The piece walks through breast reconstruction after mastectomy: a plastic surgeon replaces skin, breast tissue and nipple, with symmetry between the breasts as the goal. It stresses the choice need not be made at the time of surgery and is not cosmetic surgery.
Laura Lamp King
Cancer
What to Tell Your Daughter About Breast Cancer
Four suggestions for mothers during Breast Cancer Awareness Month: teach a daughter how her breasts normally feel and to examine them monthly after 20, share family history with her doctor, book a gynecologic exam once she is sexually active, and keep up with mammograms.
Cancer
Pink Alert: Genetic Discrimination with BRCA1 or BRCA2 Positive Gene
The 2008 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act bars genetic discrimination in health insurance and employment, but leaves out life, disability and long-term care insurance, where insurers can request medical records and weigh BRCA test results when deciding coverage.
Law & Regulations
Obama's Healthcare Law Deemed Constitutional by Federal Judge
Judge George Steeh ruled that the Commerce Clause lets Congress require Americans to buy coverage by 2014 and penalize those who do not, rejecting a Thomas More Law Center challenge. He dismissed two of the group's six claims; four remain pending.
Obesity
Obesity Leads to Rise in Arthritis
The CDC reports almost 50 million US adults had doctor-diagnosed arthritis during 2007-2009, up from about 46 million in 2003-2005, with 21.1 million reporting activity limits. Report authors expect an aging population and high obesity rates to push the numbers higher over 20 years.
Cancer
Pink Alert: Does Gasoline Increase Breast Cancer Risk in Men?
In the largest study of men diagnosed with breast cancer, Danish researchers found significantly higher rates among men who spent 10 years or more in jobs exposed to gasoline fumes and combustion, with the strongest effect in those who started before 40. Benzene is implicated.
Cancer
Pink Not Just for Women, Men Die From Breast Cancer, too
The American Cancer Society estimates 1,970 men will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and about 390 will die of it, a lifetime risk of roughly 1 in 1,000. Recent studies suggest men and women diagnosed at the same stage have equal survival prospects.
Other Diseases
Celiac Disease Rising in Vulnerable Elderly Generation
Celiac diagnoses in the US have risen 500 percent in 60 years, and a University of Maryland study found incidence climbing as participants aged. A Finnish study likewise put prevalence in the elderly at 2.5 times that of the general population.
Miscellaneous
Intravenous Aspirin for Migraine Pain Relief?
Researchers reviewed records of 168 London patients hospitalized for chronic daily headache who received an average of five doses of intravenous aspirin, and reported reduced pain. Co-author Peter Goadsby says IV delivery may help more intense headaches.
Heart & Blood
Medtronics New Stent FDA Approved
The FDA approved Medtronic's smaller, more flexible Integrity bare-metal stent, formed from a single wire by continuous sinusoid technology, which the company says may eventually yield polymer-free drug-filled stents. The piece also reviews how angioplasty and stents treat clogged arteries.
Cancer
Pediatric Cancer:Curing the Beast
An appeal about childhood cancer that lists the types, from leukemia and lymphoma to neuroblastoma and Wilms' tumor, and relays parents' accounts of a son, Sam, dying in their arms and of a daughter's leukemia diagnosis after what looked like flu.
Miscellaneous
Diabetes Drug Actos Under Scrutiny
The FDA is reviewing whether Actos (pioglitazone) raises bladder cancer risk. Five years of an ongoing ten-year observational study found no overall association, though patients with the longest exposure and highest cumulative dose showed increased risk. No clear evidence yet.
Cancer
Scientists Make Progress in Understanding Ovarian Cancer Risk
Analyzing DNA from more than 10,000 women with ovarian cancer and 13,000 without, researchers report in Nature Genetics five genetic variants tied to ovarian cancer risk, on chromosomes 2, 3, 8, 17 and 19. Four of the five were more common in women with serous ovarian cancer.
Cancer
Thyroid, Kidney Cancers May Share Treatment
Keith Bible's phase II trial found Votrient shrank tumours in about 49 percent of patients with radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer, with a 66 percent chance of lasting a year. Side effects were common and any survival benefit remains unclear.
Cancer
Childhood Cancer: Where are the Headlines?
Cancer kills more US children under 14 than any other disease. Over 12,400 are diagnosed each year and about 4,000 die, 11 a day. The piece describes what treatment costs families and siblings, and suggests practical help neighbours can offer.
Government
Experts Straddle the Fence Regarding Meridia
An FDA advisory panel split on the diet drug Meridia: eight of its 16 members urged pulling it from the US market over heart attack and stroke risk, six backed restricted sales with stronger warnings, and two thought added warnings and patient monitoring were enough.
Healthcare
Pregnancy Related Deaths Declining Globally
A report from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank finds maternal deaths fell 34 percent, from about 546,000 in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008. The 2.3 percent annual decline falls short of the 5.5 percent needed to meet the Millennium Development Goal by 2015.
Cancer
Please Help CHOP Childhood Cancer
About 11,000 US children will be diagnosed with cancer this year and more than 1,300 will die, making it the second leading cause of death in children. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia marks the awareness month by sharing patients' stories, including Tara Stout's.
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