain to interested patients that although increased spending for lung cancer therapy failed to improve survival for most patients, spending on smoking-cessation programs might be more promising.

Cost-effectiveness, as measured by an additional year of life gained, had a high average of more than $400,000, Rebecca M. Woodward, Ph.D., of Harvard and now the National Bureau of Economic Research, and colleagues, reported online in Cancer.

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Ethnopharmacological approaches to wound healing-Exploring medicinal plants of India.: J Ethnopharmacol. 2007 Aug 12; Authors: Kumar B, Vijayakumar M, Govindarajan R, Pushpangadan P

India has a rich tradition of plant-based knowledge on Men’s healthcare. A large number of plants/plant extracts/decoctions or pastes are equally used by tribals and folklore traditions in India for treatment of cuts, wounds, and burns. The present review thus attempts to analyze the ethnobotanical knowledge base for treatment of cuts and wounds which includes a usage of plants, methods employed by tribals and folklore practices prevailing in India. Pharmacological reports available on Indian medicinal plants employing various wound healing models and its underlying molecular mechanism, wherever available, has also been briefly reviewed. This pharmacological validation on Indian medicinal plants is very limited and a large number of plants used in tribal and folklore with enormous potential have not been validated for their wound healing activity. This review therefore attempts to bridge the lacunae in the existing literature and offers immense scope for researchers engaged in validation of the traditional claims and development of safe and effective and globally accepted herbal drugs for cuts and wounds.

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AMSTERDAM, Sept. 21 — Adding insulin to oral antidiabetic agents early in the course of disease can help patients achieve better glucose control, but many patients will need a combined insulin regimen, investigators reported. Action Points
Explain to patients that most people with type 2 diabetes will eventually need to start taking insulin to achieve optimal control of blood glucose and prevent complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and cardiovascular disease.

“We’ve seen that the addition of a single analog insulin formulation to dual therapy with metformin and sulfonylurea can lower A1c [glycosylated hemoblogin A1c] by between 0.8 and 1.4%, and sustain that reduction for over a year,” said Rury Holman, M.D., of Oxford University and principal investigator of the 4-T study.

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CHICAGO, Sept. 20 — The experimental integrase inhibitor elvitegravir induces a swift reduction in HIV levels but needs an optimized background regimen, researchers emphasized. Action Points
Explain to interested patients that new classes of HIV drugs are becoming available but that a single drug is not enough to slow the progression of HIV.

Note that this study of a new integrase inhibitor shows that even a powerful new drug has the same drawback and reiterates the message that several drugs are needed.

This study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. The data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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ATLANTA, Sept. 20 — A protein expressed by virtually all lung cancers offers the potential for a serum biomarker that could lead to early diagnosis of more patients, investigators reported here. Action Points
Tell interested patients that a test for a protein produced by most cancers might have potential as an early diagnostic test for lung cancer.

Emphasize that the test is not yet available, although physicians can submit blood samples for testing.

Detectable serum levels of human aspartyl (asparaginyl) β-hydroxylase (HAAH) were identified in 99% of a group of lung cancer patients, but none were seen in a cancer-free control group, Mark Semenuk reported at a molecular diagnostics conference sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research.

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AMSTERDAM, Sept. 19 — Treatment regimens for type 2 diabetes that include pioglitazone (Actos) were associated with lower risk of stroke and myocardial infarction, claimed investigators for the drug’s maker.Action Points
Explain to patients that this study suggests that pioglitazone (Actos) may reduce the risk of myocardial infarction or stroke, but caution that the study was retrospective and the findings were reported by investigators who are employees of the company that makes pioglitazone.

This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.

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