Skip over navigation
If you can see this your browser is probably an old one, and you are not seeing this website at it's best. We encourage you to update your browser by going to the "New Browsers" page, where you can find links to download the new free browser of your choice.

News From Medicine

table of contents


Specialized Cancer Care Worth Traveling For
Seeking care at a specialized center, even if it means long-distance travel, is linked to prolonged survival of cancer patients, according to a new study. The finding seems to reflect the attitude of patients to their disease, rather than the quality of care they receive.

Prior research has suggested that patients who travel out of their neighborhood for elective care from specialize medical centers may have better outcomes than local patients with the same illnesses who are treated at the same centers. The researchers studied 110 cancer patients over seven years who were taking part in a clinical trial at the University of Chicago using chemotherapy and radiation far head and neck cancers.

Patients who traveled more than 15 miles for treatment had one-third the risk of death compared with those who lived closer to their treatment. The study "documents something clinical researchers have long appreciated.

On average, they explain, patients who are able and willing to research their options, or have others research options for them, and who can find and use the resources necessary for such treatments "seem to fare better than those patients who end up at the closest place for care, even if their disease and treatments are apparently the same."

Cell Phones May Spread Hospital Infections
Mobile phones used by healthcare personnel in the hospital can spread dangerous infectious agents, according to investigators in Israel. Dr. Abraham Borer, of Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, and others randomly screened 124 hospital personnel for the germ Acinetobacter baumannii, a common source of in-hospital infections. They found that 12 percent of healthcare providers' cell phones were contaminated with the bug.

The results are disturbing because Acinetobacter baumannii has the propensity to develop resistance to almost all available antibiotics. It is especially dangerous because it "can survive on dry surfaces for a long period of time," Borer told Reuters Health. "Cell phones provide a large dry surface that allows survival of A. baumannii - it requires no nutrients," he added.

A. baumannii is found in intensive care units, and the mortality rate among infected patients is very high -- between 50 and 60 percent -Borer explained. The bacterium was found not only on phones but also on 24 percent of the hands of the people tested, who included 71 physicians and 53 nurses.


Horses were not commonly used for farm work until the twelfth century, because the chest harness In use since Roman times was Inefficient. The Invention of the shoulder harness enabled them to pull a much greater weight and therefore pull farm implements.


Drink Red Wine-Live Longer
Researchers have known for years that cutting calories can prolong life in everything from yeast cells to mammals. But an easier way to live longer may be as simple as turning a corkscrew.
Molecules found in red wine, peanuts and other products of the plant world have for the first time been shown to mimic the life-extending effects of calorie restriction, a finding that could help researchers develop drugs that lengthen life and prevent or treat aging-related diseases.

Researchers stated that one of the molecules, a compound known as resveratrol, was shown in a study to extend the life span of yeast cells by up to 80 percent. Resveratrol exists naturally in grapes and red wine.
Blood Pressure on High Side May Help Aging
Having mildly elevated blood pressure may help the elderly keep their wits about them well into old age, new research reports. Among people at least 70 years old, those with slightly elevated blood pressure performed better on tests of memory and concentration than those with normal blood pressure.

While controlling high blood pressure can help a person live many years longer than otherwise, these findings suggest that doctors should also consider the implications of reducing blood pressure on the aging brain, note Dr. Esther Paran of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and colleagues. "The possibility that (blood pressure) control is most beneficial until a certain age, but more likely to impair some cognitive functions, end, thus, the quality of life, later in life deserves serious consideration," they write in the American Journal of Hypertension.

Study Finds Mammograms Cause Needless Worry
Women in the United States may be undergoing needless biopsies and worry when they are called back for further tests following breast cancer mammography. The finding from the University of California, San Francisco, was based on a comparison of practices in the United States and Britain. It found that U,S. women who undergo mammograms are called back for second tests twice as often as women in Britain, yet the breast cancer detection rate in the two countries is about the same.

The difference appears to be that the United Kingdom has a single organized screening program ran by its National Health Service that provides virtually all mammography for women 50 and over, the report said. In the United States the screening is done in a range of places from private practices to medical centers and health maintenance organizations, leading to different standards and less consistent interpretation of test results.

The recall and negative (non-cancer finding) open surgical biopsy rates associated with screening mammograms were twice as high in the U.S. settings than in the United Kingdom. Recall rates in Britain are now substantially lower than in the United States, apparently because of a centralized program of continuous quality improvement.