The Food and Drug Administration has approved Novartis’ Afinitor (everolimus) to treat the most common kind of kidney cancer. And analysts predict that the drug is on pace to become a mainstream treatment, with new approvals for other cancers down the road.
Renal cell carcinomais is the most common form of kidney cancer, which begins in the lining of the small tubules inside the kidney that clean the blood by filtering out the waste products of metabolism and other body processes. It accounts for about 2 per cent of all new cancers and rates of new cases are going up globaly, partially because of smoking and obesity, reported in a Novartis press statement.
In a clinical trial, everolimus did keep tumors from growing for approximately five months. In comparison, tumors began growing again after only two months in patients who didn’t get the drug, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Physicians stopped that trial early after it was clear that the drug was helpful. That allowed patients on placebo to be offered everolimus, too. The drug’s benefits are limited, however. After 10 months of treatment, 75% of tumors had begun growing again.
Currently, Afinitor is also being tested in lymphoma, breast, gastric, lung and other cancers, as well as tuberous sclerosis, an inherited disease that causes benign tumors to grow in the brain and other vital organs. Its active ingredient is everolimus, which is already sold to block rejection of transplanted hearts or kidneys.
Research out of India on heart patients has shown that a “superpill”, that consists of aspirin to fight clotting, a cholesterol-lowering statin and three blood pressure-lowering drugs could halve rates of attacks and strokes.
The polypill or “Polycap”, as it’s referred to, has been debated for a number of years but recent trials demonstrate additional proof that it can reduce the cases of heart attacks and strokes by over 80% in healthy individuals, according to the research.
Decreases were seen in both blood pressure and cholesterol with no serious side effects.
The pollypill capsule manufactured by Cadila Pharmaceuticals should halve the number of hearts attacks and strokes in middle-aged people. Taking into consideration overall numbers, the “Polycap” could save dozens of millions of lives.
The polypill idea is for mass prescription to everybody over a certain age, 50 for men and 60 for women, not just those with pre-existing cardiovascular disease.
The FDA says Terra Bella, California-based Setton Pistachio is recalling around one million pounds of pistachio products over salmonella concerns.
Terra Bella processed pistachios linked to a countrywide recall of Back to Nature Nantucket Blend trail mix and bagged nuts from Kraft Foods, Inc., because of a possible salmonella contamination.
The tainted nuts have been linked to several strains of salmonella, which can cause severe and occasionally fatal infections in people with weak immune systems, such as children and the elderly.
The Food and Drug Administration was first informed of the trouble on March 24, when it was advised by Kraft Foods that its Back To Nature Trail Mix was discovered to be contaminated with Salmonella. Kraft had identified the source of the contamination to be pistachios from Setton and conducted a recall.
The Food and Drug Administration is now cautionary people to stop eating all foods containing pistachios until they can find the source of the contamination.
This recall is not connected at all to the recent peanut recall and as of yet no one has gotten sick from the pistachios.
A new study indicates, for kids who gain weight quickly during their first six months of life could be at a higher risk of being obese by the age of three.
The report, which can be seen in the April issue of the journal “Pediatrics,” studied aproxsimitly 559 children in the Boston area.They found a baby’s weight-to-height ratio at that critical six-month point was a better predictor of obesity later in life than previously studied factors like birth weight, the size of the parents and how many pounds the mother put on during pregnancy.
When adapting for varibles such as the babies’ length, researchers discovered that those who increased their body-mass index (BMI) during their first six months were more likely to be classified as obese at age 3.
“There is increasing evidence that rapid changes in weight during infancy increase children’s risk of later obesity,” stated co-author Elsie Taveras, assistant professor in the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention.
Exuberant weight gain during pregnancy could be a factor, Taveras said. Or parents might not be picking up on their infant’s hunger or satiety cues. Even beliefs that “baby fat” will go away could be affecting how parents think about feeding their children.
The finding were equal for both girls and boys, and the team encountered no difference between babies who were breast or formula fed.
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced Monday that they have developed an obesity treatment pill called lorcaserin. In late stage studies, the results were very promising
The long-awaited results come from an analysis of 3,182 patients in a clinical trial called Bloom, which followed people who used Arena’s lorcaserin pill twice a day or a placebo for two years. The report discovered that patients lost an average of 5.8 percent of their body weight if they took Arena’s drug, compared with 2.2 percent of their weight in the placebo group.
Most weight loss experts don’t view anything under 5% weight loss after one year of treatment to be clinically significant for patients.
The small San Diego company stated the drug was well-tolerated by patients, with the most common side effects
being headaches and upper respiratory tract infections.
Without much argument, the world’s best golfer, Tiger Woods, burned a final round three-under-par 67 to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational and give himself the perfect training for next month’’s Masters at legendary Augusta.
After being side lined for many months with an injury, Woods is back to his commanding form of winning tournaments. Winning certainly is not unfamilar territory to the Orlando resident, nor is the way he is able to get the job done.
O’Hair carried a five shot lead over Woods at the start of the final round, though he could only manage a three-over-par 73 while Woods finished for an eye-popping 67.
Tiger, who usually uses the Nike SQ Dymo fairway wood, had no difficulty making up the ground, with O’Hair finding the water on the 16th to hand Tiger the victory.
A new study on autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) shows that neurofeedback (EEG biofeedback) can re mediate anomalies in brain activation, leading to symptom reduction and functional improvement.
The report, which was in part funded by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was led by Dr Ami Klin, of the Yale Child Study Center at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues, and was issued online on 29 March in Nature.
In the Yale study, researchers made five versions of animated children’s games such as ‘peek-a-boo’ and ‘pat-a-cake’ where points of light marked movement, each with sound.
Although it was acknowledged that those with autism don’t spontaneously orient to social signals, it wasn’t clear what early-emerging mechanism may contribute to that. A more indepth analysis of other synchronized sounds and motions in the five cartoons suggested that sensory pairings nearly always got the attention of toddlers with autism.
Researchers have established, for the first time, that cholesterol-lowering drugs like, Crestor, can lower the danger of deep vein thrombosis, that are induced by potentially deadly blood clots that start in the veins and move to the lungs.
The proof, released Sunday, is the latest to come out from the groundbreaking JUPITER trial, which established that statin treatments can cut in half the danger of heart attacks and strokes even in people with normal cholesterol levels.
In the report, Crestor cut in half the danger of blood clots in those with low cholesterol but high scores on a test for inflammation, which plays a role in numerous diseases. This same big study last fall showed that Crestor dramatically brought down rates of heart attacks, death and stroke in people, who are not generally given statins now.
Both reports are supported by data from the landmark JUPITER trial, sponsored by the drug maker AstraZeneca, which markets Crestor (rosuvastatin). The first trial is being printed early in the April 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, while the second will appear in an upcoming issue of The Lancet.
Further results from this analysis established patients who reached an LDL-C <70 mg/dL experienced a 55% decrease in cardiovascular ocurances compared to placebo and that the patients who achieved a dual treatment target of LDL-C<70 mg/dL and hsCRP <1 mg/L achieved a 79% reduction in CV events compared to placebo. Rosuvastatin 20mg was well supported in almost 9,000 patients throughout the course of the JUPITER study, the company stated.
An Amber Alert has been issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for a missing 12-year-old Bradenton girl who was last seen yesterday morning.
Investigators say Sarah Norton was last seen on Manatee Avenue West. She may be in the company of an unknown white male, 45-50 years old and wears glasses. Investigators believe the girl and the man have left the immediate area of the abduction, and the two might be driving in a red Jeep Cherokee, reported the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
* White female, age 12
* Brown hair, Brown eyes
* Glasses
* 5 feet, 3 inches tall
* Weighs 93 pounds
* Last seen wearing gray sports bra, Jeans, No shoes
Anybody with information is asked to call the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office at (941) 747-3011
China is asking medical personnel countrywide to go house-to-house to help stop an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease which has now killed 19 children thus far this year.
“The epidemic is getting worse and infections are expected to peak between May and July,” Deng Haihua, director of the information office of the Ministry of Health (MOH), stated in a press conference.
40 Chinese children died in the spring of 2008 and thousands more were infected when the sickness was linked with enterovirus 71, which could cause a severe form of the disease characterised by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.
Heze city reported 1,734 HFMD cases between Jan. 1 and midnight Friday, according to the city’s health bureau. Just on Friday, 440 cases were reported
The hand, foot and mouth virus typically affects babes and children. Although some cases can be deadly, most are mild with children recovering quickly. It is spread by direct contact with nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or the stool of infected persons.