Healthwise

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NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH

We should all be delighted at the advances now being made by scientists, researchers and the medical profession. For 2011 we continue to highlight some of the latest developments in health and medicine. 

 

DANGER SMOKE

According to a report from the National Cancer Institute, around half of bladder cancer cases in women aged 50 or older can be related to smoking.

The statistics, first published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, say that current smokers are four times more likely to develop bladder cancer as people who have never smoked.

It also states that women have now caught up men in the percentages of bladder cancers that can be attributable to cigarettes. These findings could be because the decline in smoking among women has lagged behind the drop seen in men.

A SLIGHT SOUND FROM THE SILENT KILLER

Ovarian cancer has often been called the silent killer because there are so few early symptoms meaning it remains undiagnosed until an advanced stage.

Now scientists at the Rush University in Chicago have discovered a new biomarker that shows a link between an antibody developing in the immune system and the disease.

The discovery may help to identify women at risk from the disease at a far earlier stage than is currently available and further research is underway.

BRIGHT BITES

Researchers looking at the spread of malaria have found that one of the major malaria-carrying mosquitos, anopheles funestus, generally bites on moonlit nights.

The research, reported in Medical and Veterinary Entomology, says that the activity of this mosquito rose significantly with moonlight intensity, especially during the early part of a night when there was a waxing moon.

Research is ongoing but the researchers are advising that it could well be worthwhile taking extra care in covering up and using mosquito repellents when the moon is especially bright.

SEEK OUT AND DESTROY

An artificial bacteria has been developed which could track down and destroy a major hospital superbug which can be fatal to vulnerable patients.

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have manufactured a bacteria which detects early signs of the bug in patients and then produces a toxin that destroys it.

The research has indicated a 99 per cent success rate but has yet to be tested on humans.

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE

French scientists say that patients aged 70 or above who are suffering from lung cancer would benefit from a combination of two drugs instead of the generally recommended single drug therapy.

Their report, in the Lancet, says that from a sample group, patients treated with two chemotherapy treatments survived significantly longer than those treated with one standard treatment.

More research is being undertaken but the researchers are already adamant that the current treatment for older people with lung cancer should be reconsidered.

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