Friday, 30 December 2011

Top health stories of 2011

Evacuees from the west side of Fukushima receive radiation scans in this photo taken in March.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, WHO announced in May
  • A listeria outbreak in cantaloupe killed 30 people and sickened nearly 150
  • This year also marked the 40th year since Congress passed the National Cancer Act of 1971
  • Other big stories: Health care reform, head injuries in the NFL

(CNN) -- The most deadly recorded listeria outbreak and concerns about nuclear radiation after Japan's biggest earthquake made major health headlines this year, along with several notable deaths to cancer and the inspiring recovery of a Congresswoman who suffered brain injuries from a gunshot wound.

Here's a look back at some of the top stories of 2011, a year that marked major anniversaries in some of the world's most pernicious diseases -- HIV/AIDS and the "war" on cancer.

A congresswoman's recovery

2011 was barely a week old when shots rang out in a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, 40, had been shot in the head by a gunman.

The bullet passed through the left side of Gifford's brain, but she survived. A few months later, her press office began revealing photos of her progress.

In November, she gave her first televised interview, saying that she never became angry over what happened. She shrugged and said it was "life."

Nuclear fears in Japan

An 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the most powerful one to hit Japan in recorded history, led to a tsunami that engulfed parts of Honshu. It also started a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear facility in northeast Japan.

Subsequent tests have detected radiation in a sample of people who live around the power plant.

Although the Japanese workers were able to achieve a "cold shutdown" at the plant in mid-December, experts say it will take perhaps decades to fully clean up the nuclear disaster. What this entails for people who live around the site remains unclear.

WHO warns of possible cancer risk from cell phones

The World Health Organization announced in May that radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, adding that no adverse health effects had been established. While there are no definitive studies, the warning gave people pause about cell phone use.

Here are six tips on minimizing radiation and some perspective from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Tainted fruit

A listeria outbreak in cantaloupe killed 29 people and sickened nearly 150 in the United States, making this year's outbreak the deadliest for listeria since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began keeping track. One woman pregnant at the time of illness had a miscarriage, according to the CDC.

The outbreak first detected in September was traced back to a Colorado farm. Unsanitary conditions at the farm's packing facility are a possible contributing cause, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in October.

Prostate cancer screening controversy

The question of whether prostate-specific antigen tests for prostate cancer do more harm than good stirred controversy this year.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave the PSA test a "D" rating, meaning it offers "no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits."

The issue is that many of the prostate cancers that get detected are so small and slow-growing that they'll never be harmful. The screening does not determine whether the cancer is a harmful one versus the slow, harmless ones.

Most men who learn they have prostate cancer receive invasive treatment for a disease that might not have affected their health. At the same time, prostate cancer survivors say their lives were saved by the screenings.

Cancer's toll

Cancer claimed the lives of several luminaries this year: tech innovator Steve Jobs (pancreatic cancer), author Christopher Hitchens (esophageal cancer) and former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier (liver cancer).

This year also marked the 40th year since Congress passed the National Cancer Act of 1971. The legislation never mentioned the word "war," but many were optimistic that cancer would be conquered. Decades later, that naivete has faded as scientists realize the complexity of cancer.

This year, the FDA approved two drugs for melanoma: vemurafenib and ipilimumab, which was the first melanoma drug to be approved in 13 years. Seven of the 35 drugs approved by the FDA this year are advances in cancer treatment.

30 years of HIV/AIDS

It was the 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS. The first report of the disease appeared on June 5, 1981, in the Center for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Although medicine and treatment has been greatly advanced since the 1980s, the disease has killed more than 25 million people worldwide. Today, about 33 million are living with HIV/AIDS, with more than a million of those in the United States.

This year, the National Institutes of Health published the results of a study that says taking antiretroviral drugs at the onset of HIV leads to a dramatic reduction in HIV transmission.

Head injuries

The toll of repeated head blows and injuries loomed over football again.

One former football player killed himself after leaving a message telling his family to get his brain to the NFL brain bank. An examination of his brain showed that he had signs of a brain disease found in athletes who have been exposed to repeated brain trauma.

This year, 75 former players accused the NFL of engaging in "a scheme of fraud and deceit" and denying the link between concussion and decline. Another group of former NFL players sued the league in December, accusing the league of failing to protect them against on-the-field brain injuries.

The NFL has begun cracking down on helmet-to-helmet blows with fines and suspensions.

Health care reform

Finally, the health care reform law signed into law by President Barack Obama last year went through several legal challenges in 2011 and will head to the Supreme Court in 2012.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed in March 2010 by a Democratic congressional majority with the support of the president. The law faces legal challenge from 26 states, led by Florida. Those appeals have paved the way to a hearing in the Supreme Court.

This year, the CDC reported that about 2.5 million young people have received health insurance coverage as a result of health care reform measures.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_health/~3/0KBglkZ9_tY/index.html

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Avastin Delays Ovarian Cancer Progression

But Studies Don't Show Clear Survival Advantage

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Dec. 28, 2011 -- The cancer drug Avastin helped stop the spread of ovarian cancer in patients with an advanced form of the disease, two major studies have found. But it is not clear whether it helps patients to live longer than other cancer treatments.

The drug is approved in the U.S. for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, as well as certain brain, lung, and kidney cancers. It won approval last week in Europe to treat ovarian cancer.

In a European and Canadian study, the drug was found to delay the disease from spreading for five to six months in the highest-risk ovarian cancer patients.

In a related trial conducted in the U.S., using Avastin during chemotherapy and up to 10 months afterward was found to halt the spread of the cancer for about four additional months.

Both studies are published in the Dec. 29 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Researcher Amit M. Oza, MD, who led the European study, says Avastin is the first new drug in a decade and a half to improve outcomes in ovarian cancer patients.

"This drug should certainly be considered a new standard treatment in advanced ovarian cancer, especially for women with the highest risk for recurrence," he tells WebMD.

Not Clear if Avastin Delays Death

There was no indication in either study that patients who took Avastin lived significantly longer than those who did not, but researchers say they will continue to follow the study participants.

The lack of a clear overall survival advantage means that ovarian cancer patients in the U.S. who take Avastin will continue to do so without the FDA's approval for the foreseeable future, says an official with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, which markets Avastin.

Roche media specialist Daniel Grotzky says the company is not likely to seek FDA approval for the drug's use in ovarian cancer patients anytime soon.

"Following initial discussions with the FDA, we do not believe the data will currently support approval," Grotzky tells WebMD. "We are still waiting for final overall survival data to make a final decision.

Some Say Avastin Not Cost Effective

Avastin does not work like conventional chemotherapy, which kills rapidly dividing cancer cells. Instead, the drug inhibits the growth of new blood vessels that feed tumors and allow them to grow -- a process known as angiogenesis.

Avastin became the first angiogenesis inhibitor available for use in the United States in 2004 for colorectal cancer.

In ovarian cancer, Avastin inhibits a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is associated with the spread of the disease.

Not everyone is convinced that the benefits justify the additional health care dollars that will be spent if Avastin becomes a first-line treatment for advanced ovarian cancer.

In a cost analysis published last spring, Ohio State University cancer researcher David E. Cohn, MD, and colleagues concluded that the addition of Avastin to standard chemotherapy is not cost effective in these patients.

Their analysis of the U.S. study suggested that adding Avastin to chemotherapy, plus maintenance treatment with the drug, would cost more than 30 times as much as chemotherapy alone.

SOURCES: Burger, R.A. The New England Journal of Medicine, Dec. 29, 2011.Amit M. Oza, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada.Daniel Grotzky, media specialist, Roche Group Communications, Basel, Switzerland.News release, University of Toronto.News release, Roche Group Media Relations.Cohn, D.E. Journal of Clinical Oncology, March 7, 2011.

�2011 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.


Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&a=153151&k=Womens_Health_General

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Eating Disorders Can Last Well Beyond Teen Years

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are typically thought to be diseases of young women and men. But researchers are finding that the personal demons that drive a young person to an eating disorder may linger into adulthood.

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More and more middle-aged and older people are coming forward to receive treatment for eating problems that began in their youth and have been reignited by adult stress or personal crises.

"Some had actual eating disorders" when they were younger, and "others had aspects of an eating disorder but were never fully treated," said Dr. Ed Tyson, an eating disorders specialist in Austin, Texas. "Then something happens later in life that stresses them to a point where the eating disorder becomes engaged."

The Renfrew Center, which operates a number of eating disorder clinics in the United States, has seen a 42 percent increase in middle-aged female clients since 2001, said Holly Grishkat, senior director of clinical operations for the center's northeast region.

Unhealthy eating patterns adopted in adolescence or teen years often continue into adulthood, according to a University of Minnesota study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The study, which followed 2,287 kids as they grew into young adults, found that more than half of the girls had unhealthy eating patterns that continued into their mid- to late 20s.

That was the case with Alison Smela, 49, who lives in the Chicago area. When she was 12, she was given a weight plan to follow over the summer because she was considered overweight. Smela said she went back to school thinner, and people noticed approvingly.

"I got all kinds of attention, and I liked that," she said. "I equated losing weight with gaining attention."

Controlling her eating also helped Smela feel better when things seemed too much to handle. "When life got tough, I always knew I could control the scale," she said.

But as she grew more successful and climbed the corporate ladder, her anorexia spiraled out of control. So did her problem with heavy drinking.

"The more pressure I was under, the more titles I had, I wasn't dealing with the pressures of the job and of life in a healthy manner," she said.

Tyson said that eating disorders can be very devastating to the bodies at middle-age, when osteoporosis, chemical imbalances and other health issues crop up more easily and have an even more lasting impact on health.

"Older bodies do not have the plasticity that younger bodies do," he explained. "They can't tolerate the stresses and risks."

When Smela turned 40, she said, she decided to receive treatment for her alcoholism. She's now nearly a decade sober. But her eating disorder remained untreated, even though she knew she had a problem.

"I presumed alcoholism was more acceptable to society at my age," she said. "Having an eating disorder wasn't."

That's not an uncommon perception for middle-aged people with an eating disorder, Tyson said.

"They feel more peculiar because they're older," he said. "They think this is something for younger people, not for them. There's some shame associated with it."

Diane Butrym, 50, of Schenectady, N.Y., said such concerns are justified but must be surmounted. When Butrym went to the Renfrew Center for treatment eight years ago, she said, she found herself uncomfortable in the presence of the younger women struggling with the same problem she had.

"One of the parents said, 'Aren't you a little too old to be going through this?'" recalled Butrym, who still struggles with her eating disorder. "That was very embarrassing for me. It was really hard to overcome that."

The specific problems faced by middle-aged people with eating disorders prompted the Renfrew Center to create a separate treatment program specifically tailored to their needs, Grishkat said.

"The older women tend to mother the younger women and take care of the younger women in the group rather than taking care of themselves," Grishkat said. "The other thing we've noticed, the older women have a tendency to sit back and not say anything because they're ashamed. They feel like they should be the role models for the younger women."

What drives someone in midlife to seek help for an eating disorder varies. For Smela, who was 46 at the time she first went to the Renfrew Center, it was her reflection, she said.

"The summer before I went for treatment, I started catching glimpses of myself in a mirror or reflection, and I was scared," she said. "I saw my body as a whole, and it scared me."

But no matter what age they are, people who feel they have an eating disorder need to seek help, Grishkat and Tyson said. Talk to a doctor, contact the Renfrew Center or similar facility or reach out to the National Eating Disorders Association, the two experts suggested.

Treatment is particularly vital if the person has children, even if treatment will temporarily take them away from their responsibilities at home, Tyson said.

"Having an eating disorder makes their children have a 12- to 15-fold greater risk of having an eating disorder," he said. "They need to do the work and get better, or their children could be at risk."

MedicalNewsCopyright � 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

SOURCES: Ed Tyson, M.D., Austin, Texas; Holly Grishkat, Ph.D., senior director, clinical operations, northeast region, Renfrew Center; Alison Smela, Chicago; Diane Butrym, Schenectady, N.Y.


Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&a=153125&k=Womens_Health_General

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Thursday, 29 December 2011

Abortions to reduce multiple births on the rise

Of the 85 women undergoing selective reductions last year, 51 were reducing a pregnancy from twins to a single baby, up from 30 four years before.

There were also 20 abortions to reduce triplets to twins and nine procedures to take a pregnancy from triplets to a single child.

The other terminations counted in the 2010 data were three mothers who reduced four foetuses to two, and two mothers who reduced five to two.

Separate figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, show that almost one third of selective abortions carried out in 2009 involved pregnancies that were a result of fertility treatment.

Multiple pregnancies are more dangerous to both mother and baby and the Department of Health said that about three quarters of the selective reductions were made on medical grounds.

The risk of birth defects is about twice as high for multiple pregnancies and the babies are far more likely to be premature. Twins are four to six times more likely to suffer cerebral palsy, brain damage that can leave them wheelchair-bound, unable to speak and having fits.

They are also more likely to have impaired sight and heart defects.

The rise of selective reductions will also lead to discussion over the ethics of aborting a potentially healthy foetus while one or more siblings survive. Some mothers-to-be have said that they were considering the procedure because they could not cope with more than one baby at a time.

Prof Richard Fleming, the scientific director of the Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine, said that the link between fertility treatment and selective abortions was clear.

?I would be surprised if multiple pregnancy through fertility treatment was not a significant component to the increase in selective reductions,? he said.

?One of the components within that is the health to the mother and health to the offspring as well ? both are compromised by multiple pregnancy. The more complicated multiple pregnancies lie almost exclusively in the IVF domain. It?s a horrible decision to make but a very sensible one.?

Last night, Dr Peter Saunders, the chief executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship and a former surgeon, said: ?There is no doubt that the rising use of IVF has contributed to a rise in multiple pregnancies.

?If prospective parents are not willing to have twins then they should not be implanting more than one embryo at a time. Parental preference should never take precedence over the right to life of the unborn child.?

Last year there were 189,000 terminations in England and Wales. Women can apply for an abortion on medical grounds up to the point of birth.

Although selective abortions represent a small proportion of the total figure, they are often viewed as among the most controversial.

In recent years there has been a move to reduce the number of multiple pregnancies because of the risks. In the 1990s the HFEA, which regulated fertility clinics, issued guidance saying that no more than three embryos should be transferred at any one time. A lower limit of two embryos for women aged over 40 was issued in 2001.

In recent years the HFEA campaigned to persuade parents and clinics to implant just one embryo at a time and set clinics a limit on the number of multiple pregnancies they could produce.

NICE, the value-for-money advisory body, is currently reviewing NHS guidelines for fertility treatment and is expected to examine the issue of multiple pregnancy.

Women who have undergone fertility treatment resulting in multiple pregnancies have taken to internet sites to seek help and discuss the dilemma they face.

One wrote: ?I?m 12 weeks pregnant with my first pregnancy achieved through [fertility treatment].

?At my six-week scan, we found that I?m carrying triplets, which has taken a long time to sink in, and we feel we have to consider foetal reduction. My concern is about the best outcomes for my babies, and to me.

?I?m not sure that being two months premature and incubated is the best thing for my children, along with the other potential risks.

?I just want the best possible outcome for my pregnancy and my children, and that might not be keeping all three.?

Another wrote: ?I am seven weeks pregnant with twins (non-identical). After two weeks on an emotional rollercoaster, I have decided that I cannot cope with twins due to health, emotional, practical, financial reasons. I am considering foetal reduction.?

Despite the risks, many women undergoing fertility treatment remain keen to increase their chance of becoming pregnant by implanting multiple foetuses.

?Women are encouraged to have a single embryo implanted and then freeze any others,? said Susan Seenan, from the Fertility Network, a support group. ?But if one of the embryos is poor quality or the woman is having treatment on the NHS or paying for it privately, they are likely to want to maximise their chances.?

A spokesman for the Department of Health defended the practice. ?Over three quarters, 78 per cent, of the selective terminations were performed under ground E ? that there is substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped,? he said.

?Multiple pregnancies are generally a greater risk to the mother and the babies. The risk is greater for twins than single babies but rises dramatically with three babies or more.?

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568409/s/1b583545/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0C898150A40CAbortions0Eto0Ereduce0Emultiple0Ebirths0Eon0Ethe0Erise0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Phthalates Identifed In Numeruous Medicines And Supplements

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Men's health
Article Date: 19 Dec 2011 - 0:00 PST

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Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC), in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, have found numerous prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements use certain chemicals called phthalates as inactive ingredients in their products. The findings appear on-line in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Phthalates such as dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) are used as inactive ingredients in FDA-approved medications where they may serve a variety of functions. Most commonly, they are used in the coating of a drug product to target the delivery of the active ingredients to a specific area of the gastrointestinal tract, or manage their release over time. Some phthalates, including DBP have been identified as causing adverse developmental and reproductive effects in laboratory animals. Limited human studies have suggested a possible association of DBP and DEP with male reproductive health outcomes.

Using a combination of resources, the researchers were able to identify over 100 drug and dietary supplement products that indicated they contained phthalates, including 50 prescription, 40 over-the-counter (OTC) and 26 dietary supplement products with labels that listed DEP or DBP, of which nine contained DBP. In addition, a large number of product labels listed phthalate polymers that are considered to be of little or no known toxicity but which are often used in combination with other phthalates.

"Given the thousands of orally-ingested products on the market (prescription, OTC and dietary supplements), it is difficult to know exactly how many contain phthalates. However, it is informative and important to identify the specific drug products that have included phthalates in their formulations," said lead author Kathy Kelley, MPH, RPh, a research pharmacist at BU's SEC.

According to the researchers, the potential health effects of human exposure to these phthalates through medications are unknown and warrant further investigation. "The present findings should assist researchers in conducting the necessary studies of potential risk of phthalates in human populations, but such efforts are limited by the lack of centralized, comprehensive, and publically-available information on the presence of phthalates in the full range of prescription, OTC and dietary supplement products," added Kelley.

The researchers recommend that future studies should pay particular attention to the amount of phthalate, specifically DBP, used in each dosage form so that estimates of exposure from medications and supplements can be quantified.

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Health, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.
Boston University Medical Center
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Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239333.php

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Antidepressants can treat hot flushes: research

Prof Mary Ann Lumsden, of Glasgow University, found that antidepressants which affect how the body uses serotonin, the so-called feel-good hormone, also influences how the blood vessels contract and expand in women who suffer with hot flushes.

"I see women all the time who have had flushes for a long time and their life is compromised. It is embarrassing, difficult and uncomfortable for them. It causes huge misery."

The discovery could also help men with advanced prostate cancer who may suffer from hot flushes due to the hormones they are given to treat their cancer.

In the research 134 women were given either the antidepressant Effexor, also known as venlafaxine, a blood pressure drug, HRT or a placebo.

HRT improved hot flushes in three quarters of women, while symptoms improved in 60 per cent of women on Effexor.

The study was funded by the charity Wellbeing of Women.

Liz Campbell, Director of Wellbeing of Women said: ?We are committed to funding high quality research to improve the quality of women?s lives.

"Many women?s lives are restricted by chronic health conditions such as the menopause. These are unpopular areas for research but it is vital that women have good treatments available so that they can make the most of their lives.

"This is a terrific project with very exciting results from a very good research team."

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568409/s/1b5aa6af/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C8980A6610CAntidepressants0Ecan0Etreat0Ehot0Eflushes0Eresearch0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Breast Cancer Radiation Linked to Raised Heart Risk

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Dec. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have breast cancer on the left side of the body and who are treated with radiation therapy have a higher risk of developing narrowing of the arteries that lead to the heart, researchers say.

A new Swedish study found that the risk of having moderately narrowed coronary arteries was more than four times greater for women who had left-sided breast cancers treated with radiation compared to right-sided breast cancers treated with radiation. The odds were seven times higher for more severe narrowing on the left side versus the right, according to the study published in the Dec. 27 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"We suggest that the coronary arteries be regarded as organs at risk in radiation therapy, and that every effort be made to avoid radiation dose to the coronary arteries," wrote study authors led by Dr. Greger Nilsson, of the department of oncology, radiology and clinical immunology at Uppsala University Hospital.

However, it's also important to note that of a group of 8,190 women who had breast cancer, just 199 had to be referred for coronary angiography (a treatment for blocked blood vessels).

"Women need to be aware that there is a risk, but the overall risk is still relatively small, and the benefits of radiation in the treatment of breast cancer still outweigh the risks," said Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, are designed to destroy cancer cells. Unfortunately, healthy cells are often damaged, too. Treatment techniques are constantly being refined, and today's treatments target fewer healthy cells than treatments from years past.

For example, newer radiation techniques help protect the heart and the arteries leading to it, according to Dr. Timothy Zagar, an assistant professor in radiation oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One such technique is to give bursts of radiation only when a patient is taking a deep breath. During a deep breath, the main artery going to the heart separates from the breast and chest wall, which keeps it away from the radiation.

Zagar, co-author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal, said researchers don't know exactly how radiation causes damage to coronary arteries, but it's believed to damage the cells lining the arteries (endothelial cells), which causes inflammation, which can lead to hardening of the arteries.

The current study included women from Sweden who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1970 and 2003. Of the 8,190 women, the researchers found 199 women who had undergone coronary angiography, suggesting significant coronary artery disease.

Coronary artery narrowing (stenosis) is graded on a scale of zero to 5. Zero indicates a healthy blood vessel, while 5 indicates a blocked blood vessel.

When the researchers compared women who'd had radiation treatment on the left side of their body versus the right, they found that the odds of a grade 3 to grade 5 stenosis in a left-sided artery were 4.38 times higher. The odds of a grade 4 or grade 5 stenosis were 7.22 times higher for women who had left-sided breast cancer.

In women who received radiation in high-risk areas near the heart's arteries, the risk of a grade 3 to grade 5 stenosis was nearly twice as high as it was in women who had radiation in low-risk areas, or who didn't have radiation.

Zagar pointed out that this study was done over a long period of time and that changes in the way radiation is delivered would likely result in lower odds of coronary artery stenosis for women treated with radiation today.

In addition, Zagar said, "I don't think this study's findings would justify changing from a lumpectomy [breast-conserving surgery] to a mastectomy [surgical removal of the breast]. Breast-conserving therapy is very important to many women, and the number of coronary events are still low," he added.

"It's important to understand that with all treatments, there are risks," Bernik said. "And, we know that this is one of the risks with radiation of left-sided breast cancer. Women need to keep in mind that they're at increased risk of coronary events and need to follow up with their doctor going forward."

MedicalNewsCopyright � 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

SOURCES: Timothy Zagar, M.D., assistant professor, department of radiation oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Stephanie Bernik, M.D., chief, surgical oncology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Dec. 27, 2011, Journal of Clinical Oncology, online


Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&a=153100&k=Womens_Health_General

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