Nutritionists were also quick to point out that this study shouldn’t undermine the importance of calcium and vitamin D in bone health.
“It doesn’t replace calcium and vitamin D in the diet, however,” says Keith-Thomas Ayoob, a dietician and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “But including all three, and regular exercise, are showing promise as the best way to ensure good bone health.
“I was brought up on a high-olive oil
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That's because once most people have a single occurrence, they are at risk of getting another.
"Basal cell carcinoma has generally been viewed as something that comes up, is treated and cured," said Dr. Martin Weinstock, a study co-author and professor of dermatology at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Providence, R.I. "For someone with an isolated lesion, that's a reasonable way of looking at it. But most people are constantly at risk of this and will be getting more."
The study confirmed what was commonly understood about the disease: a prior history of basal cell carcinoma is the greatest risk for another lesion. But the research found that eczema may also predict a recurrence among those at high risk for the disease. Those with a family history of eczema had a 1.54 times greater risk than those without.
Older age, sun sensitivity, intense sun exposure before age 30, and use of certain blood pressure-lowering medications (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers) were also associated with increased risk.
Why would eczema, a chronic skin disorder that involves scaly and itchy rashes, be associated with basal cell carcinoma? Weinstock said it's unclear. "There may be some differences in these people's immune systems compared to people without eczema," he said, noting that other investigators need to confirm the findings.
Having other types of skin cancer or actinic keratoses (scaly or crusty growths caused by sun damage) did not appear to raise the chances for basal cell carcinoma.
The study was published online July 19 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It involved more than 1,100 people, nearly all men, all veterans, with a median age of 72.
On average, each participant had more than three instances of basal cell cancer or squamous cell cancer (another type of skin cancer) before participating in the research. During the study period, 44 percent developed new basal cell cancers, and those with the most basal cell cancers in the five years before the study had the most recurrences.
Study participants with more than five prior basal cell cancers were nearly four times as likely to develop a new one as those with one or no prior skin cancers. And their risk was twice as high as those with three previous skin cancers, the study found.
Now the most common cancer in the United States, basal cell carcinoma begins in the outer layer of the skin, often as a small white or flesh-colored bump that grows slowly and sometimes bleeds. While these cancers rarely spread, they must be removed or treated, usually in a physician's office with local anesthetic.
Weinstock said researchers are eager to find a preventive medication to guard against the recurrence of basal cell carcinoma. Last year a team he led concluded that topical tretinoin did not prevent new basal cell cancers in high-risk patients. Now he is involved in a study looking at whether 5-Fluorouracil, a compound used to treat actinic keratoses, may prevent basal cell cancer when given intravenously.
Dr. Jean Tang, an assistant professor in the department of dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine who is familiar with the study, said the most important thing for patients to know is that if you have had a basal cell carcinoma, you have a 44 percent chance of getting another.
"This study doesn't change any clinical guidelines or recommendations," she added. Current advice still stands: "Get an annual skin assessment by your dermatologist," she said.
More information
To learn more about skin cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
"It has long been known that parent and child activity levels are correlated," study author Kristen Holm, an assistant professor of medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver, said in a news release. "
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While both a positive HPV test and an abnormal result on a traditional Pap smear predicted which women would get precancerous lesions within two years of testing, the HPV test continued to predict which women were at risk for 10 to 18 years later, said study co-author Dr. Attila Lorincz, a professor of molecular epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London.
"HPV DNA testing detects more cervical precancers than the Pap test, and women who are negative for high-risk HPV DNA have improved protection from the risk of cervical cancer," Lorincz said.
The study, which looked at nearly 20,000 women receiving routine Pap tests and HPV testing at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Ore., is published in the July 30 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The research does not suggest one test should replace the other, Lorincz stressed, but confirms the importance of both screenings. The main aims of the study, he said, "were to see how many extra cases of precancer can be discovered by the additional use of HPV DNA testing as compared to routine Pap testing."
The findings, he said, support recently revised guidelines suggesting that HPV testing, if negative, can allow for longer intervals between Pap testing for women over the age of 30. The findings also suggest that an alternate strategy, using HPV testing first, may work well, the researchers said.
According to American Cancer Society guidelines, the preferred screening for healthy women aged 30 to 65 is to do a Pap and HPV test every five years. Women under 30 are often infected with HPV, but clear it spontaneously. That is why the guidelines for the roles of HPV and Pap testing combined are for women aged 30 and older.
As more research is done, guidelines may change, said study co-author Dr. Andrew Glass, senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. "It is likely that HPV testing will be more and more common and may in the future replace routine Pap testing," he said.
Both the Pap test and the HPV test are done on samples of cells taken from the cervix. The Pap detects cell changes on the cervix that could become cancer if not treated appropriately.
HPV tests look for DNA, or genetic material, of the virus that can lead to precancerous changes.
In the study, women over 30 with a positive HPV at the start were more likely to have a precancer or cancer during the 10- to 18-year follow-up than those who had an abnormal Pap.
Women who tested positive for the two strains of HPV most strongly linked with cervical cancer were more likely to have precancer during the follow-up than HPV-negative women, regardless of their initial Pap test result.
Having a negative HPV more strongly predicted who would remain cancer-free than the Pap did, the investigators found.
The researchers also looked at the effect of lengthening the screening interval from three years to five in women over 30 who had negative HPV and normal Pap tests. Doing this did not increase the risk of precancer and cancers appreciably.
Both tests are commonly covered by insurance plans, sometimes requiring a co-payment. The typical cost for each test is about $40 to $70, according to Lorincz.
The study finding "confirms the fact that you don't have to do a Pap smear every year in healthy women over 30," said Dr. Mark Wakabayashi, director of the division of gynecologic oncology at the City of Hope, in Duarte, Calif.
However, he stressed the importance of checking in with a doctor. "But you have to talk to someone who understands who does need a yearly Pap," he said. "This
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The link may be attributed to abnormal stress hormone regulation and inflammatory gene expression, researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the Aug. 1 edition of PLoS ONE.
"Our findings, and those of others, suggest that mental health and social well-being can affect biological processes, which influence cancer-related outcomes," Lorenzo Cohen, a professor in the center's departments of general oncology and behavioral science, and director of the Integrative Medicine Program, said in a university news release.
The findings "also suggest that screening for mental health should be part of standard care because there are well-accepted ways of helping people manage distress, even in the face of a life-threatening illness," Cohen added.
In conducting the study, the researchers analyzed surveys completed over a five-year period by 217 patients newly diagnosed with kidney cancer that had spread. The participants answered questions about how religious and spiritual they were. They were also asked about their symptoms of depression, social support, quality of life and coping skills.
The patients also provided blood samples as well as five saliva samples daily for three days. The researchers used the saliva samples to track changes in the patients' levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that is usually high in the morning before dropping throughout the day.
At the time of the analysis, 64 percent of the patients had died. The average amount of time these patients survived after being diagnosed was 1.8 years.
Overall, the study revealed that 23 percent of patients were clinically depressed. Even after taking other disease-related risk factors into account, the investigators noted that depression was associated with shorter survival time. Moreover, the study showed that higher than usual cortisol levels throughout the day were also linked to shorter survival among the cancer patients.
Using tissue samples from 15 of the patients with the most significant symptoms of depression and 15 samples from the patients with the mildest forms of depression, the researchers then conducted whole-genome profiling to determine if the depression is linked to increased risk of death for cancer patients.
They found specific signaling pathways, which play a key role in regulating cell inflammation, were expressed at increased levels in patients with depression. The study authors concluded the link between patients' mental health and survival time is associated with inflammatory gene regulation.
"Our findings indicate that we're now able to understand some of the possible biological pathways that explain the association between depression and survival," Cohen noted.
The researchers noted that the study was limited by the fact that it's difficult to determine if patients' stress or symptoms of depression are influenced by other factors or were present before their cancer diagnosis. While the study uncovered an association between depression and cancer survival, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
More research is needed to investigate if the treatment of depression can improve survival time among cancer patients with mild, moderate or severe mood disorders, the authors added.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancer and depression.
Traveling to the Peruvian Amazon, where outbreaks of rabies infections are spurred by highly common vampire bats, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention learned that 10 percent of natives appeared to have survived exposure to the virus without any medical intervention. Another 11 percent were found to have antibodies in their blood that would neutralize rabies.
"This is a potential game-changer if the study is repeated successfully," said Dr. Rodney Willoughby Jr., a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the author of an editorial accompanying the research. "It suggests either that rabies is not universally severe or fatal
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According to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, workers with paid sick leave are 28 percent less likely to suffer nonfatal work-related injuries.
In addition, the researchers noted that those with jobs in high-risk industries, such as construction, manufacturing and health care, who often suffer from pain, sprains, fractures and chronic injuries, gain the most from this benefit.
"This study highlights how our work lives and our personal health are intertwined," the institute's director, Dr. John Howard, said in a CDC news release. "This concept of total worker health, which involves creating an environment of well-being both at home and at work, is an important aspect of the American economy, as we depend on able and productive workers."
In conducting the study, the researchers examined national survey data collected between 2005 and 2008 on 38,000 workers in the private sector. The investigators found that health care workers and technicians who did not have paid sick leave were 18 percent more likely to suffer a nonfatal work-related injury than their peers with similar jobs who did have access to paid sick leave.
The study also found that construction workers without paid sick leave were 21 percent more likely to sustain a nonfatal work-related injury than construction workers who did have this benefit.
If sick or stressed workers are not able to take time off from work, they may be at greater risk for injuries, the study authors warned. Previous studies have reported that sleep deprivation, fatigue and certain medications may contribute to nonfatal workplace injuries, they added.
"Many workers may feel pressured to work while they are sick, out of fear of losing their income," the study's lead researcher, Abay Asfaw, said in the news release. "If fewer people work while they are sick, this could lead to safer operations and fewer injuries in the workplace."
The study authors also pointed out that their findings support previous research that found that access to paid sick leave is associated with shorter recovery times and fewer complications from minor health problems. In addition, paid sick leave for workers could reduce the risk of spreading illnesses, particularly in day-care facilities and schools, the researchers noted.
In the United States, employers have the option to provide their workers with paid sick leave, but it's not required. The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act mandates public- and private-sector companies to provide up to 12 weeks of leave to eligible workers, but it doesn't have to be paid leave, the authors explained in the release. In 2010, only 40 million private-sector employees in the United States had access to paid sick leave.
More research is needed to better understand how paid sick leave could benefit communities and prevent the spread of disease, the study authors concluded.
The study was released online in advance of print publication in the American Journal of Public Health.
More information
The U.S. Department of Labor has more about sick leave.
Researchers measured the sleep patterns of 125 adults who received the three-shot course of the vaccine to protect against hepatitis B. The immune systems of participants who slept less produced fewer antibodies in response to the vaccine and blood tests showed that they did not meet the standard of protection from the virus.
People who slept less than six hours per night were nearly 12 times more likely to be left unprotected by the vaccine than those who slept more than seven hours per night.
Only the amount of sleep, not the quality of sleep, affected the amount of antibodies produced in response to the vaccine.
"Given that more and more Americans are grappling with chronic sleep deprivation, these findings should be a wake-up call to the public health community about the clear connection between sleep and health," study author Aric Prather, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of California, both at Berkeley and San Francisco, said in a foundation news release.
The study, published in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep, is the first outside a sleep laboratory to confirm that the amount of sleep people get affects how they respond to vaccinations, according to Prather.
"Based on our findings and laboratory evidence, physicians and other health professionals who are administering vaccines may want to consider asking their patients about their sleep patterns first, since a lack of sleep may affect the efficacy of the vaccine," Prather said.
Adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
While the study found an association between sleep and vaccine effectiveness, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about adults and vaccinations.
And the greater the level of psychological distress, the higher the odds of death from heart disease, the researchers say.
"The fact that an increased risk of mortality was evident, even at low levels of psychological distress, should prompt research into whether treatment of these very common, minor symptoms can reduce this increased risk of death," said lead researcher Tom Russ, a clinical research fellow at the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Center of the University of Edinburgh.
For the study, published online July 31 in BMJ, Russ and colleagues analyzed 10 studies of men and women enrolled in the Health Survey for England from 1994 to 2004. Data on more than 68,000 adults aged 35 and older was included overall.
Each study looked for connections between chronic psychological distress and the risk of dying from heart disease and other causes, including cancer.
Pooling data in this way is called a meta-analysis. In such a study, researchers look for common patterns across several studies.
Over eight years' follow-up, the researchers found even very mild depression or anxiety -- subclinical levels -- raised the risk of all-cause death, including cardiovascular disease, by 20 percent. Looking specifically at death from heart disease, mild psychological distress raised this risk 29 percent, the study found.
For the highest level of depression or anxiety, the risk of all-cause death rose 94 percent, the researchers found.
Risk of death from cancer was increased 9 percent in cases of very severe depression or anxiety, the investigators found. Lower levels of psychological distress were not associated with increased risk of cancer death.
An individual's actual risk of death remains small, however, and people shouldn't assume they are doomed to an early death if they suffer from a psychological disorder.
Dr. Glyn Lewis, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the University of Bristol in England and author of an accompanying journal editorial, said evidence linking stress to heart disease continues to mount.
"If we can reduce the psychological impact, then this should reduce the biological response," he said. But how to accomplish that remains a puzzle.
A type of psychological treatment called cognitive behavioral therapy is designed to help people change the way they respond to potentially stressful events, Lewis said. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches patients to change their thinking about situations and to react less emotionally.
"This might help people with
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The finding, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, could have real implications for the U.S. obesity epidemic, the researchers said.
"If people aren't in touch with their weight and changes in their weight over time, they might not be motivated to lose weight," the study's lead author, Catherine Wetmore, said in an institute news release. The study was based on national survey data involving 775,000 American adults from 2008 and 2009
Wetmore's team note that many adults thought they had actually lost weight when they hadn't. That's important to note, Wetmore said, because data that underestimate the growing obesity epidemic could have serious public health consequences.
For example, she said, "if we had relied on the reported data about weight change between 2008 and 2009, we would have undercounted approximately 4.4 million obese adults in the U.S."
A nutritionist familiar with the findings said she wasn't surprised.
"I see this in clinic every single day; people think they are a certain weight, and they are totally wrong. There is a disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to weight," said Karen Congro, nutritionist and director of the Wellness for Life Program at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, New York City.
"When it comes to weight, there is a lot of magical thinking going on," she said.
In the surveys used in the study, participants were asked about their weight at the time of the survey, as well as how much they weighed one year ago.
The researchers report that, on average, American adults gained weight in 2008. However, even though the average reported weights rose between the two surveys, Americans polled typically thought they had lost weight in the past year.
Since the prevalence of obesity actually increased slightly between 2008 and 2009 (from 26 to 26.5 percent) and the average weight increased by about 1 pound, the researchers concluded that those surveyed were unclear about the change in their weight over the course of the year.
"We all know on some level that people can be dishonest about their weight," IHME professor Ali Mokdad said in the news release. "But now we know that they can be misreporting annual changes in their weight, to the extent of more than 2 pounds per year among adults over the age of 50, or more than 4 pounds per year among those with diabetes. On average, American adults were off by about a pound, which, over time, can really add up and have a significant health impact."
The researchers noted that women seemed more aware of fluctuations in their weight than men. Younger people were also better at judging fluctuations in their weight compared to older Americans.
The study's authors pointed out that not all participants thought they lost weight. They added that certain groups were more likely to report unintentional weight gain, including people under 40 years of age, smokers, minorities, and people with sedentary lifestyles and/or less-than-ideal diets.
Another nutritionist said Americans underestimate the amount of calories they take in, as well.
"We live in a toxic environment with a plethora of food choices that are high in simple sugars and carbohydrates," said Sharon Zarabi, nutritionist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City."The average person usually underestimates their caloric intake due to the fact that our super size portions have become acceptable. Want to grab a 32-ounce soda at the movie theater with you medium-sized popcorn? Right there you just added almost 900 empty calories."
She added that, "many people are in denial about their weight and as obesity rates rise, larger body frames are becoming more socially acceptable. Citizens are taking less personal responsibility and use the excuse of work hours, stress, and food availability as obstacles to managing their health."
Wetmore agreed that Americans have to get more in tune with what they actually weigh.
"It's very popular right now to talk about the underlying environmental causes of obesity, whether it's too much fast food or not enough parks," said Wetmore, who is a former postgraduate fellow at IHME and now a biostatistician at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "While we know that the environment definitely plays a role, these results show that we need to do a better job helping people to be aware of what's going on with their own bodies."
The study was published in the August issue of Preventive Medicine.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides statistics on adult obesity.
The drugs -- anastrozole (Arimidex) and fulvestrant (Faslodex) -- are currently used individually to treat breast cancer, said researcher Dr. Rita Mehta, an associate professor of health sciences at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine.
For the study, published Aug. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine, about 700 postmenopausal women were assigned to Arimidex alone or to both drugs. Mehta looked at whether the combination improved their survival, and whether the cancer spread or not, which is termed progression-free survival.
"With the combination, there is a 20 percent improvement in progression-free survival and a 19 percent improvement in overall survival," Mehta said.
Put another way, those getting the combined treatment gained six months. They lived a median of 47.7 months (half lived longer, half less) while the solo-drug patients lived a median of 41.3 months.
The disease took 15 months to progress in the patients on both drugs, but just 13.5 on the solo drugs. Forty-one percent of the women taking Arimidex whose disease progressed later switched to Faslodex, which led the researchers to conclude that simultaneous treatment rather than sequential treatment brought about the benefits.
While other serious side effects were similar in both groups, three women in the combination-drug group died, which was possibly associated with the treatment.
The five-year study was supported by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, which makes both drugs.
All the women had hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, which requires estrogen to grow and accounts for more than 50 percent of all cases of breast cancer.
Arimidex, which is given orally, works by reducing the amount of estrogen the body makes. Faslodex -- an injectable drug -- blocks the action of estrogen on cancer cells.
Previous studies of combination hormonal therapy have been unsuccessful, Mehta said. But she decided to look at this pair because of the complementary way in which these two drugs work.
The findings are solid, said Dr. Joanne Mortimer, director of the Women's Cancer Program at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Duarte, Calif.
Although the study had drug company support, the company did not have input in conducting the study, she noted.
While the improvement in progression-free survival, 1.5 months, may not seem notable, the difference in overall survival is impressive, she said.
"Much more important to the patients is if they live longer," she said. ''Survival is the gold standard."
Adding Faslodex to Arimidex treatment would tack on about $700 a month, experts said. However, as both drugs are FDA-approved, insurance plans may cover the regimen. The dose of Faslodex used in this trial was less than the standard dose.
Several other regimens to help women with this form of breast cancer are under study, too, Mortimer said. "We are not sure how this
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Drinks such as Red Bull & vodka, and Jagerbombs (energy drinks combined with a shot of Jagermeister), rank among the best-selling mixed drinks in bars and clubs serving college-age adults, according to background information in the report.
The study, published online in the Journal of Caffeine Research, included about 650 students at a large public university. Their ages ranged from 18 to 40, but more than 60 percent of them were younger than 21.
The University at Buffalo researchers found that more than 29 percent of the sexually active participants said they had consumed alcohol mixed with energy drinks in the previous month.
During their most recent sexual encounter, about 45 percent of the participants had a casual partner, 25 percent were drunk, and 44 percent said they did not use a condom. Those who reported drinking alcohol mixed with energy drinks were more likely to have casual sex and/or to be drunk during their most recent sexual encounter.
However, students who drank alcohol mixed with energy drinks were no less likely than nondrinkers to have used a condom during their most recent sexual encounter.
The findings suggest that alcohol/energy drink mixes may play a role in the "hook-up culture" that exists on many college campuses, according to study author Kathleen E. Miller, a senior research scientist at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions, in Buffalo, N.Y.
She noted that having casual sex or sex while intoxicated can lead to problems such as unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual assault and depression. Previous research has linked energy drinks with dangerous behaviors such as impaired driving, binge drinking and fighting.
"Mixing energy drinks with alcohol can lead to unintentional overdrinking, because the caffeine makes it harder to assess your own level of intoxication," Miller said in a university news release.
She noted that energy drinks mixed with alcohol "have stronger priming effects than alcohol alone. In other words, they increase the craving for another drink, so that you end up drinking more overall."
The research doesn't prove that drinking energy drinks with alcohol causes drunkenness and promiscuity, Miller said. But she hopes the findings lead to safety legislation or educational campaigns.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about caffeinated alcoholic beverages.
Testing, on the other hand, might keep some 17,000 men each year from receiving a diagnosis of late-stage prostate cancer -- cancer that has spread and is far less curable -- the study finds.
"PSA testing, for all its pluses and minuses and all that . . . permits you to catch the disease earlier," said lead researcher Dr. Edward Messing, chair of urology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y.
"These people are all going to die, they are going to die incredibly expensively and die miserably," he said, referring to the many men whose diagnoses would be delayed by not testing. "I don't know that all these people could be saved with PSA testing," but many could, he added.
The report was published online July 30 in the journal Cancer.
Messing said the annual number of prostate cancer deaths dropped from about 42,000 in the 1990s to 28,000 now. "The only thing that can explain that is PSA early detection and treatment," he said.
Many cases of prostate cancer are not life-threatening, which is why testing is controversial. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in May recommended against routine PSA screening, saying too many non-lethal cancers were being treated aggressively, exposing men who didn't need treatment to serious side effects such as impotence and urinary incontinence.
But Messing disagreed with that advice. Condemning PSA testing "wasn't a brilliant conclusion," he said.
For the new study, Messing's team compared information from the U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database for the years 1983 to 1985 -- immediately before widespread PSA testing started --- to data from 2006 through 2008.
In the 2008 data, 8,000 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed after the malignancy had spread to other parts of the body.
Using these cases as a base, the researchers constructed a model that used data of advanced cancer diagnosed in the 1980s and predicted how many cases of advanced cancer would have been diagnosed in 2008 if PSA testing was not done.
Their model showed instead of 8,000 actual cases in 2008, about 25,000 cases would have been diagnosed.
But the USPSTF maintains the benefits of testing are overrated. "The task force recommends against prostate cancer screening using the PSA test, as the potential benefit does not outweigh the harms," said Dr. Michael LeFevre, co-vice chair of the task force and professor in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
As a result of treatments for PSA-detected prostate cancer, one out of 1,000 men screened in the United States develops a blood clot in his legs or lungs, two will have a heart attack or stroke, and up to 40 are left impotent or with urinary incontinence, LeFevre said.
"At best, only one of these 1,000 men who were screened avoids dying from prostate cancer for at least 10 years," LeFevre said. "In addition, about one in every 3,000 men screened dies as a result of surgery to treat cancer detected by the PSA test."
Still, the task force recognizes that "some men may continue requesting the PSA test and some physicians may continue offering it," LeFevre said.
Before getting this blood test -- which measures a protein in cells of the prostate gland -- men should learn about the pros and cons, he said. "The decision to start or continue screening should reflect an understanding of the possible benefits and known harms, and should respect each individual's preferences."
Messing advises men with a family history of prostate cancer or urinary symptoms to have a PSA test. Men with no family history or symptoms should discuss PSA testing with their doctor, he added.
Messing pointed out that screening-detected cancer doesn't mean surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment must follow. Most cases can be watched for some time, he said.
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said over the past few years a number of studies have been published on the benefits and harms of PSA testing.
"None of these studies can be considered decisive other than in proving that there are some harms associated with treatment," he said. The American Cancer Society still supports screening for certain men in consultation with a physician.
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States. In 2012, more than 240,000 new cases are expected to be diagnosed, and 28,000 men will die from the disease, researchers say.
More information
For more information on prostate cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell and are a key part of the immune system.
The U.S. researchers suspect that bone marrow transplantation along with continuation of antiretroviral therapy resulted in the dramatic effects evident eight months post-transplant. They are scheduled to present these preliminary findings Thursday at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.
HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy often achieve "undetectable viral loads," meaning there are no virus particles in their blood. But they still have latent HIV in their lymphocytes, and if antiretroviral therapy were discontinued, the latent HIV could reactivate.
But having no traces of HIV in these white blood cells is an indication that this "reservoir" of latent HIV may have been eliminated, the researchers believe.
At this point, they are far from saying these patients are cured. But the findings are "exciting," said Dr. Savita Pahwa, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who was not involved with the study.
"Every hint you get that it's possible to wipe out the reservoir needs to be investigated," she said.
"Eliminating the reservoir is the key to the cure," said Pahwa. She also stressed that it would only be possible to say these patients were "functionally cured" if the virus did not rebound when the patients went off antiretroviral therapy.
The two men whose cases are described in the paper underwent chemotherapy for blood cancers before receiving stem cell transplants. One had his transplant two years ago; the other, four years ago. Both also developed graft-versus-host disease (when transplanted cells attack the host cells) and continued with their antiretroviral medications throughout and after the transplant procedures.
Any of these factors could theoretically explain their HIV-free status, but the bone marrow transplantation combined with antiretroviral therapy seems the most likely explanation, said the study authors.
"We believe the transplanted cells killed off and replaced all of the patients' own lymphocytes, including the infected cells, and the donor cells were protected from becoming infected themselves by the antiretroviral therapy they were taking throughout the transplant period," said study senior author Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Graft-versus-host disease also probably played a role, he said. "The replacement of host cells by donor cells is itself a form of graft-versus-host reaction," Kuritzkes explained.
But the only way to verify that the transplant plus antiretroviral therapy can eradicate HIV is to take the patients off their medication regimens.
That would be the "next logical step," said Kuritzkes, adding that this would require patient consent and adherence to ethics protocols.
But even if the transplant procedure were found to eliminate the reservoir of latent HIV cells, bone marrow transplantation is a very risky procedure. Kuritzkes said he does not "foresee bone marrow transplantation being performed on otherwise healthy HIV-infected patients who are doing well on
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Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell and are a key part of the immune system.
The U.S. researchers suspect that bone marrow transplantation along with continuation of antiretroviral therapy resulted in the dramatic effects evident eight months post-transplant. They are scheduled to present these preliminary findings Thursday at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.
HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy often achieve "undetectable viral loads," meaning there are no virus particles in their blood. But they still have latent HIV in their lymphocytes, and if antiretroviral therapy were discontinued, the latent HIV could reactivate.
But having no traces of HIV in these white blood cells is an indication that this "reservoir" of latent HIV may have been eliminated, the researchers believe.
At this point, they are far from saying these patients are cured. But the findings are "exciting," said Dr. Savita Pahwa, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who was not involved with the study.
"Every hint you get that it's possible to wipe out the reservoir needs to be investigated," she said.
"Eliminating the reservoir is the key to the cure," said Pahwa. She also stressed that it would only be possible to say these patients were "functionally cured" if the virus did not rebound when the patients went off antiretroviral therapy.
The two men whose cases are described in the paper underwent chemotherapy for blood cancers before receiving stem cell transplants. One had his transplant two years ago; the other, four years ago. Both also developed graft-versus-host disease (when transplanted cells attack the host cells) and continued with their antiretroviral medications throughout and after the transplant procedures.
Any of these factors could theoretically explain their HIV-free status, but the bone marrow transplantation combined with antiretroviral therapy seems the most likely explanation, said the study authors.
"We believe the transplanted cells killed off and replaced all of the patients' own lymphocytes, including the infected cells, and the donor cells were protected from becoming infected themselves by the antiretroviral therapy they were taking throughout the transplant period," said study senior author Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Graft-versus-host disease also probably played a role, he said. "The replacement of host cells by donor cells is itself a form of graft-versus-host reaction," Kuritzkes explained.
But the only way to verify that the transplant plus antiretroviral therapy can eradicate HIV is to take the patients off their medication regimens.
That would be the "next logical step," said Kuritzkes, adding that this would require patient consent and adherence to ethics protocols.
But even if the transplant procedure were found to eliminate the reservoir of latent HIV cells, bone marrow transplantation is a very risky procedure. Kuritzkes said he does not "foresee bone marrow transplantation being performed on otherwise healthy HIV-infected patients who are doing well on
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The drug, called JD5037, increases sensitivity to the hormone leptin, a natural appetite suppressant found in the body, according to a study in the July 26 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.
"By sensitizing the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not only promote weight loss, but also help maintain it," senior study author George Kunos, of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said in a journal news release. "This finding bodes well for the development of a new class of compounds for the treatment of obesity and its metabolic consequences."
Leptin supplements alone are not effective at helping people lose excess weight, according to the release. It's believed that this is due to desensitization to leptin, which means that the body can no longer respond to leptin.
In this study, the researchers found that JD5037 suppressed the appetite of obese mice and led to weight loss, in part by resensitizing the mice to leptin.
Scientists note, however, that research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.
"Obesity is a growing public health problem, and there is a strong need for new types of medications to treat obesity and its serious metabolic complications, including diabetes and fatty liver disease," Kunos said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases offers tips on safe and effective weight-loss programs.
