Study: hormone replacement may prevent colon cancer
Submitted by admin on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 11:15Hormone replacement is a difficult and emotional subject, and researchers have made it more complex with findings that women who took hormone replacement were about 1/3 less likely to develop colon cancer.
This was a large observational study, meaning they weren't specifically looking to find such an association. Still, I always look at the magnitude of benefit and the statistics. As a friend once said, I like to see the p-value.
Beer in osteoporosis, Parkinson's and TCE, and Pepsi and pancreatic cancer - all on the same day!
Submitted by admin on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 10:371 - Soft drinks and pancreatic cancer: "87%" increased risk, which sounds like a lot, but it means multiplying a thankfully low number by 1.87: not a huge risk increase, but across the population may be accounting for hundreds of cases given the ubiquity of soft drink consumption.
Bioethics paper: industry "buries" unfavorable studies
Submitted by admin on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 10:23The always outstanding Carlat blog has a nice item this morning about the lengths pharmaceutical companies will go to in order to bury unfavorable results.
I used to enjoy playing "Devil's Advocate" with the drug reps, arguing points with them. I now realize that, as they say, the reps are always the last to know, and they just will say what they have been trained to say. Then they get laid off. It must be a tough job.
Illinois Supreme Court Reverses Tort Reform
Submitted by MKirschMD on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 12:18You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.
With the stroke of 4 pens, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed a 2005 tort reform law. This reversal is a welcome mat for more medical malpractice cases and defensive medicine.
Fat as a source of blood production
Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 16:11"Adipose tissue is an extramedullary reservoir for functional hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells." Got that? No? Here's the simple translation: we now think blood can be made in the fat tissue, not just the bone marrow.
This is just coming out in Blood, a journal I keep up with as a hematologist.
For a blood doctor, this news is fairly mindblowing. We in hematology have this dogma that the blood is made in the marrow, and the presence of "functional hematopoietic stem cells" in the fat implies that at least some of the blood is made in adipose tissue.
2009 US healthcare spending: $2.4 trillion
Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 11:05
WSJ today has the 2009 number on healthcare expenditures in the US: $2.4 trillion. They check it in t
Dogs, cats, and medical oncology
Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 00:27You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.
Whether you're a cat lover or a dog person, you may be interested to learn what our furry friends have been teaching us in oncology. We catch up with the hospice cat, and check in with the cancer sniffing dog.
Gingko risk of seizures discussed in British media
Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 14:24
Covering the story was the excellent British site, NHS Behind the Headlines. The story was reported on BBC, and follows a »
Herbal Remedies May Be Risky With Heart Drugs
Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 08:35Coming as little surprise, herbal remedies may interact with cardiac medicines. The WebMD article draws needed attention to an area that is not often mentioned in the promotions of supplement manufacturers.
Some specific examples they cited included:
