Researchers Turn Stem Cells Into Intestinal Tissue in Lab

Researchers say they've turned human stem cells into functioning human intestinal tissue in a laboratory setting. The study team described its accomplishment as a "significant step" forward in efforts to better understand the function and development of the human intestine. They also expressed hope that the innovation will spur the development of new strategies to combat intestinal diseases, while opening up new avenues for the generation of transplantation tissue.

"The hope is that our ability to turn stem cells into intestinal tissue will eventually be therapeutically beneficial for people with diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis, inflammatory bowel disease and short bowel syndromes," explained study senior author James Wells, a researcher in the division of developmental biology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in a hospital news release. Wells and his colleagues report their findings in the Dec. 12 online issue of Nature.

The authors used two types of so-called "pluripotent" stem cells -- cells that have the chameleon-like ability to differentiate into any one of about 200 distinct cell types. Human embryonic stem cells, which are known to have such transformative abilities, were one type. For the other, the researchers looked to "induced" stem cells cells harvested from patients and reprogrammed in the lab to function as pluripotent stem cells. Though less well-tested than embryonic stem cells, induced cells theoretically have the advantage of minimizing the risk for cell rejection when replanted back into the host patient.

Black Smokers May Face Higher Death Risk Than Whites: CDC

A study conducted in Missouri suggests that smoking may be even more lethal for blacks than it is for whites. In fact, researchers say the smoking related death rate for blacks is nearly one-fifth higher than it is for whites in that state. The study was conducted by researchers at the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They analyzed data from 2003-2007 found that the average annual smoking-attributable death rate was 358 per 100,000 for blacks in Missouri and 286 per 100,000 for whites, a difference of 18 percent. That racial difference was larger among men than among women.

Blacks had a 26 percent higher smoking-related death rate for cancer and a 53 percent higher smoking-related death for circulatory diseases, but a 32 percent lower smoking-related death rate for respiratory diseases. Overall, smoking caused about a third of all cancer deaths, 15.3 percent of all circulatory disease deaths, and 46.5 percent of all respiratory disease deaths in Missouri between 2003 and 2007, according to the study. The findings appear in this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Based on the data, the CDC says that "states should continue to implement population-wide tobacco control interventions that reach all racial groups."

FDA Expected to Ban Caffeinated Alcohol Drinks

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was set to rule Wednesday on the safety of caffeinated alcoholic beverages that have reportedly left dozens of young adults sick or hospitalized. The announcement comes amid a growing backlash against so-called energy drinks that mix caffeine and alcohol, even though such beverages are becoming increasingly popular with college students and even children. The drinks are regularly consumed by 31 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who has supported a ban on the drinks that are marketed under such names as Four Loko and Joose, reported Tuesday on his Web site that the FDA would outlaw the products because they are an "unsafe food additive to alcoholic beverages." Schumer, a Democrat, also said the Federal Trade Commission planned to notify manufacturers that "they are engaged in the potential illegal marketing of unsafe alcoholic drinks." Meanwhile, the maker of Four Loko said Tuesday that it would remove caffeine and other stimulants from its four different flavors of alcoholic drinks.

Four Loko has up to 12 percent alcohol in a 23.5-ounce can, according to published reports. Four Loko's manufacturer, Chicago-based Phusion Projects, insists that the drinks are safe. But, in a statement posted on the company's Web site, it said it was removing the caffeine "after trying unsuccessfully to navigate a difficult and politically charged regulatory environment at both the state and federal levels." The company said it doesn't agree that mixing caffeine and alcohol is inherently unsafe.

Omega-3 Supplements Won't Fight Irregular Heartbeat

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements don't cut back on recurrences of atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that can cause stroke, new research suggests. "We now have definitive data that they don't work for most patients with AF," said Dr. Peter R. Kowey, lead author of a study appearing in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that is also scheduled to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Chicago. "Although we can't exclude the possibility of efficacy in sicker AF patients, it would be hard to believe that it would work in that population and not in healthier patients. So for practical purposes, yes, the end of the line in AF."

This study, the largest of its kind, looked at patients with AF who were otherwise healthy. "We cannot say there is any convincing evidence of a role for omega-3 in the prevention of atrial fibrillation," added Dr. Ranjit Suri, director of the Electrophysiology Service and Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved with the trial. The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline. Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fatty fish such as salmon and albacore tuna, had showed some promise in preventing heart disease in earlier trials. Of the total 663 outpatient participants, 542 had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which appears suddenly and resolves on its own, and 121 had persistent atrial fibrillation, which needs treatment.

Participants were randomized to receive either a placebo or 8 grams of omega-3 supplements daily for the first week, followed by 4 grams a day for the remaining 23 weeks of the trial. The doses used in the study are available only by prescription and are "higher than doses previously published in studies," said Dr. Robert Block, a cardiologist and assistant professor of community and preventive medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. At the end of six months, 46 percent of those in the placebo group and 52 percent of those taking omega-3 supplements experienced recurrences. The numbers of paroxysmal AF patients in the placebo and treatment groups who had AF recurrences were about equal, the investigators found.

Number of Uninsured American Adults Hits Record High

Nearly 50 million Americans have gone without health insurance for at least part of the past year up from 46 million people in 2008, federal health officials reported Tuesday. Those people included not only those Americans living in poverty, but an increasing number of middle-income people, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The bottom line is that uninsurance of young and middle-class adults increased by 4 million people from 2008 to the first quarter of 2010," CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said during a news conference Tuesday.

What's more, the number of people without insurance for a year or more increased from 27.5 million in 2008 to 30.4 million in the first quarter of 2010, Frieden said. "That's an increase of 3 million of chronically uninsured adults." These findings debunk two myths about health insurance, Frieden said. "The first myth is that it's only the poor who are uninsured. In fact, half of the uninsured are over the poverty level," he said. "The second myth is that it's only healthy people who are uninsured and that young healthy people make a choice not to have health insurance. In fact, more than two out of five individuals who are uninsured at some point during the past year had one or more chronic diseases," he said.

During the past 10 years, the number of U.S. adults without insurance for at least part of the year has risen an average of 1.1 million people a year, and about half are middle-income adults, according to the report. People without health insurance are more likely to skip medical care because of cost. This can lead to poorer health, higher long-term health care costs and early death, the report said. Uninsured adults with chronic medical problems are three times more likely to skip medical care, compared to those with insurance. For instance, more than 40 percent of people without insurance who suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure or asthma skipped getting care due to costs, the report found.

U.S. Hispanics Outlive General Population: CDC

Hispanics in the United States outlive whites by almost three years and blacks by almost eight years, according to a new report. The report, released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, confirms the so called "Hispanic paradox" that despite reports of poverty and health issues, Hispanics live longer than others. "We have known that Hispanics have had a longer length of life," said Jane L. Delgado, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, who was not involved in the research.

But the findings may surprise the average person, "because most of the time what people hear about is what problems Hispanics have," she said. These include lower income, lack of health insurance, high-risk jobs, limited access to health care and being overweight and diabetic, she said. Life expectancy for Hispanics at birth is 80.6 years; for whites, 78.1 years and for blacks, 72.9 years. In 2006, life expectancy for all Americans at birth was 77.7 years.

"Although seemingly paradoxical, these results are consistent with the findings of numerous studies, which show a Hispanic mortality advantage despite this population's lower socioeconomic status," report author Elizabeth Arias from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, said in a CDC news release. So what's the secret? Although various theories have surfaced, experts can't say for sure why Hispanics enjoy greater longevity, but Delgado said studies are under way. "It's probably not genetic," Delgado said. "The longer people are in the United States they start to lose some of these health advantages."

As Science Unlocks Secrets, Cancer Rates Fall

Cancer is one of the most feared diseases on the planet, and the second leading cause of death in the United States. But medical science is slowly conquering cancer, according to an assessment of cancer trends produced by the U.S. National Cancer Institute in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. Death rates and diagnosis rates from all cancers combined are declining significantly, both for men and women overall, and for most racial and ethnic populations within the United States, the report found.

New diagnoses for all types of cancer combined decreased an average of almost 1 percent a year from 1999 to 2006, and deaths attributed to cancer decreased 1.6 percent a year from 2001 to 2006, according to the report, an annual evaluation released each December. Doctors predict that the rates will keep falling because research has begun unlocking the secrets of how different cancers begin and develop. "We're beginning to understand that each cancer has an individual pathway to development," said Dr. Alan G. Thorson, president of the American Cancer Society, a clinical professor of surgery and director of colon and rectal surgery at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. "We know now how to look at cancer, find its source and go for that source, which makes all the difference in the world."

The decrease in cancer incidence and deaths has been driven mainly by advances in detecting and treating the major types of cancer in men and women, according to the report. Incidence and death rates are declining for lung, prostate and colorectal cancer in men, and for breast and colorectal cancer in women, the report said. Also, increases in the other major cancer for women, lung cancer, have tapered off, with rates remaining stable since 2003. There's no single explanation for the decrease in these major cancers, doctors said. Rather, the decreases are chalked up to effective detection and treatment tools designed for each form of cancer. For example, public tobacco policy has been crucial in reducing lung cancer rates in men and leveling them out for women, said Dr. Brenda Edwards, associate director of the Surveillance Research Program at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

No Gender-Based Difference Seen in Anti-HIV Drug Response

Men and women have the same responses to the anti-HIV drugs darunavir and ritonavir, researchers have found. The new study included 429 HIV-positive patients at 65 sites in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. The participants were given 600 milligrams of darunavir and 100 mg of ritonavir twice daily. The treatment response rates were 73 percent in women and 73.5 percent in men, the investigators found. Rates of adverse events were also comparable between the sexes. The most common side effects were nausea, diarrhea and rash. The findings are published in the Sept. 21 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The Gender, Race and Clinical Experience (GRACE) study was funded by Tibotec Therapeutics, which markets darunavir.

The study authors noted that 32.8 percent of the female participants dropped out before the end of the study, compared with 23.2 percent of the males. This suggests that more needs to be done to retain women in clinical trials. "It is critical that women are involved in clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of new treatments not just for HIV but for all diseases," lead author Dr. Judith Currier, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a UCLA news release.

Most Americans Still Not Eating Enough Fruits, Veggies

In 2000, the U.S. government set modest goals for the amount of fruit and vegetables people should eat, but a decade later the majority of Americans are not even close to reaching those thresholds, health officials said Thursday. In fact, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2009, 67.5 percent of adults ate fruit less than two times daily and 73.7 percent ate vegetables less than three times per day. The goals of Healthy People 2010 were for 75 percent of people to eat at least two servings of fruit and 50 percent to eat at least three servings of vegetables every day. "Over the last decade we have looked at behavioral intervention, like counseling to get people to include their fruits and vegetables," said report co-author Dr. Jennifer Foltz, a researcher in the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "But it's not so easy."

"In the next decade, we are going to work on making the healthy choice the easy choice," she said. New programs will involve promoting gardening, farmer's markets and bringing more fruits and vegetables into schools and workplaces, Foltz said. In addition, Foltz said there could be programs to help retailers increase the availability of fruits and vegetables through incentives like tax breaks as well as making it easier for low-income people to afford fresh fruit and vegetables. Foltz noted that low-income Americans are more likely not to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices, which is why programs specifically targeted at this population are needed.

The report is published in the Sept. 10 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Despite efforts to increase healthy eating, over the past decade there has been a 2 percent decrease in fruit consumption and no change in the vegetable consumption, the researchers found. No state has yet met the Healthy People 2010 goals, Foltz said. In fact only one state, Idaho, rose in the amount of fruits and vegetables ate while 10 states saw a decrease in fruit and vegetable consumption. The 10 states where significant decreases in fruit and vegetable consumption were seen are Arizona, Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the report.

Working Overtime Adds to Heart Risk for Out-of-Shape Men

Out-of-shape men who work long hours more than double their risk of dying from heart disease compared to non-fit men working fewer hours, researchers report. The study also found that when men are fit, working long hours doesn't boost heart risk at all. The new study included 5,000 Danish men, aged 40 to 59 years, who worked at 14 different companies. Their fitness levels were assessed at the start of the study and they were followed-up for more than 30 years. During that time, 587 (about 12 percent) of the men died as result of narrowed and hardened arteries (also known as ischemic heart disease).

The study, released online Sept. 6 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Heart, also found the following:

* Compared with men who worked less than 40 hours per week, unfit men who worked 41 to 45 hours a week were 59 percent more likely to die of heart disease, although they were not more likely to die of other causes.

* Compared with unfit men, those who were physically fit and worked longer hours were 45 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 38 percent less likely to die of other causes.

* Being both unfit and working more than 45 hours per week more than doubled a man's risk of dying of heart disease compared with those who worked less than 40 hours per week.

"The finding that working more than 45 hours a week is associated with more than a doubled risk of [death from heart disease] among men with low physical fitness, and not among men with moderate or high physical fitness, is a new observation," Andreas Holtermann, of the National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, and colleagues said in a news release from the journal's publisher. "If the relationship is causal, it obviously has major implications for the prevention of heart disease," they added.

Winter Sports Tourists at Higher Risk of Heart Attack

Skiers and other winter sports tourists who visit the Alps are at increased risk for heart attack due to low temperatures, high altitude and inadequate conditioning for intense physical exertion, finds a new study. The risk is greatest during the first two days of vacation, said a research team of cardiologists at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, who focused on winter tourists in the Tyrolean Alps. "Every year, millions of tourists visit the Tyrolean Alps to participate in a variety of winter sports, each of which carries a certain risk of accident and injury," study senior author Dr. Bernhard Metzler, an associate professor of cardiology at the university, said in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology.

"Previously it had been shown that sudden cardiac death accounts for a staggering 40 percent of the total fatalities amongst winter sports tourists in the Austrian Alps and, of these, acute [heart attack] is the leading cause," he added. Metzler and colleagues analyzed data from 170 patients who suffered a heart attack during a winter sports vacation between 2006 and 2010. About 56 percent of the patients suffered their heart attack within the first two days of beginning intense physical activity, although just 19 percent had a known cardiac condition. Prior to their vacation, more than half of the patients got less than the minimum levels of physical activity recommended by the European Society of Cardiology.

Altitude may have been a major factor, the study authors noted. The patients' heart attacks occurred at a mean altitude of 1,350 meters (4,429 feet), compared to the mean altitude of 170 meters (557 feet) where they lived. The researchers also found that about 70 percent of the patients had at least two risk factors for coronary artery disease, including smoking, diabetes or high cholesterol levels. People planning winter sports holidays in the mountains need to prepare themselves with regular exercise beforehand, the study authors suggested. Once at the resort, they should increase their level of physical activity gradually, they added. The researchers presented their findings last week at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Many Americans Don't Even Know They're Fat

Many Americans have skewed perceptions when it comes to their weight, often believing they are thinner than they really are, even when the scales are shouting otherwise, a new poll finds. As part of the Harris Interactive/HealthDay survey, respondents were asked to provide their height and weight, from which pollsters calculated their body-mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight to height. Respondents were then asked which category of weight they thought they fell into. Thirty percent of those in the "overweight" class believed they were actually normal size, while 70 percent of those classified as obese felt they were simply overweight. Among the heaviest group, the morbidly obese, almost 60 percent pegged themselves as obese, while another 39 percent considered themselves merely overweight.

These findings may help to explain why overweight and obesity rates in the United States continue to go up, experts say. "While there are some people who have body images in line with their actual BMI, for many people they are not, and this may be where part of the problem lies," said Regina Corso, vice president of Harris Poll Solutions. "If they do not recognize the problem or don't recognize the severity of the problem, they are less likely to do something about it." And that means that obesity may be becoming the new norm, raising the specter of increasing rates of health threats such as diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

"I think too many people are unsure of what they should actually weigh," said Keri Gans, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "For many, they have grown up in a culture were most people are overweight and that is the norm, or they have been surrounded by too many celebrities and fashion in the media and think very thin is the norm." According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34 percent of adults aged 20 and older are obese, and 34 percent are overweight. Among children, 18 percent of teens aged 12 to 19 are obese, 20 percent of children aged 6 to 11 are obese, as are 10 percent of kids aged 2 to 5. Most respondents to the poll who felt they were heavier than they should be blamed sloth, rather than poor eating habits, for their predicament.

Older Diabetes Patients Still Sexually Active, Study Finds

Most older adults with diabetes are sexually active but the disease does cause some problems with intimacy, a new study found. U.S. researchers surveyed 1,993 people, aged 57 to 85, and found that nearly 70 percent of partnered men with diabetes and 62 percent of partnered women with diabetes had sex two or three times a month, which is comparable to people the same age without diabetes. However, compared with men without diabetes, diabetic men were more likely to lack interest in sex and to experience erectile dysfunction.

Men and women with diabetes reported a higher rate of orgasm problems, such as climaxing too soon (men) or not at all (men and women).The study, published in the September issue of the journal Diabetes Care, also found that 47 percent of men with diabetes had discussed sexual problems with a doctor, compared with only 19 percent of diabetic women. Men were much more likely than women to initiate this type of discussion."Patients and doctors need to know that most middle-age and older adults with partners are still sexually active despite their diabetes.

However, many people with diabetes have sexual problems that are not being addressed," study lead author Dr. Stacy Lindau, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of medicine at the University of Chicago, said in a university news release. "Failure to recognize and address sexual issues among middle age and older adults with diabetes may impair quality of life and adaptation to the disease," added senior author Dr. Marshall Chin, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "Sexual problems are common in patients with diabetes, and many patients are not discussing these issues with their physicians."

Bird Flu Detection Takes a Novel Turn

Bloodhounds, you've now got some unusual company: Trained mice were able to detect bird flu in ducks, according to novel research. "Based on our results, we believe dogs, as well as mice, could be trained to identify a variety of diseases and health conditions," said Bruce A. Kimball, a U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist who was to present his findings at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston this week. Kimball and colleagues at the Monell Chemical Senses Center were able to train mice to detect infected duck feces in a maze more than 90 percent of the time when they had the option of heading toward uninfected feces.

The mice were rewarded with water when they correctly identified the infected samples. "We envision two broad, real-world applications of our findings," Kimball said in a news release from the ACS. "First, we anticipate use of trained disease-detector dogs to screen feces, soil or other environmental samples to provide us with an early warning about the emergence and spread of flu viruses. Second, we can identify the specific odor molecules that mice are sensing and develop laboratory instruments and in-the-field detectors to detect them." Bird flu can kill birds, such as chickens, turkeys and ducks. In rare cases, bird flu has spread to humans, and there has been concern that transmission to people could spark worldwide epidemics.

Vitamin D May Influence Genes for Cancer, Autoimmune Disease

Scientists have discovered a link between vitamin D and genes related to autoimmune diseases and cancer. The finding may explain why vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for a number of serious illnesses, including multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, according to researchers from the United Kingdom and Canada. In the study, Sreeram Ramagopalan of Oxford University and colleagues noted there is a growing amount of evidence that vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for a wide range of diseases, but it's not known exactly how vitamin D is involved. It has been suspected that genetics may contribute to this connection. Vitamin D has an effect on genes through the vitamin D receptor, which binds to specific locations on the human genome to influence gene expression.

In this study, the researchers mapped sites of vitamin D receptor binding information that can be used to identify disease-related genes that might be influenced by vitamin D. The investigators found that vitamin D receptor binding is significantly enhanced in regions of the human genome associated with several common autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and Crohn's disease, and in regions associated with cancers such as leukemia and colorectal cancer.The findings, published in the Aug. 23 online edition of the journal Genome Research, highlight the serious risks associated with vitamin D deficiency, especially for people who may be genetically predisposed to be sensitive to vitamin D deficiency, the study authors explained in a news release from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

"Considerations of vitamin D supplementation as a preventative measure for these diseases are strongly warranted," Ramagopalan stated in the news release. People should consume between 200 and 600 international units of vitamin D daily, according to a U.S. Institute of Medicine guideline, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 400 international units daily. The U.S. guideline is currently under review, and many experts have called for an increase in the recommended intake levels. Exposure to sunlight triggers the body to naturally produce vitamin D, although it can be hard to get enough in some regions during certain parts of the year. Vitamin D is also found in certain foods, such as fish, cheese, egg yolks and fortified milk and breakfast cereals.

Scientists Create Fertile Ground for Growing Stem Cells

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they've developed a synthetic surface that makes it easier to grow stem cells. There are two sources of human stem cells: embryonic cells or pluripotent cells. Pluripotent stem cells are body cells that have been reprogrammed to an immature state so that they can develop into any kind of specialized body cells.While it's believed that pluripotent stem cells hold great potential for treating a wide range of diseases, scientists have found it difficult to grow them in large enough quantities to be used in human studies. "For therapeutics, you need millions and millions of cells.

If we can make it easier for the cells to divide and grow, that will really help to get the number of cells you need to do all of the disease studies that people are excited about," Krishanu Saha, a postdoctoral associate at MIT and co-first author of the paper, said in an MIT news release. The newly developed surface, which contains no foreign animal material, allows human pluripotent stem cells to remain alive and continue reproducing themselves for at least three months, the researchers reported. This is the first synthetic material that allows single cells to form colonies of identical cells, something that is necessary in order to identify cells with desired traits, according to the MIT team of chemical engineers, materials scientists and biologists.

Rectal Cancer Rates on the Rise in Younger Adults

While the number of actual cases is still extremely small, U.S. researchers report that the incidence of rectal cancer among people under the age of 40 is on the rise. A young person's chance of developing the disease remains tiny, but doctors should be aware of the risk, said study co-author Dr. David L. Sherr, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. "If patients under 40 have rectal bleeding, that should be taken as seriously as in a 0-year-old," Sherr said. "Some kind of investigation could be warranted."

While colon and rectal (or colorectal) cancers often strike older people and are responsible for the second-highest number of cancer deaths in the United States after lung cancer, these cancers are fairly rare in younger people, the study authors noted in the report published online Aug. 23 and in the Sept. 15 print issue of Cancer. Sherr estimated that only 300 annual cases of rectal cancer, on average, were diagnosed in people under the age of 40 in the entire country between 1973 and 2005. He said the risk of a person younger than age 40 being diagnosed with the disease during that time period was about four in a million.

However, an analysis of U.S. statistics shows that rectal cancer has been increasing by an average of 2.5 percent a year. While that amounts to fewer than 10 extra cases each year compared to the previous year, it's still a "real and significant increase," he said. It's not clear why cases are on the rise, but Dr. Jerald D. Wishner, a cancer specialist, said he's seeing more colorectal cancer cases among young people than a decade or two ago. "At any given time, I'm taking care of two to three patients in their 20s and 30s with colon and rectal cancer," said Wishner, co-director of minimally invasive and robotic surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Novel Ovarian Cancer Test Shows Promise

A new method for screening for ovarian cancer appears to be 100 percent effective in early testing, researchers say. The approach relies on just a single drop of blood, the molecules of which are vaporized and electrified before being subjected to a high-tech analysis called mass spectrometry. The Georgia Institute of Technology researchers said they found the approach to be foolproof in identifying cases of ovarian cancer in initial trials involving 94 subjects. Forty-four had ovarian cancer and 50 had benign conditions. 

"Because ovarian cancer is a disease of relatively low prevalence, it's essential that tests for it be extremely accurate," John F. McDonald, chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute in Atlanta and a professor of biology at Georgia Tech, said in a news release from the school. "We believe we may have developed such a test." McDonald and his colleagues report their finding online in the current issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention Research. The researchers pointed out that ovarian cancer is asymptomatic in its early stages, prompting a need for a screening approach that can identify the onset of this "silent killer." Last spring, British researchers speaking at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting discussed another potential ovarian cancer screening method. 

That one uses mathematical models to better pinpoint risk for the disease among postmenopausal women. While that method also demonstrated very high (99.7 percent) accuracy, studies assessing its effectiveness are still underway. The Georgia Tech method, which appeared to register no false positive or negative results, was developed by Facundo Fernandez, an associate professor in the school of chemistry and biochemistry. The Georgia team is now testing the approach among 500 patients. "The caveat is we don't currently have 500 patients with the same type of ovarian cancer, so we're going to look at other types of ovarian cancer," Fernandez said in the news release. "It's possible that there are also signatures for other cancers, not just ovarian, so we're also going to be using the same approach to look at other types of cancers. We'll be working with collaborators in Atlanta and elsewhere." Dr. Robert J. Morgan, director of the gynecologic oncology program at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., said that if the new screening method holds up upon further investigation, it could prove to be "earth-shatteringly important."

Long-Term Type 1 Diabetes 'Survivors' Give Clues to the Disease

Although it's long been thought that people with type 1 diabetes cease to produce any insulin after they've had the disease for a while, new research suggests that the insulin-producing beta cells destroyed by type 1 diabetes may actually be in a constant state of turnover, even in people who've had diabetes for decades. This new research stems from a study of people who've had type 1 diabetes for at least 50 years and have been awarded the Joslin Diabetes Center's "50-Year Medal." In fact, the impetus for the study came from one of the medalists who mentioned to her doctor that she believed her body was still making some insulin.

"I knew I still produced insulin. I don't do it all the time, but sometimes I need a lot less insulin, and the doctors proved on one test that I still did make some insulin," said medalist Elizabeth Saalfeld from Springfield, Va., who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1945 at age 9. "In our study, we made the unexpected finding that about two-thirds of the medalists still retained the ability to have positive C-peptide results, which is an indication that they could still be making insulin," said the study's senior author, Dr. George L. King, chief scientific officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "It was a surprise because they've had diabetes for so long."

Results of the study were released online Aug. 10 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the beta cells in the pancreas. When enough beta cells have been destroyed, the body is no longer able to produce sufficient enough amounts of insulin to properly metabolize the carbohydrates in food. Someone with type 1 diabetes must replace that lost insulin through daily injections.The current study included 411 living diabetes medalists, and a post-mortem pancreas analysis from another nine medalists.

Generics As Good As Costly Blood Pressure Meds, Study Finds

Costly, brand-name blood pressure-lowering drugs are no better at preventing cardiovascular disease than older, generic diuretics, reveals long-term data from a large study. It included more than 33,000 patients with high blood pressure who were randomly selected to take either a diuretic or one of two newer drugs a calcium blocker or an ACE inhibitor. Data from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial released in 2002 showed that after four to eight years of follow-up, the diuretic was better than the calcium blocker in preventing heart failure and better than the ACE inhibitor in preventing stroke, heart failure and overall cardiovascular disease.

Differences between the drugs narrowed after eight to 13 years of follow-up, the findings show. However, the diuretic was still better in two areas. Compared with patients taking the diuretic, those in the ACE inhibitor group had a 20 percent higher death rate from stroke, and those in the calcium channel blocker group had a 12 percent higher rate of hospitalization and death because of heart failure. The results were to be presented Friday at the China Heart Congress and International Heart Forum in Beijing. "We are continuing to mine data that we collected during the trial," Dr. Paul Whelton, president and CEO of Loyola University Health System and chairman of ALLHAT, said in a university news release. ALLHAT is sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.