Breast cancer survivors gain more
weight than others
Breast cancer survivors, especially those treated
with chemotherapy, are likely to gain weight at a higher rate than women who
are cancer-free, says a new research.
Data from earlier studies suggest that breast cancer survivors who gain weight may have a higher risk of having their cancer return, researchers said.
"Our study suggests that chemotherapy may be one of the factors contributing to weight gain among survivors," said Kala Visvanathan, associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.
The results of the study that involved 303 breast cancer survivors and 307 cancer-free women appeared online in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
The researchers found that over the course of four years, survivors gained significantly more weight -- 3.6 pounds (1.6 kg) on average -- than cancer-free women.
Among 180 survivors diagnosed with cancer during the last five years of the study period, 37 (21 percent) gained at least 11 pounds (five kg) over a four-year period compared with 35 of 307 (11 percent) of their cancer-free peers.
The weight-change findings remained the same after accounting for other factors associated with weight gain, such as increasing age, transition to menopause and level of physical activity, researchers said.
Women who completed chemotherapy within five years of the study were twice as likely as cancer-free women to have gained at least 11 pounds during the study.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
16.07.2015
Stroke patients prescribed
ineffective drugs
Over eight lakh stroke patients in north India are
being prescribed neuroprotective drugs which are not recommended by clinical
practice guidelines set by the world bodies, an AIIMS study has revealed.
Citicoline, Piracetam, and Edaravone are the three drugs being prescribed to the stroke patients over the years in spite of the directions from the medical bodies against prescribing them as they have been found non-effective in stroke patients.
Citicoline, Piracetam, and Edaravone are the three drugs being prescribed to the stroke patients over the years in spite of the directions from the medical bodies against prescribing them as they have been found non-effective in stroke patients.
The two-year study of the medicines being prescribed to the stroke patients also revealed that medicine such as blood pressure lowering agents - statins, and anti-platelet agents which were found being actually effective were not being administered to patients.
A report from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) indicated that in 2004 there were approximately 9,30,985 cases of stroke in the country with 6,39,455 deaths.
The National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, India, recently estimated 1.67 million stroke cases in the country by 2015.
"Both specialist and private hospitals are associated with higher prescription of "ineffective neuroprotective" drugs in both poor and rich patients," the AIIMS study's report exclusively given to the IANS.
Kameshwar Prasad, head of Neurology at AIIMS and under whom the research was conducted, said, "The reasons are yet to be studied but the speculative reasons are that often the doctors miss particular medicines due to the constant pressure on them and also they forget about it."
He said the other speculative reason behind the issue was that even the patients are not aware of the effective medicines, which is actually very necessary.
Prasad also said though the study only revealed about north India, the situation may be much more worse in other parts of India, as they were out of the direct purview of the union health ministry.
"Once we get to know about the total spending on the medicines incurred by the health ministry only then we can get to know how much of money is spent on buying the ineffective drugs in the country," he told IANS.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
16.07.2015
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