Guidance and recommendations for prostate cancer screening have changed over the years. While there is no standard screening test, doctors may use a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to help diagnose prostate cancer. Doctors may follow a positive PSA test with a prostate biopsy.
Most recommending bodies emphasize a shared decision-making (SDM) approach for prostate cancer screening by PSA testing. This strategy moves away from doctors making treatment decisions and instead relies on collaborative interactions between patients and healthcare teams.
Why do expert opinions on prostate cancer screening differ? This remains a complex question with a lot to unpack. First, we have limited treatment options for cancer that has already spread outside of the prostate. Thus, detecting these cases will often not improve health or prolong life. Second, many cases of slow-growing prostate cancer will never become life-threatening; detection of these cases can be considered overdiagnosis and may lead to anxiety, unnecessary treatment, and accompanying side effects. Unnecessary biopsies, which provide no additional value to patients and physicians in decision-making, can also come with complications such as bleeding and infection.
New research that helps explain the molecular processes involved in the painful autoimmune disease ankylosing spondylitis, or AS, may reduce the guessing game that health care providers currently play while attempting to treat the condition.
A team from Oregon Health & Science University and the VA Portland Health Care System has found a specific kind of AS treatment that is effective when used by patients who have a particular genetic mutation. Their study was published today in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, and its findings could lead to more targeted, timely and patient-specific treatment recommendations.
“This is the first time research has shown that we might be able to use genetic markers to determine which therapy ankylosing spondylitis patients should receive,” said the study’s senior researcher, Ruth Napier, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, arthritis and rheumatic disease in the OHSU School of Medicine, and principal investigator with VA Portland. “These promising findings are encouraging. This is the first time I can say that I’m on the cusp of making a difference for patients with ankylosing spondylitis who seek relief.”
BPA is used in a lot of plastics and plastic production processes, and can also be found inside food and drink cans. However, previous research has also linked it to health issues involving hormone disruption, including breast cancer and infertility.
In this new study, researchers from Rowan University and Rutgers University in the US looked at three groups of children: 66 with autism, 46 with ADHD, and 37 neurotypical kids. In particular, they analyzed the process of glucuronidation, a chemical process the body uses to clear out toxins within the blood through urine.
American physicist, John Wheeler (1911−2008), made seminal contributions to the theories of quantum gravity and nuclear fission, but is best known for coining the term ‘black holes’. A keen teacher and mentor, he was also a key figure in the Manhattan Project. [Listener: Ken Ford]
TRANSCRIPT: I knew the stories about Gödel being concerned always about his health. I knew from his friend Oscar Morgenstern how Gödel would never take a pills prescription from his doctor without getting out a big medical book and studying up on that pill himself to make sure that it was okay. But I didn’t realize how far his dreams went, because I had failed to resonate to a talk he gave in 1945 at the symposium held in honor of Einstein’s birthday. In that talk Gödel had described what he called a Rotating Universe, a universe where all the galaxies turn the same way, and where the geometry is such that you keep on going living your life and you come round and come back and can live it over again; ‘Closed Time-like Line’ was the magic phrase to describe it. So you didn’t have to worry about the pill because you come back and live your life all over again. Well, after I’d introduced the two I said “Professor Gödel, we’d like to know what the relation is between the great Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty or Indeterminism; and your famous proof that every significant mathematical system contains theorems which cannot be proven, your theorem of Unprovable Propositions.” Well, he didn’t want to talk about that. It turned out that later that he had walked and talked enough with Einstein to dismiss quantum theory. He didn’t believe quantum[theory]. All he wanted to know is what we were going to say in our book about the rotating universe that he had described. Well actually, we weren’t saying anything. Well, this bothered him and he wanted to know what the evidence is today, at that moment, about whether galaxies do rotate in the same way. We said we hadn’t studied it. Well it turned out that he himself had taken out the great Hubble atlas of the galaxies and page after page had opened it up and looked at each galaxy, determined the direction of its axis. He made a statistics of these numbers and found there was no preferred direction of rotation, so they couldn’t all be rotating in the same way.
Aug 29 (Reuters) — Britain’s state-run national health service will be the first in the world to offer an injection that treats cancer to hundreds of patients in England which could cut treatment times by up to three quarters.
Following approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS England said on Tuesday hundreds of eligible patients treated with the immunotherapy, atezolizumab, were set to have “under the skin” injection, which will free up more time for cancer teams.
“This approval will not only allow us to deliver convenient and faster care for our patients, but will enable our teams to treat more patients throughout the day,” Dr Alexander Martin, a consultant oncologist at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said.
A recent study reports something strange: When mice with Alzheimer’s disease inhale menthol, their cognitive abilities improve. It seems the chemical compound can stop some of the damage done to the brain that’s usually associated with the disease.
In particular, researchers noticed a reduction in the interleukin-1-beta (IL-1β) protein, which helps to regulate the body’s inflammatory response – a response that can offer natural protection but one that leads to harm when it’s not controlled properly.
The team behind the study, which was published in April 2023, says it shows the potential for particular smells to be used as therapies for Alzheimer’s. If we can figure out which odors cause which brain and immune system responses, we can harness them to improve health.