New drugs and tests for Prostate Cancer.

Source:  Annual Genitourinary Cancers Symposium; Medline

192,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually.  27,000 cases are terminal.  Currently under investigation is a new chemotherapy drug -Cabazitaxel which is being administered in conjunction with Mitoxantrone (a commonly used drug f0r prostate cancer).   Men receiving this chemo cocktail (no pun intended) had a 30% increase in survival.  [...]

Gene test to aid Cancer treatment

Source: BBC Health; The Lancet Oncology

It is a fact of chemotherapy (chemical treatment for cancer) that some patients simply don’t respond to medications. Or that they stop responding over time.  With more than 45,400 women diagnosed with breast cancer every year, scientists have been furiously trying to decode our genetic patterns for reasons such as [...]

Boost for breast cancer drugs?

Source:  BBC Health; Journal Cancer Research

Tamoxifen (an estrogen blocker) is currently the most prescribed drug to fight breast cancer recurrence.  However up to 1/3 of women do not respond to Tamoxifen.  The reasons for this are not completely known as of this post but are believed to lie in a gene -FGFR1.

Researchers are now working [...]

Pediatric Emergencies -a remote interview re-blogged.

Source:  Medscape Medical News

Pediatric respiratory emergencies result from a variety of causes, including chronic medical conditions, infections, allergic reactions, and obstruction from foreign bodies. At the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, held February 15 to 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada, management of the pediatric patient with a respiratory emergency and [...]

The FDA approves a combination of drugs for breast cancer

Source: U.S. Food & Drug Administration

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women. An estimated 192,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

Not all breast cancers are the same, however.  Some breast cancers are hormone positive meaning that the presence of certain hormones (estrogen for example) contributes to cancer and [...]

Antidepressants linked to preterm birth?

Source: Reuters Health; American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, December 2009

Remember that post about the safety of prescription medications for pregnant women? http://www.medicalmalpracticelawyerblogphiladelphia.com/?p=528

Well, researchers in Washington (State not the Nation’s capital) have found in a study of 3,000 women, those taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) into their 2nd and 3rd trimesters had an increased [...]

Cancer cell line flaws taint research efforts

Sources:  Journal of the National Cancer Institute; BBC Health

A brief preface:  testing of drugs to see if they are effective in treating cancers is first done by researchers in laboratories on “cell-lines” grown in the laboratory.  However while scientists can duplicate cells they still need original cells from human patients to start with.

Following a review [...]

NJ Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act -a look

Source: Assembly Subcommittee No. 804, State of NJ 213th Legislature

As Amended on January 7, 2010

Because some of you asked and I listen. And there’s more than a few of you using marijuana a little too compassionately, but that’s not a value judgment.

NJ’s governor has now signed the NJ compassionate use medical marijuana act into law.  [...]

I’m not a medical doctor, but this sounds like a bad idea…

Source:  BBC Health; The Lancet

All it takes is one editorial…or something like that.  The respected Brit Medical journal The Lancet has published an editorial tied to a current study by physicians in the U.S. and in Greece on obesity and antibiotic dosage.  The argument? With rising waistline sizes, the doses of antibiotics currently administered to [...]

Antibiotic Resistance a little Q&A (that was “Q”) with the U.S. CDC

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Bacteria are living things.  Specifically, single-celled organisms found both in our bodies and upon our skin.  Bacteria have apparently evolved with us and most bacteria are not harmful.  A virus is an organism which requires a host (cells of the body) in which to live.

Why is this distinction [...]