Obesity is fuelling a major increase in the number of cases of kidney cancers diagnosed in Britain, experts say. Cancer Research UK has published figures showing there were just over 9,000 cases in 2009, compared with just under 2,300 in 1975. Obesity increases kidney cancer risk by about 70%, compared with smoking which increases it by about 50%. Cancer Research UK says too few people understand the cancer risk of being overweight.
Kidney cancer is now the eighth most common cancer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17553930High blood pressure
Blood pressure is the force exerted by blood on the walls of the arteries when the heart beats. It causes the heart to work harder than normal putting both the heart and arteries at greater risk of damage. High blood pressure or hypertension exists where the pressure at which blood is pushing against blood vessel walls is consistently above average.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/in_depth/heart/hypertension1.shtml
Researchers report that they successfully froze secondary tumours in patients with incurable breast cancer. The findings raise the prospect of a potential new treatment for metastatic tumours, although the research is in the very early stages. "This therapy provides a minimal rate of cancer recurrence and no major complications”. "This is a preliminary study, and at this point we're hoping that the evidence could be a stepping stone for a bigger study to look at more patients "If we can get more data that supports percutaneous cryoablation for metastatic breast cancer, it could be a huge finding”.
http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-news/article/40165.htm?c=NL20120328NHS hospital parking fee rises criticised
More than a quarter of hospital trusts in England increased car parking charges for patients and visitors in the year to last April, figures show. While some cut prices, others more than doubled them, according to data from 197 hospital and mental health trusts. A patients' group branded the fees a "tax on the sick" and called for NHS parking to be free, as in most of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17394126
Research shows older people are less likely to receive surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy than their younger counterparts are. This difference in treatment rates cannot be entirely accounted for by medically justifiable reasons such as the presence of untreatable co-morbidities. Treatment decisions are too often being made on the basis of age, regardless of how fit patients may be, leading to under-treatment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17492944Steady rise in assisted suicides.
Five out of every 1,000 deaths in Switzerland now involve assisted suicide, with women more likely to die this way than men. Swiss authorities recorded a steady rise in recent years, from 43 in 1998 to 297 in 2009. Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942. The survey shows almost 90 per cent of cases involved people aged 55 or over.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/switzerland-steady-rise-in-assisted-suicides-7593405.html
Dutch offered 'euthanasia on wheels'
An organisation based in The Hague is now offering a mobile euthanasia service. Teams will be travelling around the country assisting patients whose own doctors refuse to help them to die. The new units consist of a doctor, a nurse and all the medical equipment required to carry out euthanasia. Patients can choose injections administered by the medical team, or they may drink a lethal concoction of life-ending drugs. The Dutch right-to-die organisation (NVVE), which is funding the new scheme, says both options will be available on the mobile units.
http://www.nvve.nl/nvve-english/pagina.asp?pagnaam=homepage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17230102
Studying the role of social stigma in depression for lung cancer patients, researchers have found that depression can be heightened by a lung cancer patient's sense of social rejection, internalized shame, and social isolation. These factors may contribute to depression at rates higher than experienced by patients with other kinds of cancer. This is the first study to examine the relationship of perceived stigma to depressive symptomology in lung cancer patients given its strong association with tobacco use. Lung cancer is commonly viewed as a preventable disease. Consequently, patients may blame themselves for developing lung cancer and feel stigmatized. Even lung cancer patients who have never smoked often felt – accurately or inaccurately – that they were being blamed for their disease by friends, loved ones, and even health care professionals." The aim of the study was to identify psychosocial links for depression among lung cancer patients in order to develop interventions. They also wanted to find out if – beyond other social and demographic factors often taken into account in studies of depression and cancer diagnosis perceived – stigma could account for variability in depressive symptoms in cancer patients. Participants in the study were those diagnosed with stage II, III, or IV non-small cell lung cancer, and data on their depressive symptoms were elicited by questionnaire. "38 percent of those in the survey suffered from depression.” That percentage was similar to other studies documenting depression in lung cancer patients (21 to 44 percent), but found that greater levels of perceived stigma were related to greater levels of depression.
http://www.psypost.org/2012/03/moffitt-cancer-center-researchers-link-stigma-to-depression-among-lung-cancer-patients-10699
One in three GPs who publicly supports change may have conflicts of interest. Dr Shane Gordon is also one of a number of GPs backing Andrew Lansley's reforms who stand to profit personally. And that, critics claim, is the embodiment of a fundamental flaw in the new Bill which could dangerously erode public trust in the NHS – the potentially volatile mix of money and medicine. "Traditionally, the GP is the patient's champion and will fight for them in the health system. If decisions that GPs make bring about personal financial advantage, people will become suspicious," There is nothing in the Health and Social Care Bill that explicitly addresses how this web of potential conflict will be untangled.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-gps-are-set-to-make-a-killing-out-of-nhs-reform-7584572.html
Which is the world’s biggest employer?
The National Health Service (NHS) is at the centre of a big political row about its reform. It's often said to be the third biggest employer in the world, after the Chinese army and Indian Railways. But is that really true? It's an incredible claim, given how much smaller the UK is than China or India. And indeed, it is not true.
The worlds largest employers are-
Continue reading the main story Do health social enterprises deliver?
With a lot of talk among politicians about the potential benefits of social enterprises, what does the reality feel like for care workers who move from the public to private sector - and can this new model deliver everything that it promises?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17350167
Who would argue with a pain-free injection? Nobody loves the thought of a needle piercing their skin, least of all doctors and dentists who have to deal with stressed and anxious patients. Scientists have been working on this problem for a while, but a young British inventor based in Somerset may have come up with the solution. Oliver Blackwell's device looks like the typical syringes used in hospitals and doctors' surgeries around the country, with one crucial difference. On the front is a much smaller needle which injects a tiny amount of local anaesthetic to ease the pain of the larger needle which follows. It is essentially two injections in one - the first one, virtually pain-free, paving the way for the second one, which is rendered painless.
Continue reading the main story Glaxo invests £500m in UK
Glaxo plans to significantly boost its manufacturing ability in the UK. Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has said it will invest £500m in manufacturing in the UK, including building a new factory in Ulverston, Cumbria. The investments could create up to 1,000 new jobs, Glaxo said. The biopharmaceutical facility will be its first new UK factory for 40 years. Glaxo said it was "one of the largest commitments to the UK life-sciences sector in years". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17465090
The National Health Service (NHS) is at the centre of a big political row about its reform. It's often said to be the third biggest employer in the world, after the Chinese army and Indian Railways. But is that really true? It's an incredible claim, given how much smaller the UK is than China or India. And indeed, it is not true.
The worlds largest employers are-
Continue reading the main story
Watson, the IBM computer that gained fame by beating human contestants on the US television game show Jeopardy! in February 2011, is to play a new role in helping oncologists diagnose and treat cancer. IBM scientists will be working together to create a decision support tool based on a computer that does a remarkable job of understanding and finding the best answer. The aim is to give doctors everywhere an "outcome and evidence-based decision support system" with improved and speedy access to up to date information about cancer data and practices so they can tailor diagnosis and treatments to the needs of individual patients. Oncologists from MSKCC will help to develop the computer to use a patient's medical information to mine a vast array of continuously updated information. This information will include vetted treatment guidelines and published research, together with insights from experienced MSKCC clinicians. Not only will the new tool provide doctors with individualized patient recommendations, it will also furnish them with a detailed account of the data and evidence behind it. Oncology treatment is becoming more complicated, as more technology emerges; cancer is not one disease but hundreds of sub-types, each with a different genetic fingerprint. "Cancer care is profoundly complex with continuous clinical and scientific advancements to consider. This field of clinical information, given its importance on both a human and economic level, is exactly the type of grand challenge IBM Watson can help address." The first applications in lung, breast, prostate and other cancers are expected to be piloted in late 2012.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243272.phpGPs 'to prescribe health apps'GPs could soon offer their patients free smartphone apps to help with managing health conditions. The Department of Health says its initiative is the "next step" in the drive to give patients more control over their own health. The apps could help diabetics keep a check on their blood sugar and patients monitor their own blood pressure. The Department of Health says its initiative is the "next step" in the drive to give patients more control over their own health. The apps could help diabetics keep a check on their blood sugar and patients monitor their own blood pressure.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17111092
Offering free nicotine patches or intensive counselling to smokers calling the English NHS helpline does not help them quit, a study in the BMJ says. University of Nottingham researchers found that this extra support had no effect on the number of smokers who stopped. More than 2,500 smokers were followed up over one year. The Department of Health said it would not now offer any extra services.
Continue reading the main story The costly war on cancerNew cancer drugs are technically impressive. But must they cost so much?
Cancer is not one disease. It is many. Yet oncologists have long used the same blunt weapons to fight different types of cancer: cut the tumour out, zap it with radiation, or blast it with chemotherapy that kills good cells as well as bad ones. New cancer drugs are changing this. Scientists are now attacking specific mutations that drive specific forms of cancer. A breakthrough came more than a decade ago when Genentech, a Californian biotech firm, launched a drug that attacks breast-cancer cells with too much of a certain protein, HER2. In 2001 Novartis, a Swiss drug maker, won approval for Gleevec, which treats chronic myeloid leukaemia by attacking another abnormal protein. Other drugs take different tacks. Avastin, introduced in America in 2004 by Genentech, starves tumours by striking the blood vessels that feed them. (Roche, another Swiss drug giant, bought Genentech and its busy cancer pipeline in 2009.) These new drugs sell well. Last year Gleevec grossed $4.3 billion. Roche’s Herceptin (the HER2 drug) and Avastin did even better: $6 billion and $7.4 billion respectively.
http://www.economist.com/node/18743951
Ten thousand smokers in Scotland are to take part in a trial screening programme for lung cancer. The trial will involve people who have smoked at least 20 a day for more than 20 years, who are most at risk. They will have a simple blood test that detects cancer at its earliest stages of development. The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Sir Harry Burns, said currently, most people were not diagnosed until the disease had reached an advanced stage. Half of the 10,000 people will get a blood test which can identify cancer up to five years before it would be detected in other ways, and the other half will not be screened.
Scotland has one of the highest rates of lung cancer in the world. The screening programme will begin before the end of the year and the first results are expected in 2014.
Continue reading the main story
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