Month: May 2013

By Jennifer Ashton, M.D. Should you have your ovaries removed if you are BRCA positive? This is a question that every board-certified gynecologist is used to discussing with a patient who has recently undergone BRCA testing.  As with any such discussion, I feel it’s key…        

By Deena Beasley LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After decades of using one-size-fits-all therapies to combat cancer, doctors are using new tools to help decide when their patients can skip chemotherapy or other harsh treatments. An approach to oncology that has been in place for decades is beginning to yield to an arsenal of long-term clinical studies, genetic tests and novel drugs that target cancer cells and their infrastructure. …

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – Two health workers in Saudi Arabia have become infected with a potentially fatal new SARS-like virus after catching it from patients in their care – the first evidence of such transmission within a hospital, the World Health Organization said. The new virus, known as novel coronavirus, or nCoV, is from the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that emerged in Asia in 2003. …

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Marilyn Tavenner, a former nurse and hospital company executive, as the first full-fledged administrator for the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs since 2006. In a rare show of bipartisanship on a healthcare issue, senators voted 91-7 to back President Barack Obama's nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an $820 billion agency that oversees the bulk of federal healthcare spending and healthcare reform. Tavenner has served as acting CMS administrator since late …

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Melanoma patients treated with two Bristol-Myers Squibb drugs fared much better than those who received either of the medications individually, a new advance for treatments that harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Bristol released preliminary data from the early-stage trial on Wednesday, with more detailed results expected to highlight the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago that starts at the end of the month. …

Bill Hines made five trips to a Seattle emergency room in less than 24 hours.        

By Bill Berkrot (Reuters) – An experimental Roche Holding AG drug that helps the immune system attack tumors was well tolerated and demonstrated an impressive effect against a variety of cancers, according to preliminary trial results released on Wednesday. While clinical testing of the drug is still in its early phases, the Roche treatment is considered one of the most promising in a new class of immunotherapies being developed by global drugmakers. …

By Deena Beasley (Reuters) – An experimental drug from Gilead Sciences Inc shrank tumors in half of leukemia patients whose cancer had returned, according to an early-stage trial that represents a new foray into oncology by the world’s biggest seller of HIV medications. The pill, idelalisib, is part of a new class of medications designed to selectively block a type of protein known to promote tumor growth in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other types of blood cancer. …

A new study says you can add a commonplace activity to the list of things that raise blood pressure: talking on a cell phone.

By Bill Berkrot (Reuters) – An experimental leukemia treatment that Roche Holding AG hopes will improve upon its best-selling cancer drug Rituxan delayed disease progression twice as long as chemotherapy, according to preliminary trial data released on Wednesday. Switzerland-based Roche aims to fend off cheaper competition for Rituxan, which loses patent protection in Europe later this year, threatening a product with nearly $7 billion in annual sales. …

(Reuters) – The Food and Drug Administration has approved Johnson & Johnson's drug Simponi for patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory disease affecting the colon. Simponi is already approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Like RA, ulcerative colitis is an auto-immune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own organs. In the case of ulcerative colitis, inflammation can lead to open sores or ulcers in the lining of the colon, causing stomach pain, gastrointestinal bleeding and diarrhea. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will deliver a statement on the controversy surrounding the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups, the White House said on Wednesday. The president is set to speak at 6 p.m. He met earlier Wednesday with Treasury Department officials to discuss the undue scrutiny the IRS gave to applications for tax-exempt status from Tea Party groups. (Reporting By Mark Felsenthal)