Smoking May Cause Far More Cancer Deaths in Asian Americans than Recognized
Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese American males living in California die of cancer at three times the rate of South Asian females in California, whose cancer mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world.
According to a new study by UC Davis Cancer Center researchers, such disparities between genders and Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups can be explained almost entirely by tobacco smoke exposure—suggesting that if smoking were eliminated, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans all would have very low cancer mortality rates, with minimal variation from group to group.
“Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, non-lung cancer death rates, like lung cancer death rates, correlate very closely with their smoke exposures,” said Bruce N. Leistikow, associate professor of public health sciences at UC Davis and a leading expert on the epidemiology of smoking-related illnesses. “If all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans had as little smoke exposure as South Asian females in California, our work suggests that their cancer mortality rates across the board could be as low as that of the South Asian females.”
Engineers Creating Small Wireless Device to Improve Cancer Treatment
Engineers at Purdue University are creating a wireless device the size of a rice grain that could be implanted in tumors to tell doctors the precise dose of radiation received and locate the exact position of tumors during treatment.
Researchers at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center have tested a dime-size prototype to prove the concept and expect to have the miniature version completed by the end of summer, said Babak Ziaie (pronounced Zee-Eye-Eee), an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“Currently, there is no way of knowing the exact dose of radiation received by a tumor,” Ziaie said. “And, because most organs shift inside the body depending on whether a patient is sitting or lying down, for example, the tumor also shifts. This technology will allow doctors to pinpoint the exact position of the tumor to more effectively administer radiation treatments.”
Ginger shown to zap ovarian cancer cells
According to U.S. scientists ginger may help to fight ovarian cancer.
Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found in a study that ginger kills cancer cells and has the added benefit of stopping the cells from becoming resistant to treatment.
They found the ginger caused the cells to die in all the tests carried out and it was the way in which the cells died which has created the optimism; two types of death were demonstrated in the tests - apoptosis, which is basically cell suicide, and autophagy, a kind of self-digestion.
Clinical web site may be target of porn seekers
It seems that online dermatological images, intended as a references for doctors, are sometimes being used pruriently.
The idea that a searchable archive of clinical photographs was being misused first occurred to the site’s curators when they noticed a marked jump in queries for images of genital areas.
In light of this, Dr. Christoph U. Lehmann and colleagues, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, emphasize in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that “anonymous misuse of collaborative archives must be anticipated, addressed and prevented to preserve their integrity and the integrity of the learning communities they support.”
Drug trial victim may lose fingers and toes
A man who fell into a coma in London last month during a clinical trial of TeGenero’s monoclonal antibody TGN1412 has said he may lose parts of his fingers and toes, the UK’s News of the World newspaper reported on Sunday.
“I’m told it’s like frostbite and my fingers will just fall off,” Ryan Wilson told the newspaper in an interview.
Photographs in the newspaper showed Wilson in bed at Northwick Park Hospital, in northwest London, where the trial took place, with his blackened feet and hands.
Unhappy marriage may harm older adults’ health
A troubled marriage may speed the decline in health that comes with age, a study has found.
While research shows that married people often enjoy better health than singles do, a number of studies have suggested that an unhappy marriage can take a major health toll. Some, for example, have found a higher rate of heart disease among people who are dissatisfied with their marriage.
This latest study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, suggests that marital strain may be particularly damaging to older adults’ health.
