"Health & Medical News"

Washington — To treat or not to treat has long been a puzzle in prostate cancer, with studies lending support to both options. Now comes a new, large study of older men with early-stage cancer that points to “watchful waiting” rather than treatment as the better option for this population.

The study, presented Feb. 14 at the 2008 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, found that a conservative approach that included monitoring for increasing levels of prostate-specific antigen and other signs of the cancer’s growth was a successful strategy for the majority of the older men studied who had stage I or stage II prostate cancer.

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A recent study estimates that between 1.5% and 2% of all cancers can be attributed to radiation from the 62 million computed tomography scans Americans get each year. The finding comes on the heels of earlier, similar risk estimates, and it has some experts saying physicians should think twice about ordering the test.

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Alcohol, rich food, and increased levels of stress and excitement are a recipe for a potentially fatal holiday heart attack, according to researchers who studied spikes in coronary death rates around Christmas and New Year’s.

The Los Angeles Times reported Dec. 17 that researchers have studied the phenomena of the “Merry Christmas Coronary” and the “Happy New Year Heart Attack”: Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 are the two deadliest days of the year for heart attacks, and the heart-disease death rate is 33 percent higher in December and January than the rest of the year.

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A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women. African-American women may miss out on potentially lifesaving supplemental treatments for breast cancer that may prevent the cancer from returning. African-Americans whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes were less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women, the study showed. Adjuvant therapy is treatment given to kill remaining cancer cells, in addition to the primary therapy. Studies suggest adjuvant therapy may increase the chances of long-term survival.

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Washington — A sizeable number of lung cancers are diagnosed among women who never used tobacco, according to new findings. Two recent examples illustrate this point. The disease caused the death this year of opera legend Beverly Sills and last year of Dana Reeve, wife of actor Christopher Reeve. Neither was ever a smoker.

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Women who consume alcoholic drinks daily face an increased risk of breast cancer, Reuters reported Sept. 27.

Researchers found that women who had one or two alcoholic drinks daily had a 10-percent increased risk of breast cancer, while risk of the disease rose 30 percent among those who had three or more drinks daily.

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Women who consume alcoholic drinks daily face an increased risk of breast cancer, Reuters reported Sept. 27.

Researchers found that women who had one or two alcoholic drinks daily had a 10-percent increased risk of breast cancer, while risk of the disease rose 30 percent among those who had three or more drinks daily.

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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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Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California say that women who have more than two alcoholic drinks daily face twice the risk of endometrial cancer as those who drink moderately or not at all, the New York Times reported Sept. 18.

Endometrial cancer affects the tissue linking the uterus. It kills about 7,400 women in the U.S. annually.

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Researchers have found that the probability of the breast cancer gene mutation BRCA among women with a history of breast cancer is greater when the number of older, female relatives in the family is smaller, according to a study in the June 20 issue of JAMA. This finding may challenge the accuracy of some breast cancer prediction models, which may not take family structure into account.

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