New test may ‘revolutionize TB care,’ diagnosing

Scientists are reporting a major advance in diagnosing tuberculosis: A new test can reveal in less than two hours, with very high accuracy, whether someone has the disease and if it’s resistant to the main drug for treating it. The test could revolutionize TB care and replace the 125-year-old process used now, which is slow and misses more than half of all cases, experts say. A better test would be a powerful tool to curb TB in poor countries, where most people spread the lung disease before they are …

Diet drug Meridia raises heart attack, stroke risk

A company-sponsored study found that the weight-loss drug Meridia raised heart attack and stroke risk in patients with pre-existing heart disease, according to a report out today. The publication comes just two weeks before the Food and Drug Administration is to convene an advisory panel of outside experts to discuss the fate of Meridia, which the agency approved in 1997. “It is difficult to discern a credible rationale for keeping this medication on the market,” concludes an accompanying editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine . Based on preliminary data, the FDA’s counterpart for the European Union suspended Meridia’s marketing license in January, but the FDA only added stronger information on the label …

Exercise can override ‘fat genes,’ study finds

If you’ve been blaming your weight on your genes, get out and take a brisk walk. It will help fight your tendency toward overweight, a new study shows. Researchers in Great Britain studied 12 genetic variants known to increase the risk of obesity and tracked the physical activity levels of 20,430 people. They created a genetic summary score to quantify a person’s risk of obesity and then examined whether an active life could reduce the genetic influence. Findings: Physical activity can reduce the genetic tendency toward obesity by 40%, according to the research, reported Tuesday in PLoS Medicine. “Our findings challenge the popular myth that obesity is unavoidable if it…

Ovary removal can raise survival of women with high cancer risk

For the first time, a study out today has found that women with certain high-risk genetic mutations — which dramatically increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancers — were more likely to survive if they had preventive surgery to remove healthy ovaries and fallopian tubes. Earlier studies have shown that removing the ovaries and tubes of women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes reduces the risk of ovarian and breast cancer, and that mastectomies nearly eliminate the risk of breast tumors. Doctors have assumed both procedures save lives, says Noah Kauff of New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who wasn’t involved in the new study. But…

Why has the USA’s cesarean section rate climbed so high?

Impatience could help explain the rising U.S. cesarean section rate, given that a high percentage of such deliveries probably are performed before women are in active labor, a new National Institutes of Health-sponsored study shows. The C-section rate has climbed more than 50% since 1996, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. An increasing proportion of first-time mothers are delivering by C-section, while fewer women who have had a previous C-section deliver subsequent babies vaginally. In 2007, the most recent year for which final data are available, a record 31.8% of births were by C-section, according to the health statistics center, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And preliminary data show the…

Iraq seven years later: Was the war worth it?

RAMADI, Iraq — It was a way to show the government cared. About 100 families of slain policemen and other victims of insurgent attacks gathered in an auditorium to receive packages of food from the local government. “We don’t want food,” said Nooriya Khalaf, 39, pointing dismissively at the small bags with rice. “We want jobs.” The shouting and gesturing continued until the ceremony collapsed into chaos. The women rushed the stage, gathering around a police chief and shouting complaints at him. Democracy is alive in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein , Khalaf and others may have been visited by the secret police for their remarks and then never seen again. Today, a police chief is berated, and no one fears for their lives. Yet many…

‘Breakthrough’ melanoma drug shrinks tumors

A small study of an experimental drug for advanced melanoma — a brutal disease that often kills within nine months — is giving rare hope to doctors and patients. For the first time, doctors say, new therapies that include the drug allow them to envision a time when they might be able to keep melanoma patients alive for years, treating the tumor as they would a chronic disease. Q&A: Learn more about this promising new drug The pill, known as PLX4032, doesn’t cure melanoma, and it helps only the roughly 50% of melanoma patients whose…

‘Breakthrough’ melanoma drug shrinks tumors, may prolong life

A small study of an experimental drug for advanced melanoma — a brutal disease that often kills within nine months — is giving rare hope to doctors and patients. For the first time, doctors say, new therapies including this experimental drug allow them to envision a time when they might be able to keep melanoma patients alive for years, treating the tumor like a chronic disease. Q&A: Learn more about this promising new drug The pill — known as PLX4032 — doesn’t cure melanoma, and it only helps the roughly 50% of melanoma patients whose tumors have a mutation in a key gene called BRAF. But among those patients, 81…

Promising new melanoma drug: Questions and answers

A new drug for the treatment of advanced melanoma is generating rare excitement and optimism among cancer doctors. USA TODAYasked experts to explain the drug’s benefits and limitations. Q: Why is the drug promising? A: The drug, PLX4032, shrank tumors in 26 of 32 melanoma patients who had a key mutation in their tumors, according to a study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. That’s “remarkable,” because patients in small, early trials such as this often get no benefit…

‘Fracking’ fractures N.Y. county

CALLICOON, N.Y. — At Bill Graby’s call, four little Holstein calves trot over to a fence for a quick ear scratch. Nearly under their black-and-white noses, a buried natural gas pipeline runs through Graby’s dairy farm, 200 acres in the Catskill Mountains near the Delaware River. Thousands of feet below the cows and the pipeline lies more natural gas — trillions of cubic feet of it — trapped inside a massive shale rock …

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