1, August 2014

'Include men in breast cancer trials'

Men may find it hard to report anything in their breast, even if it is a lump, but the fact is breast cancer is not exclusive to women and though the proportion is small, men too can have it. 

Knowledge on male treatments and methods is surprisingly limited, but this may soon change as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US is now urging pharmaceutical companies to include men in breast cancer clinical trials. 

"Men have historically been excluded from breast cancer trials," said Tatiana Prowell, a breast cancer scientific lead at the FDA's Office of Haematology & Oncology Products. 

"We are actively encouraging drug companies to include men in all breast cancer trials unless there is a valid scientific reason not to," Prowell added. 

Marleen Meyers, an assistant professor specialising in breast cancer at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, said: "Male exclusion is particularly problematic at a time when many modern and promising breast cancer drugs are available only through trials". 

Male breast cancer has attracted much less attention, perhaps because the disease is less common among men than women. 

Breast cancer is about 100 times less common among men than among women, according to the National Cancer Institute. 

"It is possible that successful treatments could differ between genders," Prowell said. 

"We would not know until more men are included in breast cancer clinical trials," she added. 

Increased male enrolment in clinical trials might help redress the issue of awareness, the Daily Beast reported.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

01.08.2014

Pregnancy loss ups heart disease risk

Women with a history of pregnancy loss are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease later in life than other women, says a study. 

"These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that the metabolic, hormonal and hemostatic pathway alterations that are associated with a pregnancy loss may contribute to the development of coronary heart disease in adulthood," said Donna Parker from Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in the US. 

The study stemmed from the analysis of data from the maternity experiences of a sample of 77,701 women. 

Of those, 30.3 percent reported a history of miscarriage, 2.2 percent a history of stillbirth, and 2.2 percent a history of both. 

"We found that the adjusted odds for coronary heart disease in women who had one or more stillbirths was 1.27 (95 percent confidence interval (CI), which is a measure of reliability, 1.07-1.51) compared with women who had no stillbirths," Parker added. 

"For women with a history of one miscarriage, the odds ratio was 1.19 (95 percent CI, 1.08-1.32). For women with a history of two or more miscarriages, the odds ratio was 1.18 (95 percent CI, 1.04-1.34) compared with no miscarriage," she said. 

The researchers found no significant association of ischemic stroke and pregnancy loss. 

The association between pregnancy loss and coronary heart disease appeared to be independent of hypertension, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and white blood cell count. 

The study appeared in the journal Annals of Family Medicine.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

01.08.2014

Patience with family is love, Patience with others is respect. Patience with self is confidence