Milder Treatment for Lymphoma in Youngsters
Children and young adults with early stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma can often be treated successfully with no radiation and with lower than usual doses of chemotherapy, according to Stanford University researchers. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a disease of the lymph nodes, is one of the most curable types of cancer, especially if treated early. However, the treatment itself can cause damaging side effects.
In the Oct. 30 New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Michael P. Link and colleagues compared the standard treatment against two regimens that eliminated the usual radiation and gave lower doses of chemotherapy. The 340 patients were younger than 21, and all had cancer that had not spread. Five years later, 86% to 89% of the patients were free of disease, regardless of the treatment they received.
Hormone Therapy Can Speed Wound Healing
Hormone replacement therapy speeds the healing of wounds, but has no effect on the risk of stroke, two new studies have found. Wound healing normally slows as women age, but researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Manchester in England report in the November Nature Medicine that healing occurs at a normal rate in women who have been on HRT for at least three months.
Danish physicians compared 1,422 women who had had a stroke with 3,171 women who had not. They report in the Nov. 1 Lancet that those women who had undergone HRT had the same risk of having a stroke as those who had not taken estrogen.
Many Heart Patients Not Getting Proper Drugs
Three-fourths of older adults with heart conditions who should be receiving drugs called beta blockers are not getting the potentially lifesaving medication, researchers report in the November Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Studies have shown that beta blockers such as propranolol can reduce the risk of death by about 25% in older adults after a heart attack.
Researchers from the Mt. Sinai Hospital Geriatrics Department identified 233 older adults with heart conditions, all of whom should have been receiving the drugs. All 233 patients had clogged arteries (coronary artery disease) and 162 had suffered a heart attack. But only 27% were receiving the drugs.
The authors say that physicians who care for the elderly need to be better educated about the value of such drugs. Many are still prescribing calcium channel blockers, which increase the risk of death.
Even Moderate Drinking Can Hurt Fetuses
Even moderate social drinking during pregnancy can harm infant development, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin. Occupational therapist Mary Schneider and her colleagues studied 33 pregnant rhesus monkeys. One-third was given the equivalent of one to two drinks daily, another third was given the same amount of alcohol and exposed to mild stress, and the rest received no alcohol.
The team reported in the October Child Development that infants born to the mothers who received alcohol had a number of deficits, including reduced motor skills, shorter attention spans and increased drowsiness. Stress, produced by three bursts of noise when the monkeys were placed in an unfamiliar environment, compounded the problems.
Lingering Consequences of Overeating in Pregnancy
Overeating by a woman during pregnancy can cause health problems not only for her child, but for the third generation as well, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Washington overfed pregnant rats so that they developed gestational diabetes, a condition that affects 2% to 3% of otherwise normal human pregnancies.
The team reported at a Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans that offspring of the overfed rats were larger than normal at birth, although their weight returned to normal. But the animals subsequently had problems with their ensuing pregnancies and their offspring were consistently smaller than normal.
--Compiled by THOMAS H. MAUGH II
