New hopes for treating lung cancer

A combo treatment has shown promising results in safely slowing down the pace of advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the most common of all lung tumors. Previous studies had reported bevacizumab (Avastin) and erlotinib (Tarceva) as effective medications in blocking the tumor growth in non-small cell lung cancer. A new study, however, showed adding erlotinib to maintenance therapy with bevacizumab in patients with advance lung cancer is more effective than bevacizumab alone in slowing the progression of the disease. Maintenance therapy, a new concept in cancer care, is given after standard chemotherapy with the aim of continuing some portion of the treatment to help stave off a possible recurrence in the patient weakened by the chemotherapy treatments. According to the study presented at the 45th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a combination of erlotinib and bevacizumab as maintenance therapy delays the progression of the disease in patients who have already received bevacizumab as part of their initial chemotherapy by 29 percent. Patients on the combo therapy were reported not only to survive more but also to tolerate the drugs better. Scientists concluded that adding erlotinib to maintenance therapy prolongs progression-free survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

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Expectant moms should not eat for two

New US guidelines encourage women of childbearing age to achieve a healthy weight before getting pregnant in order to reduce both mother and baby complications. Pregnant women had long been encouraged to eat more to adequately nourish the unborn and protect them against malnutrition. In modern life, however, where nearly two-thirds of American women of childbearing age are overweight and the other one-third qualify as obese, weight gain before and during pregnancy can increase the risk of several serious health complications for both mother and child. Healthy weight gain during pregnancy therefore not only lowers the risk of pregnancy-related high blood pressure or diabetes or the need for a C-section, but is also associated with fewer complications in the baby. According to the first national recommendations on pregnancy weight released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), expectant moms should get to a healthy weight before conceiving, stressing that pregnancy is not a time to lose weight. Once they get pregnant, these women are recommended to keep their weight gain within certain limits, based on what their body mass index (BMI) was before pregnancy. IOM guidelines said that obese women with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher at conception should limit their weight gain to 11 to 20 pounds. As for those who are underweight, normal weight or even overweight at conception; however, the guidelines remain unchanged from the original 1990 standards. In the second and third trimesters, Underweight and normal-weight mothers should put on a pound per week for proper fetal growth, the guidelines say. The overweight and obese need about half a pound a week. Women with a healthy BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 are advised to gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. Overweight women with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 should gain less, up to 25 pounds. Underweight women, with a BMI less than 18, should gain more, up to 40 pounds during this time. The new guidelines also urged expectant mothers to safely exercise up to 30 minutes a day throughout their entire pregnancy.

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Stool test detects digestive tract cancers

A newly developed stool test has been found a useful tool in detecting digestive tract cancers including colon, stomach, pancreatic, bile duct and esophageal tumors. Despite the high recovery rate of gastrointestinal cancers diagnosed in early-stages, screening tests are only routinely performed for colon cancer. The majority of these tumors, therefore, remain undiagnosed until the late stages of the disease when they are not treatable. "What's common to all of the cancers in the GI tract is that they shed cells and they are going downstream and are excreted in the stool. We've exploited that common biology to explore this as a screening approach," said David Ahlquist, the leader of the research team. He stressed that the new test can detect DNA changes that are cancer-specific, diagnosing nearly 70 percent of assorted digestive tract cancers. The expanded version of the stool DNA test is reported to detect cancers at each organ site, including 65 percent of esophageal cancers, 62 percent of pancreatic cancers, and 75 percent of bile duct and gallbladder cancers. The stool test can also detect 100 percent of stomach and colorectal cancers as well as precancerous polyps. Mayo Clinic researchers concluded that the noninvasive screening test can identify both early- and late-stage gastrointestinal cancers.

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China makes breakthrough in stem cell research

Chinese researchers have found a new method to transform ordinary pig cells into powerful stem cells which could help treat organ failure. According to a study published in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, the cells taken from the ear and bone marrow of a 10-week-old pig using a virus are reprogrammed and transformed into colonies of embryonic-like stem cells, capable of producing different organs. Researchers are hoping to use these embryonic stem cells to modify immune-related genes in pigs, making the pig organ compatible with the human immune system. Modifying pig genes can also help researchers create models for human genetic diseases including diabetes. The pig model, thereafter, can be used to develop new treatments for the disease. "The research could open the way to creating models for human genetic diseases, genetically engineering animals for organ transplants for humans, and for developing pigs that are resistant to diseases such as swine flu," concluded Xiao Lei, the head of the stem cell lab at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

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Job loss leads to new health problems

As the world struggles with its worst economic crisis and more jobs are being shed by the day, a new study finds job loss causes health problems. According to the study published in Demography, job loss may trigger serious physical and physiological problems. Individuals who have lost their jobs are 83 percent more likely to develop new health problems. This is while individuals who lose their income as a result of job cuts are twice more likely to suffer from health problems. Compared to white-collar workers, blue-collar ones are at a doubled risk of facing physical and mental problems in the event of job loss; the stress and anxiety of sudden income loss is believed to be responsible for the greater health impact on these individuals. Such problems are also reported among those who were re-employed within a year and half of losing their first job. "They shouldn't have had the most severe experiences of unemployment and income loss, and still we see them having new health issues," stressed lead researcher Kate Strully, indicating that factors other than income loss play a critical role in causing such conditions. High blood pressure, arthritis and cardiovascular diseases were reported as the most common complaints among these individuals. Scientists concluded that the anxiety caused by income loss, job cuts and loss of medical insurances along with the higher obesity risk secondary to eating cheaper meals are responsible for the increase in health problems.

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