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Drug

Prescription drugs, vaccines and their risks and benefits.

Drug

Roche’s weekly diabetes medicine as effective as Lantus

Roche's weekly injection taspoglutide matched Sanofi-Aventis's daily Lantus at controlling blood sugar in a phase III trial and beat placebo in overweight patients in phase II, Reuters reported. It was well tolerated, with nausea and vomiting most common; carcinogenicity data are still pending.

Drug

Vicks Dayquil announces recall

Procter & Gamble recalled about 700,000 Vicks DayQuil Cold & Flu 24-count bonus packs because the acetaminophen liquicaps were not in child-resistant packaging and lacked the warning the Poison Prevention Packaging Act requires. No accidental ingestions have been reported.

Dec 19, 2009

Drug

Breast cancer may be diagnosed without biopsies

In mice, PET scans using 64Cu-TP3805 detected all eight malignant tumours by targeting the VPAC1 biomarker, while standard 18F-FDG scans found four; two benign tumours went undetected. Mathew Thakur says the approach would still need to hold up in humans.

Dec 17, 2009

Drug

Heart drugs show promise for fighting colon cancer (PR)

Swedish scientists report in the Journal of Natural Products that cardiac glycosides, plant-derived drugs used for heart failure and abnormal rhythms, show early promise against colon cancer, an effect researchers had barely tested until now.

Dec 16, 2009

Drug

Bone Drug/Cancer News Highlights Women's Risky Therapy Choices

Martha Rosenberg traces four decades of menopause drugs whose fixes brought new cancer risks, from Premarin to Prempro to SERMs, and asks why women should trust news that bisphosphonate bone drugs came with 31 percent less invasive breast cancer after seven years.

Dec 16, 2009

Drug

Some basics about radiation and cancer

A primer on radiation risk: ionizing radiation from X-rays and CT scans is a recognised carcinogen, damage accumulates over the years, and no dose is definitively safe, though exposure does not mean cancer will follow. One chest X-ray delivers 30 to 50 MREM, background about 300 a year.

Dec 14, 2009

Drug

CT scans cause cancer - studies

Two Archives of Internal Medicine studies estimate the cancer cost of CT radiation. One puts the risk at one in 270 women scanned by heart CT at age 40; the other models roughly 29,000 future cancers from scans done in 2007, about 14,000 from abdomen and pelvis scans.

Dec 14, 2009

Drug

Chemo plus herceptin boost breast cancer survival

Mayo Clinic's Edith Perez reported the full results of the N9831 trial in about 2,000 women with HER2-positive breast cancer. Five-year disease-free survival reached 72 percent with chemotherapy alone and 80 percent when herceptin followed chemotherapy.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

H1N1 vaccine available to all Illinoisans Dec 15

Illinois will open H1N1 vaccination to all residents from December 15, with retail pharmacies, local health departments and physicians offering it no later than December 21. Priority groups are urged to go first. Pharmacies may charge $12 to $22; health departments vaccinate the uninsured free.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

New drug shrinks breast cancer

At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, researchers reported the antibody drug T-DM1 shrank tumors by 30 percent or more in 40 percent of women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer resistant to standard therapy, with median time to progression of 7.3 months and no survival comparison.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

Combo treatment better for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer

In a phase III trial of 296 patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, average overall survival reached 60.7 weeks on lapatinib plus trastuzumab against 41.4 weeks on lapatinib alone. Neither regimen stopped the cancer spreading.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

Osteoporosis drugs may reduce breast cancer risk, and other breast cancer news

Two studies at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium linked bisphosphonates to lower breast cancer rates: 3.3 versus 4.4 percent in Women's Health Initiative data, and 30 percent lower after five years' use among Israeli women. A third found high BMI predicted worse survival.

Dec 10, 2009

Drug

Batch of H1N1 Vaccine Pulled Due to Severe Allergic Reactions

Dr. Mercola reports that GlaxoSmithKline asked Canadian officials to hold back one 172,000-dose lot of its Arepanrix H1N1 vaccine while it investigates anaphylaxis reported in about one of 20,000 recipients, against a usual rate of one in 100,000.

Dec 10, 2009

Drug

Most Britons Reject Swine Flu Vaccine

A survey of more than 100 British family doctors found only about 46 percent of patients offered the H1N1 vaccine accepted it, with pregnant women the hardest to persuade. Patients cited fear of side effects and a virus milder than first feared.

Dec 8, 2009

Drug

FDA: Excess Exposure to Radiation from CT Brain Perfusion Scans

The FDA has identified at least 50 more patients exposed to up to eight times the expected radiation during CT perfusion scans, involving more than one scanner maker, with some reporting hair loss or skin redness. It asks facilities to review dosing protocols and check display panels before scans.

Dec 7, 2009

Drug

Drug Makers Come up With Plan to Curb Painkiller Abuse

Makers of morphine, oxycodone and methadone have drawn up a plan for the FDA to curb abuse of extended-release painkillers, which abusers chew for an immediate high. The piece also notes the agency's separate worry about Tylenol poisoning from combination products.

Dec 6, 2009

Drug

Swine flu vaccine safety

CDC reviewed 3,783 VAERS reports and records for 438,376 people vaccinated in the Vaccine Safety Datalink over the first two months. H1N1 vaccines drew 82 adverse event reports per million doses distributed against 47 for seasonal flu vaccine, with no difference in serious events.

Dec 5, 2009

Drug

FDA alerts doctors to adverse effects of diclofenac sodium

Endo, Novartis and the FDA told clinicians that diclofenac sodium labeling now carries stronger hepatic warnings after postmarketing reports of liver necrosis, jaundice, fulminant hepatitis and liver failure, some fatal. Check transaminases 4 to 8 weeks after starting.

Dec 5, 2009

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