Health

Global cancer survival up, but progress uneven: study

by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Cancer survival is increasing across the world but large gaps endure between nations, while some cancers remain hard to treat everywhere, according to a major review released Wednesday. The progress, and the gap, are especially large for childhood cancers, according to the CONCORD-3 study covering 71 nations and 18 types of cancer, published in the medical journal The Lancet. For children with brain tumors, for […]

Vaping may raise cancer risk: study

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Vaping may raise the risk of cancer because it leads to DNA damage, even though it contains fewer carcinogens than tobacco smoke, a US study has found. The report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences did not compare the cancer-causing potential of traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes. However, in studies on lab mice, those exposed to e-cigarette smoke “had higher levels of DNA damage in the heart, lungs, […]

‘Disturbingly high’ rates of diabetes in India: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — India is facing an epidemic of diabetes and high blood pressure, often called “silent killers” because they lead to heart disease, said a report Monday involving more than 1.3 million people. The rate of diabetes in India is over six percent, while around one quarter of people have high blood pressure, said the first nationally representative figures on the topic, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) […]

Heart attack risk rises 6x in week post-flu: study

by Marlowe Hood PARIS, France (AFP) — Just one cigarette a day carries nearly half the risk for heart attack and stroke as smoking a full pack of 20, according to a large-scale study published Thursday. “If someone smokes one cigarette instead of 20 per day, intuitively we’d think that the risk drops to 1/20, or five percent,” said lead author Allan Hackshaw, a professor at University College London, whose paper analysed 141 previous studies. […]

Vaping may be bad for kids, good for adults: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Vaping, or smoking battery powered devices known as e-cigarettes, may encourage youths to start smoking but may also help adults quit, said a US review of scientific research out Tuesday. The report by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is based on more than 800 peer-reviewed scientific studies on the health effects of electronic cigarettes. It was compiled at the request of the US Congress, amid a […]

Cancer blood test finds eight kinds of tumors: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A new blood test for cancer has shown promise toward detecting eight different kinds of tumors before they have spread elsewhere in the body, offering hope of early detection, researchers said Thursday. Further study is needed before the test — called CancerSEEK — can be made widely available for its projected cost of about $500, said the report in the journal Science. The study, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins […]

‘Mutant flu’ could lead to more effective vaccine: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Experiments in lab animals have shown signs of success for a newly engineered flu virus that may lead one day to a more effective vaccine, researchers said Thursday. Trials in humans are still a long way off, but the report in the US journal Science earned praise from experts who described it as a promising first step toward better prevention of the flu. The World Health Organization considers the flu […]

Breastfeeding for 6 months cuts diabetes risk in half: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Women who breastfeed their babies for six months or more may be able to cut their risk of developing diabetes in the future by nearly half, according to a study Tuesday. The findings from a three-decade US study of more than 1,200 white and African-American women were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine. “We found a very strong association between breastfeeding duration and lower […]

Suppressing a sneeze can be dangerous, doctors warn

PARIS, France (AFP) — Stifling a sneeze can rupture your throat, burst an ear drum, or pop a blood vessel in your brain, researchers warned Tuesday. Many people — when they feel a sneeze coming on — block all the exits, essentially swallowing the sneeze’s explosive force. Just how dangerous this can be was illustrated when a 34-year-old man showed up at the emergency service of a hospital in Leicester, England recently, with a swollen […]

Breast cancer gene does not boost risk of death: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — Young women with the BRCA gene mutation that prompted actress Angelina Jolie’s pre-emptive and much-publicized double mastectomy are not more likely to die after a breast cancer diagnosis, scientists said Friday. In fact, they may have a “survival advantage” over non-carriers if diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a form that is particularly hard to treat, a team wrote in the journal The Lancet Oncology. “Women diagnosed with early breast cancer who […]

Ingestible ‘mini pillbox’ releases weekly dose of HIV meds

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — An ingestible “mini pillbox” which releases a cocktail of HIV drugs in the stomach over several days is a potential step towards reducing the burden of daily pill-taking, scientists reported on Tuesday. Tested only in pigs so far, the tiny device is the latest attempt to make it easier for people on medication for chronic illnesses, including those infected with the AIDS-causing virus, to stick […]

Women who work nights face higher cancer risk: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Women who regularly work the night shift in Europe and North America may face a 19 percent higher risk of cancer than those who work during the day, said a study Monday. These heightened risks were not apparent among female night-shift workers in Australia and Asia, said the meta-analysis in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. “Our study indicates that night shift work serves as a risk factor for […]