Adhd. FDA Targets Companies Marketing Cough Supressants With Often-abu. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced its intention to take enforcement action against companies marketing unapproved prescription drug products containing hydrocodone, a narcotic widely used to treat pain and suppress coughs. The action does not affect other hydrocodone formulations, which have FDA approval. Hydrocodone is one of the strongest medications available to treat pain or to suppress cough. The drug has also been an extremely popular drug of abuse and can lead to serious illness, injury, or death, if improperly used.
Hydrocodone overdose can result in breathing problems or cardiac arrest, and its use may impair motor skills and judgment. The FDA has received reports of medication errors associated with formulation changes in unapproved hydrocodone products and reports of confusion over the similarity of the names of unapproved products to approved drug products. Some hydrocodone pain-relief products, such as Vicodin, are FDA-approved. Ovarian Cancer Is Not A Symptomless Killer. Ovarian cancer is not the symptom free disease that many medical textbooks have been claiming for years, says an Editorial in The Lancet. The Editorial says: “Far from its historic portrayal as a silent killer, ovarian cancer is preceded by symptoms, as recent evidence shows. Women who are ultimately diagnosed with the disease, and usually at a late stage, say that they did have symptoms, primarily gastrointestinal or urinary, for three to four months on average before diagnosis.”
Because of these delays in diagnosis, patient groups have pressed for education about early symptoms among women and doctors. Several US organisations have released a consensus statement, urging women to seek medical attention if they have new and persistent symptoms of bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or early satiety, and urinary urgency or frequency. Despite its considerable limitations, the Editorial supports the consensus statement. Cervical Cancer Screening: Too Many Are Left Unprotected.
The decline in cervical cancer is a success story of cancer research. Although there are reasons to be optimistic about even further decreases in cervical cancer incidence, there still remain some women who are not screened. A meta-analysis by Spence and colleagues published in Preventive Medicine shows that undergoing Pap smears irregularly or never was the primary explanation for the development of invasive cervical cancer, followed by false negative tests and poor follow-up of abnormal results. Papanicolaou and Traut first reported the usefulness of the Papanicolaou smear (''Pap test") for detecting neoplastic cervical cells in 1943. A smear of cells of the uterine cervix indicating the progression of the cancer's growing malignity provided a powerful screening tool that became rapidly used after WWII without its efficacy being evaluated in a randomized control trial.
HIV Drug Could Be Used To Prevent Cervical Cancer. Researchers at the University of Manchester are developing a topical treatment against the human papilloma virus (HPV) which is responsible for pre-cancerous and cancerous disease of the cervix as well as other genital malignancies. In the UK many thousands of women undergo surgery to remove precancerous lesions of every year. Instead they may be able to apply a simple cream or pessary to the affected area. The discovery may be even more significant in developing countries which lack surgical facilities and where HPV related cervical cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in women. Drs Ian and Lynne Hampson at the School of Medicine's Division of Human Development and Reproduction are developing the treatment from a type of drug that is given orally to treat HIV.
This protease inhibitor can selectively kill cultured HPV infected cervical cancer cells and, since it is already available as a liquid formulation, it is possible it may work by direct application to the cervix. Cervarix Shown To Protect From Most Serious Lesions Caused By Th. New Vaccine May Provide Broader Protection Against Cervical Canc. Just under 150 women in Perth, Australia, 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 infectious from other strains of HPV that account for another 10 percent of cervical cancers.
The Perth component of the international study was conducted by the Vaccine Trials Group at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in collaboration with Princess Margaret Hospital and King Edward Memorial Hospital. Report co-author Dr Rachel Skinner, who headed the Perth trial, said the results were very encouraging.
Women Still At Risk Of Cervical Cancer Despite Treatment Removin. Women who have had pre-cancerous cells removed remain at higher than average risk of developing cervical cancer in the 20 years following treatment, says research in this week's BMJ. Cervical cancer is one of the major causes of death from cancer for women worldwide. But in countries with organised screening programmes for cervical cancer, incidence rates and deaths drop significantly. The study looked at the long-term risks of cervical and other cancers for women after treatment to remove pre-cancerous lesions, a procedure called cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).
The treatment removes abnormal cells that, if left untreated over a period of time, might turn into cancer. Researchers studied 7,564 women treated for CIN during 1974 and 2001, and followed this up through the Finnish cancer registry until 2003. Of those new cases, 22 had developed invasive cervical cancer and showed that women were at more than average risk in the first and second decades after their CIN treatment. Hospital Investigates New Prophylactic HPV Vaccine. Temple University Hospital's Center For Women's Health is participating in a national study to determine the safety and effectiveness of an investigational treatment for cervical dysplasia. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 500,000 women are diagnosed with high-grade cervical dysplasia each year, with roughly 10,000 cases progressing to cervical cancer. For numerous women afflicted with the common sexually transmitted disease known as human papillomavirus (HPV), the immune system can not prevent certain high-risk strains of the virus from causing cervical dysplasia, a common precursor to cervical cancer.
"The expected widespread availability of two preventive vaccines may lower the incidence of HPV infection and reduce the risk of cervical cancer," said Enrigue Hernandez, The Abraham Roth Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Temple University Hospital and School of Medicine. Cancer - A Vaccine to Wipe Out Cervical Cancer. Human Papilloma Virus Vaccines May Decrease Chances Of Oral Canc. The Centers for Disease Control report that nearly 25 million women are infected with some form of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
Of those, more than three million are thought to have one of the four strains known to cause cases of cervical cancer and genital warts. HPV is linked to oropharyngeal cancer and may be linked to oral cancers as well, and vaccines that have been developed to treat HPV might decrease the risk of these cancers, according to a study in the May/June issue of General Dentistry, the clinical, peer-reviewed journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD). James J. Closmann, BS, DDS, the lead author of the study, found that oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OOSCC) have been linked to high-risk HPV strains, the same strains that cause cervical cancer. Recently, a vaccine was developed to treat patients with HPV against cervical cancer, and this could have an effect on women's oral health. "More than 100 strains of HPV have been identified," says Dr. Human Papilloma Virus Test Increases Cancer Detection Rate, Stud. From universities, journals, and other organizations Date: May 8, 2002 Source: Georgetown University Medical Center Summary: Adding a simple, highly sensitive test for the human papilloma virus (HPV) to the administration of the routine Pap test significantly increases the detection rate for cervical cancer and lowers death rates from this invasive disease, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center’s Lombardi Cancer Center have found.
Cite This Page: Georgetown University Medical Center. Georgetown University Medical Center. (2002, May 8). Georgetown University Medical Center. More Health & Medicine News from AP, Reuters, AFP, and other news services null. New Test For Most Virulent HPV Strains Under Study. A test for the two strains of human papillomavirus responsible for most cervical cancers is under study.
The molecular assay uses a cervical scraping, like that for a liquid-based Pap smear, to test for HPV types 16 and 18, responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancers, says Dr. Daron G. Ferris, family medicine physician and director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Center at the Medical College of Georgia. “Data from a National Cancer Institute trial shows that if you have a genital infection with HPV types 16 or 18, your chance of getting moderate to severe precancerous cervical changes or cancer is much higher than if you have one of the other types,” says Dr. Ferris, a principal investigator on the national study evaluating the assay. The NCI study followed women infected with different types of the typically slow-acting virus over 10 years. “Clearly, there is a big difference between HPV types 16 and 18 and all the other cancer-causing strains of HPV,” says Dr. Dr. HPV Test Is A Better Long-term Predictor Of Cervical Cell Abnorm. The best initial cervical cancer screening tool for younger women is still the traditional Pap smear.
However, a large Danish study has found that for older women (age 40 and older), a test for human papillomavirus (HPV) is a much more effective way to screen for potential cancer. The reason, report researchers in the November 1 issue of Cancer Research, is that HPV infection is both frequent and transient in younger women, and they would often test positive for HPV when no actual risk of cervical cancer existed. But, in older women, HPV infection is rarer and more persistent, putting a woman at substantial risk for the disease before changes in cervical cells, detected by Pap smears, are obvious. The researchers specifically found that the absolute risk of developing cervical cancer in an older woman who tests positive for HPV is greater than 20 percent within a 10-year period.
Each of the screening tests has its limitations, Kjaer says. Breast Asymmetry Predicts Breast Cancer. Women who go on to develop breast cancer tend to have breasts that are less symmetrical than women who don't develop the cancer. A study published in Breast Cancer Research reveals that breast asymmetry could be a reliable independent predictor of breast cancer. The study found that the relative odds of developing breast cancer increased by 1.5 with each 100ml increase in breast asymmetry. Diane Scutt from the University of Liverpool, UK and colleagues studied the mammograms of 252 women who did not have breast cancer at the time of the mammography, but later on developed the disease. The control group consisted of 252 women matched for age who underwent mammography at the same time, but did not develop breast cancer.
Scutt et al.' Article: Breast asymmetry and predisposition to breast cancer. Red Meat Linked To Breast Cancer. Dense Breasts, Hormone Levels Are Two Separate, Independent Risk. The density of a woman’s breast tissue and her level of sex hormones are two strong and independent risk factors for breast cancer, according to a team of researchers from Harvard and Georgetown universities.
The finding dispels the common belief that the risk associated with dense breasts merely reflects the same risk associated with high levels of circulating sex hormones, they say. Their study, published in the August 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that the relative risk of developing breast cancer in post-menopausal woman with dense breasts was 400 percent higher than in women with fatty, non-dense breast tissue, and that high versus low levels of hormones (estrogen and testosterone) increased the relative risk by 200 percent.
Adjusting for a woman’s circulating hormone levels did not reduce the risk associated with the level of breast density. Byrne said she was surprised at the findings. Density Predicts Breast Cancer Risk, Study Shows. Breast density is nearly as important as age in determining a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new model developed by scientists from Group Health and seven other health care organizations in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC). Presented in the September 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the model is based on the largest study of this issue to-date in terms of population size and the number of risk factors examined. The researchers collected data from more than 1 million women at the time of their screening mammograms. They then identified 11,638 who were diagnosed with breast cancer within the next year.
Information on women who did and did not get breast cancer was analyzed to develop and validate risk-prediction models. Breast density is a measure of how well tissue can be seen on mammogram. The scientists found that several risk factors influenced breast cancer diagnosis. More Fish Oil, Less Vegetable Oil, Better For Your Health. Scientists have provided new evidence that using more fish oil than vegetable oil in the diet decreases the formation of chemicals called prostanoids, which, when produced in excess, increase inflammation in various tissues and organs. The results, by William L. Smith, Professor and Chair of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues, may help in designing new anti-inflammatory drugs with fewer side effects than the ones currently available. "Prostanoids help control blood pressure, fight allergies, and modulate inflammation, but too much of them -- especially those made from vegetable oils -- can also lead to increased pain, swelling, and redness in various tissues," Smith says.
"Our study shows that prostanoids made from fish oil are less effective at causing pain and swelling than those made from vegetable oil and that adding fish oil to the diet decreases the amount of prostanoids made from vegetable oil. " Chemo-free cancer cure 'will save thousands' | the Dai. Antioxidant Supplements Raise Death Risk, Study Shows No Benefit. Connects: How Understanding these 50 Medical Symptoms Can Keep Y. Family Medicine Notes. Psychology and mental health at Psych Central. MSSPNexus Blog. Mirror.co.uk - Sex & Health - Slimming & Health - 10 VIT.
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