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HISPANIC HEALTH: Hispanics More Likely than Others to Seek Early Treatment for Lung Cancer

2013-05-22T09:36:52-06:00

A new large scale 10-year study on the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer shows there are racial disparities on which patients undergo surgery as early treatment with Hispanics leading the way.

The study looked at 1.2 million patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer from 2000-2010. The American Cancer Society notes that 90 percent of all lung cancers are non-small cell cancer.

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Latinas Support Hirono Amendments to Immigration Reform Bill

2013-05-20T16:25:51-06:00

Health advocates applaud Hawaii Senator’s leadership to keep aspiring citizens healthy and productive

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) applauds the leadership of Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) to improve the Senate’s current immigration reform bill (S. 744) to ensure immigrants can fully participate in society once obtaining lawful status. As currently written, the Senate’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” (S. 744) excludes most on the roadmap to citizenship from affordable health coverage and vital family economic supports for up to 15 years or more.

Jessica González-Rojas, executive director of NLIRH notes, “Women and families on the roadmap to citizenship who are working and paying taxes shouldn’t be forced to wait up to 15 years or more before they can get basic health care like cervical cancer screenings or contraception. For an immigrant woman, being able to protect her health and care for her family is the first step to full social, economic and civic integration into the American community. Medical coverage plays a crucial role in health and well-being, and all Americans should have access.”

Forcing new Americans to delay access to affordable health care and family economic supports will only lead to worse health outcomes, higher costs to families and the health care system, lower worker productivity and wider health disparities. The Senate bill for immigration reform is also out of touch with the majority of Americans who support improving aspiring citizens’ participation in health coverage programs. Hirono has filed amendments that would allow aspiring citizens to access health, nutrition and other programs supported by their own tax dollars so that they can stay healthy, provide for their family, and have the opportunity to fully participate in society.

CNN Anchor Zoraida Sambolin to Follow in Angelina Jolie’s Footsteps with Double Mastectomy

2013-05-14T16:37:07-06:00

CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin has announced that she too will undergo the same cancer-preventive double mastectomy procedure as movie star Angeline Jolie.

Today the Hollywood superstar via a NY Times op-ed announced she decided to surgically remove both her breasts to reduce the high risk of breast and ovarian cancer that runs in her family. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of breast cancer at 56 years-old after a decade long battle. Jolie, 37, also disclosed that she carries the BRCA1 gene that gives her a high predisposition to both breast and ovarian cancer.

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80% of Rapes in Mexico Go Unpunished

2013-04-26T19:43:55-06:00

With more than 14, 000 reported rapes in Mexico last year, a whopping 80 percent remain unpunished. These statistics do not take into account the fantastic number of cases that go unreported. The Commission on Gender Equality and Chamber of Deputies legislative body reported these statistics today with disdain. There are several high profile cases involving foreign women, such as the Spanish in Acapulco, and there are even more reportedly committed by members of police forces.

Gates and Slim Join Forces to Rid the World of Polio in Six Years

2013-04-25T13:31:32-06:00

Billionaires Bill Gates and Carlos Slim said in an exclusive interview with Efe that they planned to join forces to eradicate polio in six years.

Gates, the founder of U.S. tech giant Microsoft, said it was not often that you received a letter proposing to wipe out one of the most harmful diseases of the 20th century, especially when that missive was sent by the world’s richest man to the holder of the globe’s second-largest fortune.

HISPANIC HEALTH: Sun Exposure Amongst Latinos Varies by Language They Speak

2013-04-24T12:09:40-06:00

English-speaking Hispanics in the United States are less likely to take measures to protect themselves from skin cancer than Spanish-speaking Hispanics, a new study finds.

The findings suggest that language needs to be considered when developing skin cancer prevention strategies for Hispanic Americans, according to Elliot Coups and colleagues at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

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Many Parents Text, Phone With Kids in Car: Survey

2013-04-22T18:20:17-06:00

Work-related calls a priority for nearly one-third polled.

Nearly two-thirds of adults use a cell phone when they’re driving with children in the car, and about one-third text, according to a new California survey.

The dangers of such behavior are well-documented. In 2011, about 3,300 deaths and 400,000 injuries in the United States occurred because of distracted driving, according to experts in the driving safety program at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

Their online survey of 715 drivers, aged 30 to 64, in San Diego County revealed that many people either are unaware of the dangers of distracted driving or choose to ignore them.

Women’s College Grades May Suffer Due to Too Much Texting, Facebook

2013-04-22T18:10:33-06:00

Media use for freshmen adds up to 12 hours daily, poll finds.

Media use is a serious distraction for college freshmen, with a new study finding young women devote up to 12 hours daily on pursuits such as texting, posting status updates and surfing the web.

And the more time spent using media, the research suggests, the worse their academic performance.

“The implication of these results would seem to be that reducing college students’ media use might improve their academic performance,” said study lead author Jennifer Walsh, an assistant professor at the Miriam Hospital Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine in Providence, R.I.

Drugs May Help Cut Risk for Breast Cancer in Some

2013-04-15T18:42:03-06:00

Draft guidelines for doctors reflect findings, but it’s hard to know who will benefit most, experts say.

The drugs tamoxifen and raloxifene (Evista) could reduce the risk of breast cancer among women who are at high risk of developing the disease, a new report confirms.

Along with the report, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force also issued draft recommendations that reflect those findings, which will be published in the April 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The task force recommendations state that doctors should talk about the potential benefits and harms of taking drugs to prevent breast cancer, a strategy known as chemoprevention, with patients who are at high risk of developing breast cancer.

That guideline is consistent with that of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Cancer Society, and reflects current clinical practice, the task force said.

“We had a nice set of well-done, large [studies], so we have a lot of confidence in the results to really inform the recommendations,” said report author Dr. Heidi Nelson, a research professor of medical informatics and clinical epidemiology at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Nelson and the other report authors are not task force members and were contracted by the panel to analyze and summarize the latest research for the report.

One of the report’s key findings was that studies of tamoxifen reported a decrease in breast cancer incidence from 23.5 per 1,000 women in the placebo group to 16.5 per 1,000 among women taking tamoxifen over a five-year period. Nelson and her colleagues arrived at these numbers by analyzing four studies of women who took tamoxifen for about four years and their rates of breast cancer over the following seven to 13 years.

Another advance since the 2002 recommendations is a 2010 study that compared tamoxifen and raloxifene directly. “Tamoxifen is more effective at reducing breast cancer risk, but it has more side effects,” Nelson said. In this study, there were five fewer cancers per 1,000 women taking tamoxifen when compared with raloxifene.

For both drugs, the benefits have to be weighed against the potential harms, Nelson said. “The tricky part is finding the right candidate” who is at increased risk of breast cancer and has a low risk of experiencing adverse events from the medications, she added.

The report looked at the rates of adverse events such as blood clots, which was about 90 percent more likely in studies of women taking tamoxifen and 60 percent more likely among women taking raloxifene. For tamoxifen, 8.6 per 1,000 women experienced a blood clot compared with 4.6 per 1,000 in the “control” group.

The rates of endometrial cancer, or cancer of the uterus, and cataracts were also higher for women taking tamoxifen, but not for those taking raloxifene, compared with their respective control groups.

In addition, “some women have side effects that are not life-threatening but they are uncomfortable and not minor, and cause them to stop medications, such as vaginal discharge, dryness, itching, leg cramps,” Nelson explained.

Tamoxifen is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce the risk of breast cancer among women at increased risk who are 35 years and older, whereas raloxifene is only approved for this use in postmenopausal women.

These medications are taken as a once-a-day pill and women are recommended to take them for five years, Nelson said. Raloxifene is also approved to prevent or treat osteoporosis, and for those uses women take the medication for a longer period of time, she noted.

Despite the fact that these medications have been available for a long time—tamoxifen was approved for breast cancer chemoprevention in 1998—studies suggest they are underused. Only 60,000 women in the United States used tamoxifen in 2005, down from 120,000 in 2000, even though at least 2 million could be eligible for it.

Part of the problem could be that it is difficult for doctors to predict which patients are at high risk for developing breast cancer, Nelson explained. The FDA uses a risk assessment tool called the Gail model, which takes into consideration age, race, medical history and other factors, to define a woman’s risk level, but even this model is not necessarily a good predictor for an individual patient, Nelson said.

The most important factors for determining risk of developing breast cancer are increased age, family history and having had a biopsy that showed signs of precancers, Nelson said.

One expert said he expected the report to stimulate a new look at this use of these medications.

“These drugs work, this is an effective chemoprevention regimen,” said Robert Smith, senior director of cancer screening at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta.

Another reason that these drugs could be underused is that, as women age, they are more likely to see an internist or primary care physician than a gynecologist, and these types of doctors could be less likely to have a conversation about breast cancer chemoprevention, Smith said.

“The task force update is likely to stimulate some action among primary care physicians,” Smith said.

Even though patients’ concerns about side effects could also factor into the underuse of tamoxifen and raloxifene, most women do decide to take one of the drugs if their doctors recommend it, Smith said. The current report found that 70 percent of women took the recommended treatment dose.

The adverse effects of blood clots, endometrial cancer and cataracts are less likely if women take these drugs at a relatively young age, Nelson said. However, the risks might be too high for women who have a history of blood clots or cataracts, she added.

The reduced risk among young women “really does suggest that the period of time to actively assess risk and consider chemoprevention is not long after menopause” and even as women make the transition into menopause, Smith said.

Although the studies included in this report did not find a decrease in breast cancer mortality, it could be that it will take longer follow-up times to see a difference, Nelson said.

It could also be the fact that these drugs only reduce the risk of a type of breast cancer called hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and that survival is better for this type of breast cancer, Nelson said. Tamoxifen and raloxifene work by interfering with estrogen, which drives the growth of breast cancer in hormone receptor-positive cancers.

More information

To learn more about breast cancer risk and the Gail model, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool.

How Panda Express, Taco Bell, And McDonalds Rebrand Food As ‘Healthy’ Without Changing Much

2013-04-12T10:31:43-06:00

As a growing number of Americans cite obesity as the most urgent health problem facing the country, the food industry is looking for a way to profit.

Despite playing a critical role in enabling America’s obesity epidemic, fast food chains have recently announced attempts to make their product seem healthier — a number of new menu items that may substitute whole grain for white or turkey for red meat. But for many of these companies, the rebranding is superficial: